Get up, it’s match day.
Those words probably don’t inspire much confidence in Real Salt Lake fans Wednesday as the club prepares for a midweek match against west rival Seattle Sounders FC (7:30 p.m. MT, Apple TV).
Injuries have taken a toll on the Salt Lake side during a 12-match winless skid in MLS play dating back to May 16, with one of the latest — and arguably most costly — coming as recently as Tuesday when playmaker Diego Luna was ruled out for the season after undergoing meniscus repair surgery in Santa Monica, California.
The RSL talisman will miss approximately six months after successful surgery to repair a torn meniscus he suffered Sept. 9 during a 2-1 road loss at the Houston Dynamo, when he went 70 minutes before identifying the tear via MRI a day later.
With Luna added to the list as a season-ending injury, here’s Salt Lake’s official player availability report due to injury:
OUT: Juan Jose Arias (hamstring)
OUT: Zach Booth (hamstring)
OUT: Lukas Engel (hamstring)
OUT: Justen Glad (adductor)
OUT: Diego Luna (knee)
OUT: Ariath Piol (Achilles)
Now, international duty adds to the player shortage drama.
Real Salt Lake had a bevy of players called up for international duty for their home countries ahead of the current international window through Oct. 6. They include the following:
DF Juan Manuel Sanabria (Uruguay)
DF Luc de Fougerolles (Canada)
DF Kobi Henry (Trinidad & Tobago)
MF Colin Guske (USA U-20)
MF Luca Moisa (USA U-19)
So who will be available Wednesday?
In addition to newly added Luna, as well as incoming U-22 winger Dašan Zagar from Serbia (visa), RSL will be without Sanabria and de Fougerolles, who have already departed for their respective nation’s four-game slate during the window.
Moisa will join the Baby Yanks following Wednesday’s midweek road match, while Henry and Guske are expected to leave for respective national team camps after Saturday’s home match against the New England Revolution.
RSL’s 12-match winless skid in MLS play includes an 11-game road winless streak dating back to March 7 at Atlanta, and a five-match home winless spell following Saturday’s 3-0 home loss to west-leading Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
One more dropped result in Seattle will match the club’s all-time winless skid at 13 consecutive matches — a run on which the Sounders currently find themselves.
Seattle is winless in its last 14 matches, including five consecutive ties after Saturday’s 3-3 draw with the Colorado Rapids.
Snapping the skid will require, to borrow a favorite colloquialism from head coach Pablo Mastroeni, some bit of xDawg.
“We’ve got to be dogs,” he said after Saturday’s loss. “We’ve got to be disciplined. We’ve got to work so hard for the guy next to us.”
Here’s more from Mastroeni before the club departed for Seattle:
