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SANDY — Real Salt Lake returns to the pitch Friday night to host Major League Soccer Western Conference opponent the Portland Timbers in yet another meeting this month.
Friday will be the third time the two sides have met this month but only the second meeting in MLS action this season, with the first coming in Open Cup play and one more match ahead in MLS play for the two sides.
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic game, I think it’s an incredibly important game for us,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis told ESPN 700 Tuesday. “If we can get the three points that we’re after, that could put us in a really, really good place, comparatively speaking, to them for the rest of the season and just see who would end up on top of the other.”
The Salt Lake side is 1-0-1 against the Timbers this month, with a 2-1 win coming inside Rio Tinto Stadium on Aug. 7 and a 3-3 draw in Portland just nine days ago on Aug. 21, but RSL will enter Friday’s game without the previous two meetings on its mind.
“I think anytime you play a team like this that appears to be as mentally strong and as competitively ferocious as this group looks, I think every game is just a one off,” said Kreis. “I think history kind of erases itself and I’m hopeful that my players approach every match that way — that ‘what I did last week doesn’t matter, it only matters what I do this week.’ ”
The Claret and Cobalt enter the Friday night match sitting comfortably on top of the MLS Western Conference with a 13-8-6 record and 45 points — five points above the second-place slotted Los Angeles Galaxy and six points above the Timbers, who are tied for third with the Colorado Rapids.
RSL is also coming off a big 4-0 home win last weekend over MLS Eastern Conference opponent the Columbus Crew.
The Portland side enters the match off a 0-1 loss to Western Conference rival the Seattle Sounders Sunday. The Timbers sit with 39 points and a 9-4-12 record on their season thus far.
With a bit of a break coming for the Salt Lake side after the Friday night match, Kreis says he will take advantage of that and put his strongest on the pitch in search of the big three points.
“For the game this weekend, we don’t have another MLS match actually for two weeks after it, so this will be the absolute strongest and best lineup we can put out there in order to try to get three points at home as always,” said Kreis.
Following Friday’s match, RSL will have a week off after its busiest month this season before it kicks off its September matches on the road against Seattle Sept. 13. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
