Real Salt Lake (11-11-11, 44 points, 8th West) enters Major League Soccer’s “Decision Day” at home Sunday against visiting Portland on the heels of a winless month that has seen second-year Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s side capture just two points in the last six matches, part of a 20-game stretch since June 1 where RSL boasts only four wins, sliding from second to eighth in the Western Conference.
Despite a paucity of points, RSL controls its postseason destiny – a home win against perennial rival Portland vaults RSL into the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the 12th time in the last 15 years.
The Claret-and-Cobalt enter Decision Day mired amongst a glut of four Western Conference teams – RSL, Portland, Minnesota, Vancouver – within three points of each other battling for the final two Audi MLS Cup Playoff spots in the West. A home win over Portland vaults RSL to 47 points, advancing the Utah side to fight another playoff day based on the body of work accomplished over the course of this 34-game season.
Due to the MLS tiebreaker hierarchy – 1) wins, 2) goal difference and 3) head-to-head, Mastroeni’s team still has life, looking to extend the Club’s dominant home-field advantage at the newly-named America First Field with a simple job: win in Sandy for the ninth time this year, extend the season and prepare for the 2022 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, kicking off next weekend on October 15 at either Austin or Dallas / Nashville / LA Galaxy.
RSL fans are likely discouraged by the Club’s recent history against the Timbers, as the Claret-and-Cobalt have won just once in the last 11 meetings between the sides, including last year’s West Final that saw the Timbers win at home, 2-0.
However, despite the 1W-8L-2T mark in the last five seasons against Portland, RSL can take solace in previous “knockout” situations involving the two sides.
In 2019, RSL defeated Portland at the former Rio Tinto Stadium, 2-1, an 87’ game-winner supplied by FW Jefferson Savarino to send Salt Lake to the West Semifinals.
In the 2013 MLS Cup Playoffs, RSL ousted Portland in a two-game series 5-2 on aggregate, dominating a first leg at home, 4-2, prior to a 1-0 away victory to clinch the Club’s second-ever MLS Cup trip.
In Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play, RSL has twice ousted Portland in knockout, single-elimination matches. A 2013 USOC Semifinal saw RSL win 2-1 on goals from FW Alvaro Saborio and FW Joao Plata, while a 2015 Round of 16 tilt saw a Jeff Attinella clean sheet supported by Javier Morales and Sebastian Jaime scores for a 2-0 result.
RSL enters Sunday’s America First Field tilt hoping to both repeat (the result) and in some ways avoid (the last-second nature of) last year’s “Damiracle” at Kansas City. The 2021 Decision Day will be remembered as the most dramatic in MLS history – featuring RSL MF Damir Kreilach’s 95th-minute stoppage-time stunner at KC for an improbable 1-0 win – clinching RSL’s postseason and simultaneously bouncing out darlings LA Galaxy.
The goal scored at 94:38 on the game clock – less than 20 minutes after an uncalled Justen Glad handball that PRO Referees later said was missed – was Damir’s 16th goal of the season, and his 3rd game-winner of 2021, setting a new RSL record for latest game-winning score in a 1-0 match. RSL had won 1-0 on a stoppage-time goal just once before, as former FW Fabian Espindola found the back of the net in the 93+ minute on April 13, 2011, at home against Colorado.
In both 2008 and 2009, RSL earned the needed result on “Decision Day” against rival Colorado to qualify for the postseason. In each of these seasons, RSL also received the help required from other results in order to advance.
In recent campaigns, RSL has only entered “Decision Day” on two occasions with its postseason fate in the balance. Back in 2017, RSL won at home over Kansas City to get the three points it could control, but did not see other results go its way, finishing that year on the outside looking in.
One year later, in 2018, RSL traveled to Portland and lost its “Decision Day” tilt 0-3 to the Timbers, but a simultaneous LA Galaxy loss at Houston – one that saw the Dynamo score three in the second half to erase a 2-0 halftime LA lead – allowed RSL to advance to that year’s Knockout Round, where the Claret-and-Cobalt so memorably won away at LAFC in a game remembered for Damir Kreilach’s amazing Karate Kid goal.
All-time, RSL has been dominant at home since moving into Rio Tinto Stadium in its regular-season history, with a 130-38-60 (W-L-T) mark since moving into the Sandy venue 14 years ago for a 1.97 points-per-game average and a .702 winning percentage.
Across all competitions at the place known affectionately as the home to the “RioT” fan clubs, RSL boasts a 6-2-3 (W-L-T) mark in the MLS Cup Playoffs, 8-1-2 in CONCACAF Champions League, 8-5-2 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, and 0-2-0 in Leagues Cup. In international exhibition play, RSL is 10-3-6 (W-L-T) in Sandy.
During Mastroeni’s 47-game MLS tenure, Real Salt Lake has won or tied in 16 of 18 games following a loss, rebounding to capture the full three points on 10 occasions after a setback, feats emblematic of the grit, guile and poise exhibited by the current group.
Win on Sunday before a Club-record 17th consecutive sellout crowd in a venomous, vitriol-filled match against a Timbers team that ended last year’s Cinderella run, and RSL returns to the postseason, where anything can happen in the “Big Dance.” Most likely outcome with an RSL win is a 7-seed and a return trip to Austin next weekend; however, an RSL win combined with a Minnesota loss to Vancouver on Decision Day would vault RSL to a 6-seed finish and a knockout round match at Dallas or LA Galaxy when the 2022 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs kick off.
Find a way to dig deep, capture three points, celebrate RSL GK Zac MacMath becoming the Claret-and-Cobalt’s first-ever true “Iron Man” by playing each and every one of 3,060 minutes of this year’s 34-game season and believe in the group that has brought us so many memorable moments this 2022 season, and it could all be there for the taking in Major League Soccer’s postseason tourney.
