Soccer: Injuries take bite out of team depth for matchup with San Jose

As an organization, Real Salt Lake has always been confident of dipping into what is normally a deep roster.

Lately, even as RSL strives to maintain a winning pace that has it at the top of the Western Conference, that precious depth has taken a bit of a pounding.

"We are very thin at the back line," RSL coach Jason Kreis said prior to Saturday's game at Rio Tinto Stadium with second-place San Jose. "So now you're talking about shifting players all over the place."

Defender Chris Schuler is out with an injured foot, while midfielder Sebastian Velasquez has turf toe on his right foot.

Also, while still on the field, defender Jamison Olave is not 100 percent with a right calf strain.

"I think everybody can see it's affecting him," Kreis said.

Midfielder Javier Morales is slowly rebuilding his conditioning from a right quad strain so he can go a full 90 minutes. He came off the bench in the second half in two games prior to Saturday.

Midfielder Luis Gil also suffered a small injury — a right knee strain — he picked up at the U.S. Under-20 national team camp. He was able to come off the bench for the final 26 minutes of Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"It felt good, especially getting back on the field so quickly," Gil said. "I feel like I've got to get back into that rhythm, though. Obviously, time off takes that away and you feel a little slow; just getting back into the soccer rhythm, getting back on the ball, more confidence."

martyr@sltrib.com

Twitter: @rsltribune