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SANDY - Real Salt Lake's regular season roller coaster continued Saturday night right up until the final minutes of the match. As the 90 minutes were winding down, it looked as though RSL had the game against the Portland Timbers locked for a win at 1-0, but then came the 91st minute.
Portland's Futty Danso kicked one into the back of the net to tie up the game in the 91st. And with the four minutes of additional time added to the second half, RSL couldn't bring their score back on top, surrendering with a 1-1 draw.
"Obviously very, very disappointed with the result and the finish of the game because I thought we had done so many good things up until that point," said RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis.
Despite the result, Kreis didn't focus on the negatives of the game and remained positive with the look ahead to the playoffs.
"It's that time of year where it comes down to split second decisions and there was a little bit of lapse of focus there at the end and we didn't get the result that we wanted so perhaps that will be a good lesson for us in the payoffs," said Kreis.
RSL Goalkeeper Nick Rimando was also looking at the positives of the match and ahead to the playoffs even with the down feeling in the locker room. "I think whenever you give points away like that, at home in front of our fans and on Fan Appreciation night, people are going to be down and understandably and I think tomorrow we'll feel good about the performance and look at the tape and see all the good things we've done and just go on from there because we have an important game (upcoming) and we've just got to stay positive."
RSL did however get handed some luck Saturday night. A couple hours after their game rapped up at Rio Tinto when the San Jose Earthquakes beat FC Dallas 4-2 giving RSL the third and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
With the draw, RSL's regular season came to an end and the look ahead is to the playoffs, which will begin next week for RSL, even after the rollercoaster season they endured and Kreis is hoping the challenges from this season will help them in the playoffs.
"In a lot of ways this season reminds me of '09, because that year when we were at our best we were like on the mountain tops, when we were at our worst we were down in the deepest valleys and we would go up and down week in and week out. This year we've been able to put together some strings, some stretches of a lot of positives stuff and positive results and then we've had some stretches where we haven't been able to buy a result and we've been more consistent for longer periods of time - it wasn't one week to the next - but there is just a ton of difficulties that we faced this year and I'm hopeful that all of this will mean something come playoff time," said Kreis.
Rimando agreed that their season was rough, but looks ahead with a bit of a different mantra than his boss.
"I think right now we're almost where we want to be as we're getting healthy and getting some key players back and going into the playoffs. You know, these streaks go away once the playoffs start, the records go away. IF you show up that day and continue to strive through the playoffs, you have a good chance at winning that cup."
And that's just what they'll do next Saturday at Rio Tinto as they step on their field for their first playoff game of 2011.
