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Sandy • Yura Movsisyan wasted all of one second to analyze his 2016 season to date. The Real Salt Lake striker back on a one-year loan from Russia's Spartak Moscow immediately answered: "Average."

The 28-year-old forward then shrugged his shoulders, explaining how he could've fared a lot better in his first 14 games of the year, but also could've done a lot worse. He's cut from the cloth of being his own harshest critic, which says something considering he's scored in three straight starts. And sticking true to a striker's mentality, he immediately saw flashbacks of several shots this season that met their fate by bouncing off a crossbar or post.

"Luck is going my way this time," Movsisyan said. "I've hit the post how many times already? I think [the shots are] just going in right now."

If RSL is to continue to stay near the top of the Western Conference into these blistering summer months, they'll need Movsisyan to continue to build upon his last month of play. Movsisyan spearheads what is one of the best front lines in MLS alongside Joao Plata and Burrito Martinez.

RSL enters Wednesday's home match against the 2015 Supporter's Shield winners New York Red Bulls as the only club in MLS to have three players with at least five goals in 2016. When Plata eventually cooled down, Martinez heated up. The Argentine forward has scored four goals in his last five appearances across all competitions. And then there's Movsisyan, the central forward, who can really make it all tick with his incessant pressure and relentless movement.

"Right now, we're finding Yura in those channels and in those dangerous spots, and we've got to continue to do that," RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. "It's always nice when the center backs don't know where you're at. If you're parked between them, they sit there and one of them gets you."

As instrumental as he's been in the attack, Movsisyan said he finally embraced the reality that he had to face an adjustment period coming back to Major League Soccer. The league, as he's said multiple times since returning from Europe and Asia, is faster, more technical and tactical than it was when he left seven years ago.

"As much as you don't want to admit it, you have to go through it," he said.

Cassar said he thinks Movsisyan is still climbing his way upward toward peak fitness after being stuck in limbo for a few months as he waited to move from Spartak Moscow to RSL earlier this year. Which is precisely why Cassar is looking at this busy slate of matches as an opportunity to keep Movsisyan on this scoring streak.

Movsisyan's second-half penalty Saturday against the Portland Timbers rescued a point for RSL after the club saw an early 1-0 lead flip to a 2-1 deficit in about 25 minutes. It was his first penalty attempt of the year. Earlier this season in a 5-2 loss at L.A., Movsisyan earned a penalty late, but it was Javier Morales who took the attempt.

"I had to just wait my turn," he said. "I couldn't come in and just be like, 'I have to take it.' I have to wait my turn, I have to respect the guys that were here longer — it doesn't matter their age — [and] I did. I did wait for my turn."

Goals are obviously great, Movsisyan said. But he vows how he judges his performances is not by how many he puts into the back of the net — in his opinion, it's judged by how the recent string of results.

"If you look at where this team was last year and where our attacking group and our whole team is this year, I think I can say I've brought a change to this team," he said. "At the same time, everybody else has stepped up."

Then there was a short pause.

"For me," Movsisyan added, "it could be better." —

RSL vs. Red Bulls

P At Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy

Radio • 700 AM

Records • RSL 7-4-3, Red Bulls 7-7-1

Last meeting • Red Bulls 1, RSL 0 (June 24, 2015 at Red Bull Arena)

About RSL • Captain Kyle Beckerman remains with the U.S. men's national team until at least June 26 during the Copa America Centenario.

About NYRB • After a 1-6-0 start, the Red Bulls are 6-1-1 in their last eight matches and have won four straight regular-season matches.