(Sports Network) - The Los Angeles Galaxy will be hoping to snap a 10-game winless skid on Saturday when the team welcomes Real Salt Lake to the Home Depot Center, however they will have to do so without a number of star players. Due to international duty, the team's leading scorer, striker Landon Donovan, will be out along with fellow American Eddie Lewis and England's David Beckham. Canadian Ante Jazic will also not be available.

Donovan has scored 16 goals and recorded seven assists in 18 games, while Beckham has tallied five times with eight assists in 20 matches. Their absence leaves the scoring load to Edson Buddle, who has notched 12 goals in 19 games but will be the lone threat in attack for the Galaxy.

RSL will be missing Andy Williams due to international duty, while the team also has injury concerns in Dema Kovalenko (calf strain), Kyle Beckerman (hamstring strain) and Robbie Findley (heel contusion).

Despite the team's futility over the past 10 games, the Galaxy is still just two points out of a playoff spot. L.A. still has eight games to play in the current campaign, and there are plenty of opportunities to get back into the playoffs after missing out the last two years.

However, Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena knows that Saturday's match will not be easy without his biggest stars on hand.

"It's difficult. We'll lose four players - we are losing Beckham, Donovan, Lewis and Jazic, so that's not easy, but we are going to do our best and have a good week of training and be ready to play Salt Lake on Saturday," Arena said. "But at this time of year, it's tough to obviously get any continuity and consistency in a team when you have a limited number of games remaining and you have an international calendar that impacts our team."

While L.A. continues to fight for a spot in the playoffs, RLS is busy chasing Western Conference leaders Houston, who own a five-point lead on Jason Kreis' side.

RLS is in second place in the West and they got a much-needed win their last time out, beating Colorado 2-0 to snap a two-game losing streak.

Fabian Espindola scored both goals for the team in his first start since May 31 because of injury, but Kreis feels as though that performance could spell good things to come for both Espindola and the team.

"He was spectacular," Kreis said of Espindola. "It's been a long time coming. I know he's been so very, very frustrated with his injury situation because it's lasted a lot longer than he anticipated, or any of us anticipated. To get him back to full fitness and for him to have a game like that on Friday going into this stretch before the end of the season should mean great things for us and great things for Fabian."



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