Real Salt Lake leaps closer to first playoff spot

SANDY — Real Salt Lake took a big, big, big step Saturday toward securing the elusive playoff berth the franchise has coveted for four years.

In arguably the biggest match in franchise history, RSL scored three straight goals after falling behind early to secure a 3-1 victory over FC Dallas and inching that much closer to the playoffs.

Now it gets to sit back and watch.

Real Salt Lake can officially clinch a playoff berth today if Colorado doesn't win at Chivas USA. Even if Colorado wins, RSL can still clinch a spot with a tie or win at Colorado next week in the regular-season finale, but the players and coaches would definitely prefer to wrap things up today.

"We'd much rather it happen tomorrow. Let's go Chivas," said RSL forward Clint Mathis. Coach Jason Kreis said his players have been invited to watch the Chivas-Colorado game in the Rio Tinto Stadium club restaurant.

"We'll be watching the game tomorrow with our fingers crossed," said Kreis.

As good as the final score looked, RSL didn't get off to the start it wanted when, just seven minutes into the match, FC Dallas' Marcelo Saragosa headed in Adrian Serioux's patented long throw-in for the 1-0 lead. The deficit didn't seem to inspire the team, either, as it didn't play all that well over the next 15 minutes.

"We've tried to do our best all week to try and ease the pressure off the players a little bit, but apparently I think we took a little too much off because I think they came out very, very flat, which was surprising," said Kreis. "I just don't think our guys were quite into it yet."

The team finally caught a break when Saragosa was red-carded in the 31st minute for elbowing Robbie Russell in the face. It was his second yellow card and resulted in an ejection.

Five minutes later RSL got the equalizer it so desperately needed. Standing at the top of the box, Yura Movsisyan received a ball from Javier Morales and quickly spun around defender Duilio Davino before unleashing the tying goal.

"Any time you can go a man up it definitely builds confidence, especially when it's the 30th minute. That's a long time to be a man down," said Mathis.

RSL continued to dominate and finally went ahead 2-1 on a scintillating finish from Will Johnson in the 54th minute. After softly corralling a driven pass from Chris Wingert about 22 yards from goal, Johnson quickly turned and unspooled a half-volley that soared over the head of Dallas keeper Dario Sala.

At that point in the match, FC Dallas had no choice put to push forward aggressively for the equalizer despite being reduced to 10 men.