This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Major League Soccer's standings do not lie, but they deceive.

Halfway through the team's MLS schedule, Real Salt Lake stands fourth in the Western Conference. Officially, anyway.

RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey disregards the traditional standings and reconfigures them with a calculation that makes perfect sense, actually: points per game.

As judged by the 30 points (three for a win, one for a tie) RSL has earned through 17 league games, the team ranks second in the West — and second overall in MLS, ahead of East leader Philadelphia.

The bottom line is the teams above RSL in the standings are closer than they appear. Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas have played an average of four more games, giving Real a great opportunity to move up in the coming months.

The caution flag in all of this: The "points-per-game" statistic becomes meaningful only if RSL wins while the others are idle. More to the point, Real must take advantage of this immediate stretch with three of four games at home if it intends to chase down the West's leaders.

RSL seemingly has been playing forever in 2011. "It's been a long year," Lagerwey said Monday. "We didn't have much of an offseason, and then we went right into high-intensity, playoff-level games."

Even so, Real still has a lot of soccer to go. The team's second half of league play starts Saturday against San Jose, meaning RSL will play 17 games from July 23 to Oct. 22. Yet that's only about the same pace as the team has experienced to date, counting other competition.

The team's pursuit of the CONCACAF Champions League title partly explains its light MLS schedule. RSL asked for a compressed second half of the season and league officials later moved one game, enabling the team to better prepare for the Champions League final. And then Saturday's game at Vancouver was postponed because of rain that created unplayable conditions on the grass field installed for Monday's exhibition between the Whitecaps and Manchester City.

So when Lagerwey summarized the season by saying, "We've been weathering some pretty substantial storms," that was an unintentionally clever choice of cliches. It also was forgivable for the team's weekend news release to wonder what might be coming next: "a plague of locusts, perhaps?"

In addition to weather-related issues, Real has played through the pressure of the Champions League, the devastating injury to forward Javier Morales and the loss of other key players to international duty, besides losing defender Nat Borchers for almost all of a home game with New England following a controversial red card.

The tradeoff has been the development of young players including Chris Schuler, Luis Gil, Jean Alexandre, Collen Warner and Kyle Reynish, while Kyle Beckerman and Jamison Olave have produced All-Star seasons.

Morales' leg injury has altered the team's playing style. His return at any point this season would be a bonus. Lagerwey now envisions a club that's "capable of being an absolute, lock-down defensive team, and getting goals when we can."

That's not necessarily the way this season was scripted. Then again, the team has adjusted reasonably well to the loss of Morales and stayed in touch with the leaders. Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas have not run away from RSL, even with their extra games. So as the schedule moves ahead, there's reason for hope among Real's supporters.

As long as they try not to look at the MLS standings — or just remember to do it Lagerwey's way. —

MLS overalladjusted standings

(based on points per game)

Team G Pts. PPG

Los Angeles 21 39 1.85

Real Salt Lake 17 30 1.76

Dallas 20 35 1.75

Seattle 22 38 1.72

Philadelphia 19 31 1.63 —

San Jose at RSL

P Saturday, 8 p.m.