Unfortunately, this one will be a little quick and dirty. FC Dallas takes on RSL tonight in a huge Western Conference battle. Kickoff is at 7:30PM on Fox Sports Southwest plus.

Game Notes

Suspensions & injuries galore No Blas Perez, Ricardo Villar or Kevin Hartman for FC Dallas and no Fabian Espindola or Jamison Olave for RSL who also have Javier Morales a bit banged up. However, there is the news that Jackson has arrived in Dallas, had his physical this afternoon, and could potentially make the subs bench tonight.

RSL Winless in Texas Real Salt Lake has never won a game in Texas in 17 tries. They have barely even drawn in this state with an overall record of 0-15-2.

Win a win... Dallas would jump into third place in the Western Conference and sit just two points behind RSL with a game in hand. This one tonight is a real biggie for Dallas.

Keys, Ref & Prediction after the jump

Keys to the game

Someone must step up With two road weary and shorthanded teams coming together, this game has scoreless draw written all over it. Who for FC Dallas will step up and make the play tonight that wins the game? Brek Shea, Fabian Castillo or one of the substitutes can majorly grab the spotlight tonight.

Focus on Saborio Alvaro Saborio is an interesting character. When he's on, he's among the most dangerous forwards in the league and a complete gamechanger. When he gets frustrated, he can drift out of games and have almost no impact. We hope for the second one tonight.

Referee

REFEREE: Geoff Gamble. SAR (bench): Joe Fletcher; JAR (opposite): Philippe Briere; 4th: Drew Fischer

MLS Career: 10 games; FC/gm: 22.0; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 2; pens: 8

Certainly a little unsettling to have a relatively new MLS ref calling this game between two veteran and cagey teams.

Prediction(5-2 on the season)

As I said earlier, this one just seems to have draw written all over it . It's a very hot day in Dallas and these are two teams who likely had one training session to prepare for this game. One mistake either way could decide this one, but I'm going with the draw that RSL would be much happier about.

1-1 Draw