Real Salt Lake: Last matches key to playoff run

Participating as a player in the opening of Rio Tinto Stadium, which will arguably become the finest soccer facility in this county when RSL holds it first match there on Thursday, would be a special moment for anybody.

But for Borchers and his teammates, there will be so much more on the line than just the pride of opening such a fantastic venue when RSL hosts New York at 8 p.m. Thursday evening in front of a packed crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium.

RSL has struggled mightily throughout its four-year existence, but with home wins over New York this Thursday and FC Dallas next Saturday, Real would likely put itself in position to qualify for the MLS playoffs for the first time in its history.

The two games aren't necessarily must-wins for Real Salt Lake in its playoff quest, but everybody knows what's at stake.

And Borchers and Co. can't wait.

"You can only dream about opportunities like this — when results truly count and we're gonna have a sold-out stadium," said Borchers. "So I think every single guy in the locker-room is very excited ... and obviously there's gonna be a lot of pressure on us to perform in our first game on opening day for the stadium."

Performing under pressure was an oft-repeated theme following practice inside Rio Tinto Stadium last week, and as coach Jason Kreis pointed out, New York certainly won't be lying down for RSL.

"We can't go into (this) game thinking that we've already won," said Kreis. "I really feel like that (last home) game at Rice-Eccles we went there feeling like all we needed to do was take the field and somebody would give us three points. Even though it's the home-opening of this fantastic venue, there's still gonna have to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into (this) game to get those three points."

A quick look at how the six other MLS franchises that currently have their own soccer-specific stadiums fared when opening their venues shows there are certainly no guarantees.

Three of the franchises — Columbus is 1999, Los Angeles in 2003 and Colorado in 2007 — did win their stadium openers, but two of the others — Dallas in 2005 and Chicago in 2006 — only managed draws and the other — Toronto in 2007 — lost.

To get maximum points against New York in the pressure-packed situation, captain Kyle Beckerman said RSL must learn from the mistakes that those previous squads made.

"A lot of teams in the past haven't done so well, but we've just got to be ready for (the emotions of opening night)," Beckerman said. "We gotta know that's happened in the past and we gotta be up and ready for this game.

"I think that we can't put too much pressure on ourselves that it's a must-win," Beckerman added. "Well, we'll see — hopefully it's not a must-win. But we just gotta come out and play good soccer."

E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com

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