Real Salt Lake gets some help in the playoff race
RSL drops valuable points
Well with 13 minutes left on the clock Real Salt Lake looked sure to pick up all 3 points for a second straight week on the road, but in a scene that looked a lot like the RSL of the past, they gave up two late minute goals (anybody remember Dallas?) and had to settle for a draw on the road. I thought Jason said it best “We told the players already that for me, if someone offered me a point before we even played the first minute tonight, that I’d taken it with no question about it. That said, the way that we got that point is not a bit disappointing, but it’s still a point.” While he makes a valid point, but the meltdown was just a bit to painful for some of us who have watched things like this happen in the past.
The result makes the next 3 matches huge and leaves very little room for meltdowns or mistakes, hopefully the distractions of the opening of Rio Tinto won’t impact the players or staff in a negative way. They should have a huge advantage from two sure to be sold out crowds, which should set up a huge match to end the regular season with potentially both the playoffs and the Rocky Mountain Cup hanging in the balance.
Help from unlikely sources
Who would have thought that RSL would have gotten help from TFC who upset New York, or from Houston who beat Colorado, or even from Chivas who beat DC United, but each one of them helped out the RSL playoff cause. According to Sportsclubstats, the draw at New England actually dropped the playoff chances for RSL down 4.1%, but TFC helped out RSL 1.4%, and Houston helped out 2.7%, and Chivas helped out 0.5%, and even the win by Columbus helped out 0.9%. So in the end RSL moved closer to the playoff spot that has eluded them so far in their MLS history, heading into the matchup on Thursday RSL has a 60.7% chance of making the playoffs.
How big is Thursday?
Aside from all the press and attention that will be focused on the opening of the stadium, there is a much larger and more important factor to Thursday and that is the match on the pitch. A win and RSL will stay ahead of Colorado and Dallas in the Western Conference, a win and RSL will move ahead of New York in the wildcard race, and a win would give RSL an 84.8% chance of making the playoffs.
The two factors of the opening of Rio Tinto and the RSL playoff hunt will make this one of the most important matches in the brief history of the franchise. It should be clear how important these two things are by the pure volume of coverage the team and stadium are getting in the local media:
11 articles on the Deseret news website
7 articles on the SL Trib website
Plus coverage on local TV and radio, and all of this will be a huge distraction as the players, coaches and staff are tapped for interviews. Focus will be the key as the week moves closer and closer to match time.
I hope to be able to attend the Monday night practice under the lights at Rio Tinto, if I get the chance I will update with pictures and details on Tuesday.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on October 5, 2008 at 11:16 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.