RSL closes out the regular season vs. Chivas

Sandy, UT (SportsNetwork.com) - Playoff-bound Real Salt Lake will wrap up its regular season campaign at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday when it hosts lowly Chivas USA.

While the Claret and Cobalt already have a spot reserved in the MLS Cup playoffs, there will still be plenty to play for Wednesday night.

Salt Lake enters the match just one point back of the first-place Portland Timbers.

Jason Kreis' side can still stake its claim to the MLS Supporters' Shield ahead of Red Bull New York - albeit with a lot of help from other results - but eclipsing the Timbers for top spot in the Western Conference seems like the more realistic target.

Salt Lake faced Portland in its most recent outing, playing to a 0-0 draw that kept the top of the table unchanged.

It was the first time in 18 MLS regular season matches that Real Salt Lake failed to produce a goal. That has Kreis calling for greater sharpness heading into the most important stretch of the season.

"I think we lacked a little bit of sharpness in the attacking third of the field. There were some opportunities for me where shots should have been taken and they weren't," the RSL boss said. "... The goals were there to be scored, it was just one of those nights that they weren't taken."

Chivas, meanwhile, comes into the contest at the bottom of the West, a position it has maintained for the majority of the season, on 26 points.

The Goats are coming off of their third consecutive defeat and their second consecutive shutout, falling 5-0 to the Los Angeles Galaxy on Oct. 6 at the StubHub Center.

"The only thing that matters is that we have had our worst game, made too many errors, and unfortunately we do it in a (SuperClasico) in a very important stadium and we just don't have any justification," said Chivas USA head coach Jose Luis Real. "We simply recognize that this was our worst game that I've coached, because not even the game we lost at Houston was completely different, but this one was. The only thing that we can never lack is attitude and the spirit to do a lot of things, and today, we didn't do that."

Even with Chivas already eliminated from playoff contention, the Goats still can make a dent in the playoff race by playing the role of the spoiler. Chivas will take on Portland on Saturday, just three days after the club's meeting with RSL. If the Goats can manage to take points from either game, it should a go long way toward determining positioning for the Western Conference playoffs.