Coming into Saturday's road match against Houston, with first place in the Western Conference on the line, Real have done everything possible to keep the dust and cobwebs from accumulating at a rapid rate.
RSL held an intrasquad scrimmage last Saturday, at the usual site of the club's reserve matches in Park City, to break up the monotony of one training session after another.
And this week, Real coach Jason Kreis held late morning training sessions on a well-watered practice field to simulate the heat and humidity certain to greet his players in south Texas.
Kreis wants RSL to be ready for the Dynamo -- an opponent he sees as a perfect measuring stick for the club heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
"For us, it's a chance to test ourselves against the best," Kreis said. "I think our guys are ready for it. It comes at an ideal time."
Facing Houston offers the RSL side a chance to look in the mirror as well. No other MLS club has mimicked Real's rise through the standings quite like the Dynamo. The two-time defending MLS champions won or tied 11 of their last 13 league matches after a rough start put them in last place a month into the season.
Now Houston is a single point behind first-place RSL. A Dynamo victory could vault them into the top spot and leave Real scrambling to catch up.
But the opposite result could be just the boost RSL needs to keep its playoff aspirations alive and healthy.
"They're hot right now, so we know it's going to be a tough game," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "It will be difficult. It will be a challenge for us. If we can get a result down there, it will give us some really big confidence going into the last 10 games."
The most important key for RSL will be to control possession. Houston is a possession-oriented team and counts on using a combination of constant movement and humid temperatures to wear a team down through 90 minutes.
RSL hopes to keep things tight. If they can contain Houston in a narrower portion of the pitch early, Kreis thinks it will keep them fresh in the match's later stages.
"They play in a very hot atmosphere," Kreis said. "If you spend large portions of the game chasing the ball, you won't have the energy necessary to make plays at the end of the game."
One reason Houston presents such a challenge to RSL at this point is the sheer amount of international seasoning it has experienced this season. The Dynamo participated in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in March and April. They followed that with second-place performance in SuperLiga in July and early August.
It is no coincidence that Houston has picked up steam during this stretch. RSL expects to see a tougher Dynamo team than what it faced in Salt Lake City, in a scoreless draw July 3, because Houston is typically a strong late-season team.
"That's how Houston has been," midfielder Andy Williams said. "They always end the season on a good run. It looks like they're getting into form."
The one advantage for Real is that Houston has had endure nearly as long of a layoff between matches. It has been 10 days since the Dynamo last took the field in a SuperLiga loss to the New England Revolution.
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