CARSON, Calif. -- Throughout the final part of the regular season and into the MLS Cup Playoffs, Real Salt Lake have shown resiliency and, most importantly, mental toughness. RSL showed these two qualities again Saturday night against Chivas USA and their reward is a spot in next week's Western Conference Championship.
RSL came back from a deficit and held on to tie Chivas USA 2-2 in the thrilling second leg of their first-ever MLS playoff appearance, winning their Western Conference Semifinal Series 3-2 on aggregate.
After going down a goal in the first half, RSL battled back to tie and then take the lead against Chivas USA before hanging on to a tie that saw them through to the conference final.
The ability to come back and hang on to the result is a testament to the progress RSL has made this year.
"If this game had happened earlier in the season we would have been in real big trouble," said RSL coach Jason Kreis. "But our guys kept a good mentality. (Mental toughness) is an area that I identified in the offseason that I wanted to make a big focus of ours. We've challenged our players all season long and now we've made big strides and I'm proud of them."
Dema Kovalenko, who negated Sacha Kljestan's penalty kick with a header in the 39th minute, sees the evolution the team has gone through after years at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
"We went from one of the worst teams a year ago to one of the best," he said. "Nobody believed in this team all season but we believe in ourselves and now we're in the conference final."
The road to victory was a difficult one. After pulling ahead 2-1 off Javier Morales' 77th-minute goal, RSL had to withstand a Chivas USA onslaught during the final minutes of the match. RSL buckled in the 83rd minute when Justin Braun drew Chivas USA to within a goal of sending the match into extra time. After the goal, Chivas USA pushed everyone forward but the RSL defense and goalkeeper Nick Rimando were able to hold on to the result.
"We kept believing that we would win this game," said Kyle Beckerman. "We felt we were the better team and (Chivas USA) weren't in our class or at our level and the better team won."
The result also showed RSL's ability to rise to the challenge of playing on the road, where the team struggled all season long.
"We knew we had the ability to get to where we are today," said Rimando. "Where we used to not finish games and give up bad goals, now we're not doing that. We also fought together and that was the main thing."
Rimando was a key performer throughout the series, having made several critical saves to keep Chivas USA at bay.
"Rimando was a monster tonight," said Kreis. "He really kept us alive."
RSL's playoff run will live on to next week where they will face off against the winner of Sunday's game between Houston and New York.
Beckerman sees no reason why RSL's run won't continue into next week and beyond.
"Somebody's got to get to the final and win the whole thing," Beckerman said. "Why not us?"
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