Carson, Calif. » Team owner Dave Checketts said he told coach Jason Kreis that he would prefer to see Real Salt Lake remain aggressive and dangerous, even in the face of its recent struggles and road challenges.
No problem, evidently.
Heading into the game against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday -- still winless on the road and dragging a seven-game winless streak into the Home Depot Center -- Kreis nevertheless stuck with an aggressive three-striker formation -- even though he was missing injured leading scorer Robbie Findley .
Findley did not make the trip because of an ankle injury, so midfielder Clint Mathis moved up top to join strikers Yura Movsisyan and Fabian Espindola to strong effect. The team generated many good scoring opportunities, and Movsisyan scored in the 13th minute off a long pass from Mathis to help RSL to a 2-0 victory that snapped its seven-game winless streak.
Defender Chris Wingert returned to the starting lineup, too, playing right back with the red-card suspension of Robbie Russell . That gave Wingert a chance to prove himself to Kreis, who benched the regular starter twice in the previous three games, but has denied the player is in his doghouse.
Landmark moment
When RSL defender Nat Borchers fired home a loose ball for his team's second goal of the game in the 51st minute, he scored his first goal in an RSL uniform and his first in Major League Soccer play in 76 games since striking for the Colorado on Sept. 4, 2004.
Missing midfielder
Midfielder Andy Williams did not accompany the team to the Galaxy game, having traveled instead to Seattle to attend to his wife, Marcia , who's battling a rare form of leukemia.
Team officials said Marcia Williams received a transplant of umbilical cord blood at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on Friday, which doctors hope can help save her life. Her husband is expected to return to the team next week.
