Sounders head to struggling Salt Lake
SANDY, Utah – This is usually the time of year when Real Salt Lake is trying to add points for a run at the Supporters’ Shield or a higher finish in the MLS Western Conference.
This season is different. For the first time in eight seasons, the question for RSL isn’t playoff seeding, but playoff qualification.
“We’re not where we want to be,” midfielder Kyle Beckerman said Friday. “Where we’ve been in the past seven years or so – building that foundation to be an elite team in this league – it took a lot of hard work. Now our fans have those expectations. That’s where we want to be. We don’t want to make this familiar – being where we are on the table. And we want to try to get out of it as possible. (Saturday) getting a win would help that out big time.”
That 7 o’clock match tonight is all the more important because the opponents are the Seattle Sounders, who hold the sixth and final playoff spot in the West.
“They’re all big right now,” RSL coach Jeff Cassar said. “We’re trying to shorten the distance between us and them, and they’re trying to create a bigger gap. Obviously this is huge; we all know it is. But what we really have to concentrate on is just how we play, and the results will come.”
Results have come with unprecedented consistency for RSL in recent seasons.
In 2004, MLS picked Salt Lake over Seattle and other expansion candidates. The new club missed the playoffs its first three seasons. However, RSL broke through in 2008 and hasn’t missed the postseason since – an MLS record of seven straight seasons.
Now that seems imperiled, as RSL is ninth in a 10-team conference in which the top six finishers go to the postseason.
The Sounders have a playoff streak of their own to protect, having qualified for the postseason every year since joining MLS in 2009. That’s six straight appearances – tied with Los Angeles for second-longest behind RSL.
Seattle goes into this weekend three points behind fifth-place FC Dallas and three points clear of seventh-place San Jose. However, while a graph of Salt Lake’s season would show a relatively flat line – their current three-game losing streak is their deepest dip of the season – the Sounders’ is more like an inverted “V” with a quick climb to the top at the league followed by a sharp drop with eight losses over nine games.
The Sounders hope they began reversing course again last weekend with a 4-0 win over Orlando City, marked by the return of goals-leader Obafemi Martins.