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SANDY — Coming off two back-to-back losses, Real Salt Lake returns to road play Saturday when it faces Major League Soccer Western Conference opponent the Vancouver Whitecaps for the third and final matchup this regular season.
It’s a match that will see RSL seeking to snap a two-game losing skid and its first-ever win in the Vancouver based stadium, and the Whitecaps fight for points in search for a playoff slot.
“It’s going to be a tough team for sure,” RSL captain Kyle Beckerman told ESPN 700 Thursday. “They’re doing really well at home and they are playing for their playoff lives, so definitely we expect it to be a really tough, hard-fought game.”
The match will be the third time the two sides have faced each other this regular season and will wrap up the season series. RSL first faced Vancouver this season April 13 in Canada and then again at home May 4. The April matchup ended in a 1-1 draw, and the May matchup saw the Salt Lake side post a 2-0 victory over the Vancouver-based club inside Rio Tinto Stadium.
“We feel like we did well the first game we went up there, we did well against them here so we know we can find some success, there’s things we can exploit, but it’s going to take a lot of fight, effort and energy and all those good things to get it done,” said Beckerman.
RSL enters the match off back-to-back losses to MLS opponents Seattle and San Jose. The Salt Lake side fell to Seattle 2-0 on Sept. 18 in the state of Washington and 2-1 to San Jose inside Rio Tinto on Sept. 21. The Salt Lake club currently sits just barely out of first place in the West with 48 points and a 14-10-6 record.
Vancouver enters the match off a 3-0 win over the Montreal Impact on Sept. 21 and a 0-0 draw with San Jose on Sept. 14. The Whitecaps currently sit tied for sixth place in the West with San Jose with 41 points and an 11-10-8 record.
Aside from a win making history for RSL at BC Place Saturday night, a win would also put the Salt Lake club at a 50-point, 15-win season for the fourth-consecutive year and would make RSL the first team in the MLS’s post-shootout era to reach the four-year milestone.
Following the Saturday matchup, RSL will have a short turnaround of just three days before it returns to action Oct. 1 in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play where the Salt Lake club will host MLS opponent D.C. United in the Open Cup final.
RSL will return to MLS action Oct. 5 at home to host Western Conference opponent F.C. Dallas for the third and final matchup during the regular season between the two clubs. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
