Midweek Kick: Real Salt Lake should be missing key components for tangle with Revs

There is one problem with a midweek fixture — in this case, Thursday night in Sandy, Utah, as the Revolution take on Real Salt Lake (9 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Boston/WBZ-FM 98.5) — following an international break: travel concerns for certain players will make them (in theory, at least) unavailable for the full 90 minutes.

But when you throw in yellow card accumulation suspensions on top of that — and with a short turnaround thanks to another match in three days — figuring out who will be in your squad will be a rather difficult thing to do.

That’s the problem that Real manager Mike Petke has for their penultimate fixture of the 2018 regular season.

Three of Real’s main attacking options in Joao Plata, Albert Rusnak, and Jefferson Savarino were expected to return to Utah from international duty on Wednesday. In addition, RSL will be without defensive midfielder Kyle Beckerman and midfielder Stephen “Sunny” Sunday, as both have yellow card suspensions for the Revs’ trip.

Damir Kreilach (11 goals) is still a threat Revolution fans will want to keep their eye on should he make Petke’s XI, and the same goes for Homegrown striker Corey Baird: the 21-year-old in his first season in Major League Soccer has put up some impressive numbers (seven goals, four assists), and is a rather dangerous player in and around the box. He’s creative, can use his left foot with confidence, and has a bit of pace for the Revs centerbacks to try and contain.

But with Real currently sitting sixth overall in the Western Conference, one point ahead of LA Galaxy, and with one more match to play after this — this Sunday at Portland; RSL are idle in the final weekend — one can expect the Revs’ hosts for this tilt to go for it, given that their playoff life won’t be in their hands.

Yet the Revolution, with nothing to play for, can expose a defense which has yielded two or more goals 16 times this season, most recently a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Portland on Oct. 6.

RSL has a tendency to give up too much space against creative teams, and their usual centerbacks have a habit of overplaying. We can expect Cristian Penilla to have a field day on the left.

But the Revolution will still have to tangle with RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who has athleticism and intelligence on his side.