Real Salt Lake: Confident team meets reeling New England
Excluding teams like Columbus, New England, Chicago and Houston, who are all looking like good bets to make the playoffs, seven other teams are within four points of each other in the quest to secure one of the final four spots.
Real Salt Lake is one of those teams in the hunt, and its confidence couldn't be higher heading into tonight's match at New England.
Two weeks ago, a loss would have seemed inevitable given RSL's brutal road record, but that all changed with the club's come-from-behind 3-2 win at San Jose last weekend. Suddenly the players are believers in themselves on the road again despite a 2-9-2 record.
"Even if you just look at the trainings, everyone's been a little more chipper. Winning does that. It gives us a good mindset going into the weekend," said Robbie Russell.
Kickoff is slated for 5:30 p.m., and the match will be televised locally on Comcast Digital Channel 105 and KSL's digital 5.3 channel.
With 34 points in the standings and 40 considered the unofficial magic number to reach the playoffs, a win would do wonders for Real Salt Lake — especially with two straight matches upcoming in Rio Tinto Stadium.
"They're probably feeling a little more urgency than they would normally, though it still looks like they'll make the playoffs, no problem," said Real defender Chris Wingert. "We're just going to try and prepare ourselves for the way we want to play and the mentality we want."
Besides the fact RSL isn't quite sure if New England will come out in a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2 formation, coach Jason Kreis has tried to keep things pretty simple this week in training.
"You have to continue to play and just let them enjoy themselves and not instruct them too much when they have the ball because they're making good decisions and creating a lot of chances," said Kreis.
"The other thing is you have to keep demanding them to work harder because you don't want the players to start to feel 'OK, we've made it,' because we haven't made it. There's still a long way to go and a lot of work that needs to be done."
After tonight, RSL's final three matches are against teams smack dab in the middle of the playoff hunt as well.
"I've certainly been involved in years where it came down to that last game, but I don't remember there not being one team that was out of it. I always thought there's one team that's like, OK, that's the redheaded stepchild this year," said Kreis. "It's interesting and fun."
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com
Recent comments
It's too bad to let those extra two points slip away in the final…
Nussdorfer AC | Oct. 4, 2008 at 7:48 p.m.
