Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SANDY - The U.S. Open Cup is out of Real Salt Lake's reach now after losing at FC Dallas on Tuesday, but there is a positive that can be taken away from the loss.
They can focus on just MLS play now.
"I think we can be very singularly focused right now," RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis told ESPN700's Bill and Spence in a radio interview Wednesday. "And if we're going to take a positive out of the disappointing result, being knocked out of that (U.S. Open Cup) tournament, it's that now we're singular focused and we should be very narrow minded and we should all be headed in the right direction to try to win every single game that we play in the league, the challenge for the Supporters Shield, the challenge for the Western Conference Championship and then past that to make the playoffs and win the MLS Cup."
The loss to the MLS opponent could be attributed to many things - the weather conditions in Dallas, the absence of two regular starters, forward Alvaro Saborio and goalkeeper Nick Rimando, and even to the track record RSL has had at the Pizza Hut Park, which is now a brutal 0-10-1 overall in Dallas.
Kreis knows from experience that playing in Dallas during the hot summer months is a challenge for anyone who faces them there.
"I know from playing down there that every team that comes down you would see them fade as the game wore along and often times as even the first half wore along and I think that if you went back and looked at my statistics you might be amazed to see how many goals were scored late in halves and late in games when teams just didn't have the juice anymore and being a team that trained there every single day, I always felt like we were much, much more adept to handle that situation."
Kreis also added, "I think the same thing is true now, I think it does create quite a home field advantage for Dallas, but let's not take anything away from them - they're also a good team, it's not just the heat that wins them games."
I think we can be very singularly focused right now. And if we're going to take a positive out of the disappointing result, being knocked out of that (U.S. Open Cup) tournament, it's that now we're singular focused and we should be very narrow minded and we should all be headed in the right direction to try to win every single game that we play in the league, the challenge for the supporters shield, the challenge for the western conference championship and then past that to make the playoffs and win the MLS Cup.
–Jason Kreis
Moving forward, RSL will remain on the road this week as they travel for the first time to British Columbia to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps for the second meeting this season and Kreis told ESPN700 that he thinks it will be a good match to come off of Tuesday's loss.
"I think we all are looking forward to playing in a brand new city and a new stadium and a new environment in which I think they've got some fans that come out there and make it an excellent place to play a match. It's also a chance for us to respond right away to what was obviously a disappointing match and disappointing result (Tuesday)."
RSL hosted Vancouver in early June and came away with a 2-0 shutout win, it's first since losing star player Javier Morales just four games earlier.
Being a newer team with a newer coach Kreis told ESPN700 that he thinks they (Vancouver) are still trying to establish an identity, but still pose a threat to RSL for Saturday's match.
"I feel like there's some really dangerous players in (Eric) Hassli, (Davide) Chiumiento, Camilo (Sanvezzo) and they have some real nice attacking options that can cause us problems at any given moment so we've got to be alert to those guys and we've got to be really, really focused on what we do well, which is possessing the ball for long stretches of time, moving them around, being dynamic and those are the things that we have to have a medium improvement upon from Tuesday night if we hope to win that game - which we do."
As of Wednesday, Kreis said Saborio will travel with them to Vancouver as long as his knee looks good. Saborio was left home from the Dallas game due to his stalk off of the field, mumbling distraught feelings when he was subbed out in the final minutes last Saturday.
"I think everybody saw what the reaction was from Alvaro when he went off the field. And truthfully and honestly that's not the way we built this franchise and it's not part of our club motto, which is the team is the star and the team is always the most important thing, so we felt like it was something that we needed to address in house and because of that he was left home from the Dallas game."
RSL's kick with Vancouver is set for 2:00 p.m. MT and can be seen live on KMYU 2.2 - Comcast 22/Dish Network 12. The match can also be heard live on ESPN700 or on ESPN700Sports.com, ESPN Deportes 1600 and Juan 106.1 FM. As always fans can follow along with RSL's official Twitter feed @RealSaltLake.
