October 16, 2012
MLS WEDNESDAY
A look at the upcoming game

Real Salt Lake (17-11-4, 55 pts) @ Seattle Sounders FC (14-7-10, 52 pts), 9:00 pm CT (NBCSN)
Real Salt Lake bring a four-game winning streak into Century Link Field for Wednesday’s showdown with Western Conference rivals Seattle Sounders FC. A win would leapfrog the Sounders over RSL into second place in the conference on the total-goals tiebreaker. RSL, meanwhile, can clinch a top-three seed in the conference playoffs with two points from their remaining two regular season games. Salt Lake already have taken one road win against Seattle this season, prevailing 1-0 on a goal by Fabian Espindola, who also connected twice in RSL’s last game, a 2-1 win over LA, and has three goals and three assists in his last three games. Both teams will be missing players on Wednesday night due to international duty. RSL will definitely be without leading scorer Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica) and MF Will Johnson (Canada), both of whom were with their respective national teams in World Cup Qualifying matches in Central America on Tuesday. Seattle won’t have DF Adam Johansson (Sweden) or MF Mario Martinez (Honduras), who will face off against Johnson in a qualifier in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday. RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman and goalkeeper Nick Rimando, as well as Seattle striker Eddie Johnson, are still question marks for the match. All three were with the US National Team for its Tuesday night Qualifier against Guatemala in Kansas City, and will fly to Seattle, where their status will be assessed on gameday.