This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sandy

Real Salt Lake found a good time, a good place, a good opponent against which to celebrate a remarkable achievement by one of their own and, at the other end, to collectively heal from an ailment that has plagued them for the better part of a couple of months now.

Record-setting goalkeeper Nick Rimando is one of the best ever.

Still is, present tense.

RSL can't score. They can't finish. They can't win.

Make that couldn't for a bit, past tense.

Rimando became Major League Soccer's all-time winningest keeper (181 victories), and Real won a game Saturday night on their home field at Rio Tinto, against what is the worst team — Chicago — in MLS. Were they to have failed this time around, under these favorable conditions, with Rimando on the brink and everybody else blowing downwind from the always-impressive push and energy of their fans, facing the Fire, an outfit that had scored a league-low 19 goals this season and earned a league-low 18 points, RSL's hopes for the playoffs would have suffered a punch to the head in an ever-tightening Western Conference race.

Instead, Real accomplished what they should have, by the comfortable count of 3-1, steering away from devastation, drawing closer to their early-season shape, when the winning came easier. After RSL's loss to Toronto on Wednesday night, coach Jeff Cassar talked about how pleased he was with the way his guys were playing and how unfortunate it was that they couldn't quite hit the net with their shots, going without a goal.

He stopped short of passing out Otter Pops afterward.

He should have, though, as a reward, not a participation gesture, on Saturday night, after Olmes Garcia gave RSL a boost in the 15th minute with a goal out front, set up by Javier Morales. Morales added another goal 13 minutes later on a penalty kick, beating Fire goalkeeper Matt Lampson. After Chicago midfielder Arturo Alvarez squeezed nerves a bit in the second half with a goal, Morales iced the game with his second goal — on the sweetest of kicks.

Everyone on hand breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the past eight official MLS games, since the last week in June, RSL had scored five goals. Across all competitions, totaling 10 matches, covering the same span, they had scored seven. Compare that with the promising three-game run at the end of May and beginning of June, when Real blasted nine goals, and with the 29 total goals the club had scored before June 26, and you had to wonder if RSL was straight running out of fuel through the back half of a season that had become nothing short of an offensive sputter.

Fittingly, Real had compiled a record of 1-3-4 over the aforementioned eight league games, not including a loss on penalty kicks to Seattle in the U.S. Open Cup.

These skids happen sometimes, hurting a team for a while before it snaps back into form. When goals aren't finished, as was the case on a fistful of occasions against Toronto, the group starts to press, and when the group starts to press, losing edges closer to the door. And so, Cassar was waiting for the snapback on Saturday night against the Chicago dogs, hoping to push losing off the stoop.

That's what he got.

On a night, then, when one of Real Salt Lake's all-time greats, Rimando, got his record, another of the club's all-time greats, Morales, was involved in every RSL score. Who's the greatest Real player ever — Rimando, Morales or captain Kyle Beckerman — is a discussion for another time, but one that would and should cause considerable debate. That's a compliment to each of them. All are playing in their 10th RSL season.

Go ahead. Have at it.

Despite the recent drought, Real is now 10-7-7, with 37 points, and with an opportunity coming to play some of the teams ahead of them in the West, their games at Rio Tinto over the next number of weeks, after traveling to Seattle, will be significant. Six of their remaining games are at home, including matches against FC Dallas, twice, the Galaxy, Colorado and Sporting KC. Those teams will not be as accommodating as the Fire.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.