Road Trip!

Tomorrow the Wizards take on Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium. I'll be there live for my first MLS road trip of the year and my first trip to Rio Tinto (or Salt Lake in general outside their airport). Real Salt Lake comes into the game having won their last 4 league games, including 3 at home. So Salt Lake comes into this game on a very big high. They also have not lost at home since the Wizards went there in May of last year and defeated Salt Lake 2-0 on the back of a pair of goals by Josh Wolff. There is a little good news for KC as they head to Salt Lake, and that's that it appears Salt Lake will be without Robbie Findley who is with the US team, and more importantly, Kyle Beckerman who appears set to miss this game due to injury.

While Salt Lake is hot right now, the Wizards are extremely cold. They are winless in 6 games, and have only scored 4 goals in the last 7 games (1-4-2 in those games). It's difficult to see that changing this week as Salt Lake is just that good at home. The Wizards will continue to be without Roger Espinoza as he is with Honduras. Zoltan Hercegfalvi and Stephane Auvray continue to be out with injuries. I don't expect to see many changes to the lineup that took the field against the Crew, although I could see Josh Wolff making his way back into the lineup for Teal Bunbury potentially. I could also see either Craig Rocastle or Birahim Diop for Graham Zusi potentially, but I'll go with no changes for tomorrow.

Nielsen
Leathers - Conrad - Besler - Harrington
Zusi - Jewsbury - Arnaud
Bunbury - Kamara - Smith

Key Match Up - Jack Jewsbury vs Javier Morales - Morales is the point man of the RSL attack and Jewsbury will have his hands full with him. Auvray would have been a very good guy to have in the middle dealing with Morales, but with him out, Jewsbury gets to step up and attempt to stop his attacks.

PREDICTION - As I said, I'm traveling to the game with a few other Cauldronites, and that means that a win is not going to happen. It's been a long time since the Cauldron has traveled to an away game and seen a Wizards win, I know it hasn't happened in any of the games I've gone to since 2005 (and I've only missed one Cauldron road trip). Hopefully that changes tomorrow, but I can't really see that happening tomorrow.

KC - 0
RSL - 2 (Morales, Saborio)