A (somewhat) fond farewell — Real Salt Lake prepares for final Rice-Eccles game

The end of an era is approaching for Real Salt Lake.

Rice-Eccles Stadium was the first home for the expansion Major League Soccer franchise that began playing in 2005. It has seen some good times — Real won its home-opener and boasts an undefeated 7-0-5 mark there this season — along with the bad — an overall losing record of 15-19-13 coming into the 2008 season. With its new soccer-specific stadium set to open next month in Sandy, Saturday's game against Chivas USA marks the last time RSL will play on the University of Utah campus.

"I will probably shed a tear," joked coach Jason Kreis, who played 2 1/2 years there before moving into the head coaching position. "It's a good thing, for sure, to be finally moving out of there and into our own place. You can make complaints about the surface or complaints about this, that or the other, but for me, it was a good place. I really felt like the fans came there and they were close enough to make a difference. I look back at all the games there and feel like our fans have been fantastic."

Each player has his own memories of the venue — some good, some not so good.

"Turf," said Clint Mathis of the first thing he thought when reminiscing about the stadium. "My mom said if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. No, it's not that bad. As a soccer player, you want your own home, and you definitely want to play on grass as far as your body goes. But it was nice to have some type of stadium to play in where we could bring professional soccer to this market. At the same time, I am excited to say goodbye to it and move into our own home.

"I wish I could say I had better memories of playing there that first year, but it was not a great season for me or for the team. I will really just remember all of the struggles we went through," Mathis added.

The artificial playing surface was almost always one of the first things brought up by opponents after suffering a defeat at the hands of RSL. The funny bounces, the speed, the impact on joints and the wear and tear on a body were always on the minds of players. At least, until they got into the action of a game.

"It really isn't that bad until you start to think about it, that's when it really beats up on your body," said goalkeeper Nick Rimando of playing on the artificial turf. "When you are playing the game, you don't really think about it, you just think about saving the ball and it doesn't really bother you."

Even if it is out of his mind, it doesn't mean that Rimando enjoys landing on the harder surface more than real grass. Departing RES is the next step for the club.