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SANDY — Real Salt Lake played its final Major League Soccer regular season match Saturday night as it hosted the Vancouver Whitecaps, ultimately ending in a 0-0 draw.
“I think that it could be a positive thing to have a little bit of disappointment in our minds heading into the playoffs, just giving us a little bit of an extra edge,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis said of the result.
RSL has now gone two MLS matches and three over all competitions with 0-0 results. Following the match, Kreis joked that the Salt Lake club was saving its goals for the upcoming playoffs.
“We’ve put them in the bag here in the last three games and decided that we’ll save them up for the first round of the playoffs,” he said.
Despite the draw, RSL became just the second MLS team to ever go a full season without allowing a goal in the first 15 minutes.
Additionally, the Claret and Cobalt did make some more history Saturday night inside Rio Tinto Stadium with fan attendance.
The Salt Lake club had its sixth consecutive sell-out and 11th this season — both records for the RSL franchise. And it's a record that Kreis is happy to have.
“It’s gigantic, it’s huge,” said Kreis. “I could never give them enough thank you, we truly do believe that they are part of our family and we hope that in turn we are part of their family. We think it’s a very symbiotic relationship, we think that we need them to be here early for our first playoff game so we can get after it.”
RSL midfielder Ned Grabavoy, who returned to the lineup Saturday night for the first time in more than a month after an injury, agreed with his boss regarding how important the fans are to the club.
“The crowd has just been unreal all year,” said Grabavoy. “I mean, after a really big disappointment Tuesday night, they are right back out here full support.”
It's gigantic, it's huge. I could never give them enough thank you, we truly do believe that they are part of our family and we hope that in turn we are part of their family. We think it's a very symbiotic relationship, we think that we need them to be here early for our first playoff game so we can get after it.
–RSL coach Jason Kreis on the crowd at Rio Tinto
Fans saw quite a different lineup for Saturday’s match compared to other recent matches as RSL's regular goalkeeper Nick Rimando, defender Nat Borchers and midfielder Javier Morales all didn’t see any minutes Saturday due to various reasons.
Additionally, newly acquired RSL midfielder David Viana made his Rio Tinto Stadium debut against the Whitecaps in the 71st minute as he was subbed on for RSL midfielder Luis Gil.
Pending the Seattle Sounders' result Sunday, the Claret and Cobalt will either host the Sounders or travel to Seattle to play the MLS Western Conference semi-finals next week, Nov. 3 or 4.
RSL finished the 2012 MLS regular season with 57 points, which is a club record, and a 17-11-6 record, just one win short of a club record for the season.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
