SANDY, Utah - On Tuesday morning, Real Salt Lake held its first ever practice in its new soon-to-be opened soccer stadium. After 90 minutes, reviews of the new digs were positively glowing from the RSL players and coaches.
"It's first class," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "Everything is state of the art. We just can't wait to get it filled up with fans and have a real game on it."
RSL will get to officially break in its new stadium Oct. 9 when the New York Red Bulls come to town. When that time comes, Real hope to still be a heartbeat away from securing a first-ever trip to the postseason.
To do that, RSL must find a way to generate more success outside of Utah, beginning with this weekend's trip to Buck Shaw Stadium to take on the San Jose Earthquakes. Making the final step to becoming a viable playoff team depends on it.
"In order to do well in the playoffs, you have to do well on the road," Real coach Jason Kreis said. "They go hand in hand. If we don't win one of our last three away games, then my feeling is we probably don't deserve to be in the playoffs."
A home loss could not have occurred at a worse time for RSL. Last Saturday's 1-0 setback to Chivas USA leaves Real looking up at both the Red-and-White and Houston now, with Rocky Mountain rival Colorado gaining ground on them as well.
Such a turn of events forces RSL into a position it hoped it wouldn't find itself in at season's end. The club must get three points away from home. Settling for ties or suffering more head-scratching losses is simply not in the equation any longer.
"We all recognize that we're going to need to win one of these last three road games," Kreis said. "Why not have it be the first one? So we'll go in there searching for the three points. We'll be aggressive as we usually are and we'll hope for better than what we've had in the past."
Getting better results will be a challenge against San Jose. The Earthquakes are one of those Western Conference foes on the upswing that RSL must suddenly worry about.
San Jose has not suffered a loss in its last nine games -- dating back to the first week of July. The Quakes have 29 points, tying them for sixth with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
A win against Real, who have 31, would vault San Jose ahead of RSL in the standings -- a scenario that seemed almost unthinkable as little as a month ago.
If RSL wants to prevent itself from falling out of the playoff picture entirely, it needs to channel a much more aggressive road mentality. And the players recognize they must exhibit a sense of urgency even more now.
"We're going into pretty much every game at this point like it's a must-win for us," defender Chris Wingert said. "That's going to be the same this weekend."
It does not help RSL that several key players continue to be sidelined, including -- most notably -- Fabian Espindola and Dema Kovalenko. While things have suffered up front and in the midfield by having a pair of starters sidelined, Real aren't about to use it as an excuse to justify any further road or home woes.
"They're key players on our team that we miss and when you take them out of the lineup, it shows a little bit," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "But, again, we have a lot of character on our team. We have a lot of players that can step in and do the job."
RSL has enjoyed a good deal of success against San Jose already this season. The club earned four points in two home matches against the Quakes, netting a 3-1 win in May and a 0-0 draw in mid-June.
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