It's win or go home for Real Salt Lake on Saturday

Kreis is tight-lipped about pivotal match against Colorado

Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis isn't one to divulge a lot of information about his tactics and lineup with the media prior to matches. He likes to keep that information in-house to avoid tipping off the opposition.

In advance of this Saturday's match at Colorado, where the winner is assured a playoff berth and the loser goes home, Kreis is even more tight-lipped than ever.

Ask him about his team's approach, and he'll say he has some ideas.

Ask him about who may or may not see the field this weekend, and he'll say the entire team is healthy and he has some tough decisions to make.

Even though Kreis isn't willing to share his specific thoughts on the match, one thing is for certain: The coaching staff has some tactical decisions to make. While the RSL-Colorado winner can officially punch its ticket to the playoffs with a win, RSL can still get in with a tie.

The question is, will RSL play for that tie? The players definitely don't want to.

"We can't go in there looking to tie the match, and sitting back and bunkering in, we're not going to be able to do it for 90 minutes," said RSL defender Chris Wingert. "We have confidence in our team. We've been getting results both on the road and at home lately, so we just need to go out and play the same way and dominate the game."

RSL has actually been pretty good on the road lately, at least in the first half. In the club's past three road matches at New York, San Jose and New England, it scored first each time and was actually the better team for most of the match. It has a 1-1-1 record to show for those three outings.

The players insist they simply need to go out and do what they've been doing on the road lately, and the result will take care of itself. Of course, better second-half defense is a necessity.

"Any time you can go out on the road and be the better team, it's a huge confidence booster," said RSL forward Clint Mathis. "But at the same time, we have to finish those games off and not give up late goals like we've been doing."

RSL will likely be faced with one of three scenarios Saturday night at Dicks Sporting Goods Park. If it surrenders the first goal, it will have no choice but to throw caution to the wind and go for the equalizer. It doesn't matter if RSL loses 1-0 or 4-0, a loss is a loss and RSL will be watching the 2008 playoffs from home.

The other two scenarios present some tactical nuances. RSL insists it doesn't want to bunker in against Colorado and defend, but at a certain point in the match it probably will take that approach.

"It's all situational. If we are tied late in the game, I think definitely we would drop back a little bit and go into a defensive shape," said RSL defender Nat Borchers. "But I think the best defense for our team is to keep the ball. If we do that, we're not going to be able to be beaten."

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