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SANDY — Real Salt Lake begins its postseason and a two-game playoff series with Major League Soccer Western Conference rival the Los Angeles Galaxy on the road Sunday night at 7:00 p.m.
It’s a team the Salt Lake side is very familiar with and has quite the history with. And RSL knows it’s entering the match as the dark horse of the matchup, but the Claret and Cobalt are ready for the challenge ahead.
“We know it’s a very dangerous team,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis told ESPN 700 Tuesday. “It’s a terrific, terrific challenge for us. I certainly don’t think that we’re going to have to be concerned about our players being overconfident. There’s no doubt in my mind and I think probably most people’s minds that we will enter this series as the underdog. If we can get something out of this series, that’s going to mean a lot, and it’s going to be an incredible accomplishment, and none of us should expect to do a whole lot but looking forward to the challenge.”
Even with the familiarity the Salt Lake club has with the Galaxy, RSL knows the challenge that lies ahead of it in the two-game semifinal series.
“We’re going to have to be at the top of our game to beat the Galaxy over a two-game series,” said Kreis. “I think we’re quite capable of it, but we know this is a massive challenge.”
The Salt Lake club and the Galaxy have only met twice previously in the postseason — the 2009 MLS Cup and the 2011 Western Conference final. Sunday will open the first time the two sides have met for a Western Conference Semifinal.
It’s a series that RSL knows how it will need to enter.
“I don’t think the approach against (Los Angeles) changes much, I think the approach in the series overall has to change because you need to have some recognition that no matter what you do in the first game you’ve still got another entire 90 minutes to take care of — we will enter it with that knowledge,” said Kreis. “I think that we have enough experience on our team that it won’t be a new thing for our players.”
Sunday’s match will begin the final venture for the Salt Lake club to hoist a trophy this season, and it’s something Kreis says increases the focus for the players that will be wearing the Claret and Cobalt.
“There’s one (trophy) left, and in some ways that focuses all of us to do absolutely everything we can to go after this MLS Cup because let’s face it, our lives in this sport are just too short,” said Kreis.
As the underdog of the upcoming matchup and quite possibly the postseason, the RSL sideline boss is just fine with that and has confidence in his roster for the two-game series and even further into the playoffs, but isn’t being as loud about it this time around.
“I feel quietly confident,” said Kreis. “In prior years, I’ll be honest, I felt way more confident, and I think that somehow has come back to bite us and I think some of the players on our team have shared that sentiment in the past several years when there was a lot of talk and a lot of buzz about how we were a favorite for this, that or the other. Frankly, my honest opinion, I’m not blowing smoke here is we are not the favorites for anything this year, and frankly I like that.”
Following Sunday’s match at the Home Depot Center, RSL will return to its home pitch Thursday, Nov. 7, to close out the two-game matchup inside Rio Tinto Stadium. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
