As the calendar advances, the magnitude of games on the MLS schedule increases exponentially.
With that in mind, Real Salt Lake prepares for the regular season home finale on Sunday against Sporting Kansas City as both teams vie for playoff positions in the final two weekends of the 2016 regular season schedule. And with a road contest against Seattle Sounders FC, who are also jockeying for postseason positioning, on Decision Day on October 23, the pressure is rising for RSL.
“It’s a huge game. Not only for playoff implications, but for confidence and rounding out our performances and trying to peak at the right time,” RSL General Manager Craig Waibel said on ESPN 700’s O’Connell and Swinney Show on Wednesday. “The next two games are very important in terms of our confidence going into the playoffs.”
Real Salt Lake has history on its side against Kansas City. Not only does RSL have just one loss at Rio Tinto Stadium this season, but the Claret-and-Cobalt also posted two victories over SKC on the road earlier this season.
However, RSL’s form has slipped of late. In the last five matches, the club has earned just two points and suffered that lone home defeat to the Houston Dynamo, who has since been eliminated from postseason contention. That’s a far cry from the form of the team that has outscored Kansas City 5-2 at Children’s Mercy Park in two meetings this season in April and May.
That experience points RSL in a strategic direction for Sunday’s match, as Salt Lake looks to clinch a playoff berth for the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
“We’ve got to get on them fast. We’ve got to get out of the gates and we really need to reestablish that energy and that possession-based game and that isolation game that we were playing in the front and middle half of the year,” Waibel said. “One point really doesn’t help them in their situation. We need to be very disciplined, but we also need to be very aggressive to take advantage of the position they’re in.”
There is plenty of motivation for RSL, including sending the home fans happy in the regular season home finale and beating a top rival. However, tops among those motivating factors is the postseason berth that eluded the club last year.
“We didn’t want the season to end when the regular season schedule says it should like it did last year,” Waibel said. “The three points is incredibly important. If we win, we’re in. We control our own destiny. Lacking that result, we still control our destiny but we certainly hand over some of the power.”
Kickoff for Sunday’s match is scheduled for 3 p.m. MT. To hear the full interview, click here.
