Real Salt Lake play host to Dallas at the Rio Tinto Stadium on Sunday in need of a lift having lost each of their last two league matches.
Meanwhile, the visitors head into the contest in search of a second consecutive victory having just returned to winning ways last time out.
Match preview
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Real Salt Lake were left red-faced at the sound of the full-time whistle on Monday when they suffered a 4-1 defeat in their clash against Vancouver Whitecaps.
Marcelo Silva's 33rd-minute own goal saw Freddy Juarez's men trail at the interval, before second-half strikes from Brian White, Ryan Gauld and Florian Jungwirth put the result at BC Place beyond doubt.
However, the Claret and Cobalt are still holding on to seventh spot in the Western Conference, but a couple of teams in and around are beginning to bear down on them.
Sunday's hosts will be aiming to bounce back when they take on a Dallas side against whom the last three meetings have ended with honours even.
Having won each of their last three outings on home turf, the Utah-based outfit are more than capable of coming out on top, and it is just a question of whether they can live up to expectations.
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Off the back of three matches without a win, Dallas claimed a 5-3 victory over Austin FC in an absorbing game at the Q2 Stadium on Monday.
Luchi Gonzalez's men raced to a 4-1 lead at half-time courtesy of braces from Jesus Ferreira and Ricardo Pepi before Jader Obrian made sure of all three points less than 10 minutes into the second period.
The Toros have leapfrogged Los Angeles FC into 10th place in the Western Conference standings and are now just two points shy of the last playoff spot which is currently occupied by this weekend's opponents.
Sunday's visitors, who will move into the playoff spots should they manage to secure all three points, are faced with what is perhaps their biggest game of the season to date.
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Team News
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Real Salt Lake's Andrew Brody remains out of contention due to a toe injury which has seen the forward feature in just nine of his team's 21 outings.
Nineteen-year-old Zackery Farnsworth is also unavailable as he continues to nurse a leg injury, while David Ochoa misses out through a torn muscle.
FC Dallas make the journey to Sandy without the services of Bressan who is still sidelined with a shoulder problem he picked up towards the back end of last month in a 2-2 draw versus Houston Dynamo.
John Nelson and Paxton Pomykal are expected to play no part for the visitors pending their recovery from back and knee injuries respectively.
The involvement of Brandon Servania and Szabolcs Schon hangs in the balance after they were both hauled off with minor injuries last time out.
Real Salt Lake possible starting lineup:
Putna; Morgan, Silva, Glad, Powder; Besler, Ruiz, Rusnak; Meram, Menendez, Rubin
Dallas possible starting lineup:
Megiolaro; Hollingshead, Hedges, Burgess, Twumasi; Cerrillos, Munjoma, Ferreira; ElMedkhar, Obrian, Pepi
We say: Real Salt Lake 2-0 Dallas
Real Salt Lake have been solid on home turf all-season long and another triumph looks to be on the cards here. While we expect the away side to push their hosts all the way, we are tipping the home side to emerge victorious.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Real Salt Lake win with a probability of 53.48%. A draw had a probability of 24.7% and a win for Dallas had a probability of 21.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Real Salt Lake win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.44%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.13%) and 2-1 (9.56%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.73%), while for a Dallas win it was 0-1 (7.2%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 2.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Real Salt Lake would win this match.
