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Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Hasn't Lost At Home In More Than A Year

May 28, 2010 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


All of that has happened since the last time Real Salt Lake lost at home.

That's right. RSL has gone 17 straight games, including playoff and exhibition matches -- and won a Major League Soccer championship -- since suffering its last defeat at Rio Tinto Stadium on May 16, 2009, against the Kansas City Wizards, the same team that will show up here Saturday to play RSL.

Rio Tinto has become a Real House of Horrors.

The streak stands eight away from Major League Soccer's record. But the prowess at home goes beyond just that. Since 2008, RSL is 20-2, along with 12 ties, in regular-season play, and 23-3-14 overall.

The reasons for the home field edge run from the psychological to the philosophical to the physiological.

The philosophical comes from Jason Kreis preaching to his players, from before the start of his first full season as coach in '08, that Rio Tinto Stadium is more than a mass of gray concrete and white steel and cobalt-and-claret plastic and 105,000 square feet of verdant Kentucky blue grass.

"It's your home," he says. "It's something you defend."

Apparently, the players have caught the defensive spirit.

"At home, we always try to come out with an aggressive stance," says Nat Borchers. "We try to put teams away in the first half. When we're in our home environment, we're comfortable. We try to make Rio Tinto our fortress. As a group, we come together and say, 'Look, we won't lose here.' "

Borchers says it's a combination of RSL stepping up, being more assertive, and the other team being intimidated.

"We're a possession team," he says. "When we're firing on all cylinders, we're difficult to beat."

First key to being good at home, then, is having a good team. The second is stirring a mixture of comfort and confidence in front of the home crowd. The psychological.

"We have great fan support here," says Chris Wingert. "We're confident and comfortable at home. It's not necessarily that it's a crazy home-court advantage, like they have in Seattle and Toronto. It's not that crazy. It's good support. The other team comes in here and realizes we are a force to be reckoned with."

Adds Andy Williams: "Our fans aren't as crazy as some fans, but they do get behind us. The way they [encourage] us here, it gives us an extra oomph. It works for the Jazz, too."

Kreis says one of the things that sets RSL's crowd apart from others is its, for lack of a better description, positivity.

"We don't have a crowd that turns on us," he says. "Some places, the fans boo their team."

Another factor, according to Kreis and Wingert: altitude.

With the amount of running soccer players do in a 90-minute game, that thin mountain air -- Rio Tinto sits at 4,450 feet -- can get thinner as a match wears on.

The old bromide about the advantages of sleeping in one's own bed before competing holds true, especially in Major League Soccer, Kreis says. Just like the disadvantages of sleeping in a hotel room after a tiring flight and then running your guts out hurts you. The physiological.

"Everyone underestimates how difficult it is to travel," he says. "It's a big country out there. We still fly commercial. It's especially hard when you're flying from one coast to the other."

Energy, then, comes easier for RSL at their place.

The last piece is a combo pack of self-respect and high expectation.

"Players take pride playing in front of their families and friends," Williams says. "A lot of pride. You've got to get three points at home. It's a tradition now. Even if we tie, a lot of the players feel like it's a loss. That's our mentality. When we play at home, we have to win."

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