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L.A. continues whirl-wind schedule in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, UT (Sports Network) - The Los Angeles Galaxy continue their whirl-wind tour of Major League Soccer cities Wednesday when they play Real Salt Lake at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The match will be the Galaxy's 11th in league play since Aug. 5, with the MLS schedule maker hoping to give every market in the country a chance to see David Beckham and the his L.A. teammates. That hasn't been the case as the English superstar has been out with a knee injury since the SuperLiga final on Aug. 29, as well as a host of other Galaxy players being in and out of the lineup with various injuries.

"We have a game on Wednesday. I know that. It's on the schedule. We have to go and obviously get a win," Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said after his team's 3-1 loss Sunday to Houston.

Yallop is just trying to get through his team's final eight games, with realistic chances of making the playoffs slipping away loss by loss. The Galaxy have lost eight of their last nine league fixtures and are currently last in the league with just 17 points.

"Talk about a long year - I keep saying that, but we are so naive in certain spots," Yallop said of his team giving up two goals on suspect plays to Houston. "We are so naive with our fight and our will to do better. We just expect that another goal has gone in and guys just don't take responsibility. A lot of times, you have to make sure that you feel like something is your fault, and a lot of guys don't. They think that the players think that maybe they could have done in a situation, but they don't take responsibility and that's difficult."

"I've worked with Frank for the (Canadian) national team and in San Jose," Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear said. "He just has to keep his head up. I feel for him because I know the quality of coach he is and he doesn't deserve to get all these losses."

Real Salt Lake isn't in much better shape, just two points clear of the Galaxy in the Western table, but have been showing signs of life after some late season roster moves.

They are coming off a 0-0 tie at Toronto FC, but feel good after forward Fabian Espindola received a red card in the first half of the contest and the team was still hung on for the point on the road.

"We put ourselves in a tough position getting that red card in the first half and we were 60 minutes down a man, but that said we showed a lot of character a lot of fight, and we got out of here with a result," RSL forward Alecko Eskandarian said.

TFC actually peppered goalkeeper Nick Rimando with a team record in shots and shots on goal in an effort to break out of their league-record goalless streak, but the veteran goalkeeper stopped all shots in one of his more impressive performances of the season.

"That's what happens when you go a man down," Rimando said of the number of shots he faced. "You've got to expect that it's going to be a battle and that's what it was. They came after us, you know their fans are amazing, they gave them a little boost and they had their chances but we fought and we came out with a point, on an away game, playing here in Toronto and that's big for us."

"They were knocking on the door all day, and searching for that elusive goal," RSL defender Eddie Pope said. "And, went down a man - our backs were against the wall and they just came at us. Certainly we could have crumbled at some point and given up a goal at some point, but we held together, stuck together we were able to fight, scratch ... all that stuff and get out of here with a point."

That is exactly what L.A. will be trying to do Wednesday in an effort to climb out of the Western basement.

After Wednesday's match, the Galaxy host FC Dallas on Sunday while Real Salt lake hosts Colorado a day earlier.

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