Real Salt Lake is entering the final 10 matches of the 2016 MLS regular season. The intensity turns up a notch and every point carries a little more weight. This according to RSL General Manager Craig Waibel, who himself won four MLS Cup titles and one Supporters’ Shield.
“You can call it urgency. Pressure. Reality. However you want to word it. There is definitely a switch in the focus of each point,” Waibel said on The O’Connell and Swinney Show on ESPN 700. “Does it require a bit more focus down the stretch? Absolutely. These are all Western Conference games and the Western Conference is just going to beat each other up for the next month or two and we’ll see how it goes. We set ourselves up nicely early in the year with our run on the road, so we’re in a good spot to control our fate.”
All 10 of RSL’s remaining matches will be against Western Conference foes, starting on Sunday with a nationally televised clash with Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.
While the schedule includes six of the 10 matches at Rio Tinto Stadium, the first three of those following the Seattle match come against FC Dallas, the Colorado Rapids and the LA Galaxy – seeded first, second and fourth in the West, respectively. That kind of schedule will be common throughout the West, though, so Waibel isn’t expecting any sympathy from the rest of the conference.
“There is no easy schedule. I’m sure every Western Conference team is doing the same thing, looking at it going, ‘Wait a second. No one in the West is a sure thing,’” Waibel said. “It’s intimidating for everyone in the league and realizing that can even out that anxiety.”
With the schedule becoming more intense, RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar gave his team an extra day off this week to help the players get themselves mentally and physically prepared for the gauntlet ahead, particularly important coming off of a stretch of three matches in three cities in seven days.
“This part of the season wears on you a bit more psychologically because of the innate pressure that these guys are going to put on themselves,” Waibel said.
To hear more of Waibel’s interview, click here.
