There is no questioning the success of Real Salt Lake’s 2016 season thus far. With five matches left to play, RSL is in the thick of the playoff hunt while boasting an unbeaten home record and a road record that ranks among the league’s best. After missing the playoffs in 2015 for the first time since 2007, the club is in a much more familiar position, fighting for playoff positioning rather than contention.
How RSL is able to respond in those final five matches of the regular season will go a long way towards determining how General Manager Craig Waibel views the season, though.
“These next five games will dictate where the tone of the season ends,” Waibel said on the O’Connell and Swinney Show on ESPN 700 on Wednesday. “It is a marathon, but with five left we can end the season feeling very content and very happy with where we are. In those same five games, we can also give ourselves some problems.”
The schedule is somewhat favorable for RSL, with three of the final five matches coming at home and a bye weekend in the mix, which could allow players an opportunity to rest and recover ahead of the final two matches and the playoffs.
Finishing strong could not only provide momentum heading into the postseason, but also would ensure more home playoff dates – which would surely benefit RSL in the highly intense postseason.
“It’s essential that we finish above fourth. In the end, we want to host and that’s how we’re going to be most successful,” Waibel said, noting that a 1-0 road loss to Portland on Saturday wasn’t the ideal result, but didn’t halt any feelings that RSL can make a run at one of the top spots in the West. “A little undue stress on ourselves, but I think we’re still in a good spot. We control our own fate. We’ve been very good at home and we need to continue that. If we’re able to take care of business at home, we’ll be in a great spot.”
RSL will play on Saturday without Sunny, as the midfielder was given retroactive punishment by the MLS Disciplinary Committee – the second straight week that the anonymous Committee has levied punishment to an RSL player for incidents that were in plain sight of the referees. However, Waibel said he anticipates Javier Morales will be able to return to the field after leaving Saturday’s match with a quad strain.
“I certainly expect him to play a role in the game,” Waibel said of Morales.
The stretch of five matches starts Saturday against the Houston Dynamo. Kickoff at Rio Tinto Stadium is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MT.
