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SANDY — Real Salt Lake is in the middle of what baseball players call “the dog days of summer.” Facing the team’s third game in eight days, a road match sandwiched in the middle of a six-game homestand, the heat of summer and the weariness of a long MLS season are all on the table.
Saturday provides a chance for RSL to focus on the club’s top priority: trophies.
Salt Lake will look to reclaim the Rocky Mountain Cup that Colorado took a year ago for the first time since 2006, when the two teams meet at Dick Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado, at 7 p.m. RSL beat the Rapids 2-1 in the squads’ first meeting May 17 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
“It’s always a big deal when there’s a trophy involved, or something on the line,” RSL midfielder Luis Gil said. “I always feel like when we play for that cup it’s going to be a battle with that team.”
RSL defender Nat Borchers has played on both sides of the rivalry, along with team captain Kyle Beckerman and fellow back-line mate Chris Wingert. When it comes to rivalries, these two teams don’t need much introduction, even against a Colorado side that is one of the youngest in Major League Soccer.
“This is definitely the easiest flight of the year, and I think for those of us who have ties to Colorado, it’s always nice to come back and see how everything is going back there,” said Borchers, who has played a team-high 1,798 minutes in 2014. “The summertime is when things get difficult. It’s hot outside, you have a lot of injuries potentially on the team and you’ve got to get through it. You take care of your body, stay out of the sun and a lot of guys forget that it’s just about surviving in the summer.”
But RSL will be looking to do more than survive in Colorado. The two teams are separated by a mere three points in the standings, and are part of a group of six teams within six points of each other in the Western Conference.
In other words, there’s no rest for the weary.
“I’m feeling good. I’m getting younger,” joked 34-year midfielder Javier Morales, who has five goals and seven assists in the team’s second-most 1,784 minutes played. “But I’m happy; I went through a lot of things for a couple of years, and now I’m feeling healthy. So I’m really happy.”
RSL head coach Jeff Cassar added the team’s work ethic and energy at Friday’s practice, the first and last full-team outing since a 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls, was "fantastic.’ He added RSL is ready for the trip.
“Any time we can put a trophy in the trophy case, it’s important,” Cassar said. “It’s important to the guys, it’s important to our fans, and it’s important to the club. It’s always great to have a real strong rivalry. It’s not something we’re focusing on, but it’s part of it. It sure would be nice to bring (the Rocky Mountain Cup) back home.”
