In it to win it; RSL now has high expectations

Expectations were never tossed around lightly with Real Salt Lake this year. In fact, they weren't really talked about at all. Jason Kreis just wanted to see his team get better from week to week and let the results fall where they may.

That's no longer his attitude.

"The expectations have changed. I didn't throw out expectations before we made the playoffs, but now that we're in, they change. The goal is to now win it," said Kreis at Real Salt Lake's playoff media day at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday.

So if the goal is to ultimately hoist the MLS Cup, how does Real Salt Lake go about doing that? After all, soccer fans have never really had to pay attention to the MLS postseason because their team was always on vacation in November.

Eight of the 14 MLS teams qualified for the playoffs, which span four weekends. The first two weeks are designated as conference semifinals and consist of a two-game home-and-away series. In the case of Real Salt Lake, it earned the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference and will face No. 2 seed Chivas USA. The team scoring the most combined goals in the two games wins the series. It's conceivable that RSL could win Game 1, 3-1, and lose Game 2 by a score of 1-0, and it would still advance on aggregate 3-2.

There's varying opinions on whether this format makes sense. Even though the league has decided that it's more advantageous for the higher seed to end the two-game series at home, is it really much of advantage?

In the five years MLS has been using this format, the higher seed has a 13-7 record.

"The verdict's not out if it's a home-field advantage playing away first or playing away second," said RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman. "For us, we have a home playoff game to start this whole series, for me I'd probably take that if I had to choose."

In the event the aggregate score is tied after 180 minutes of soccer, 30 minutes of overtime is immediately played at the conclusion of Game 2, followed by penalty kicks, if necessary.

Real Salt Lake opens the series at home this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Rio Tinto Stadium. It then heads to California for the second leg at Chivas USA on Nov. 8.

Count Kreis among those who doesn't like the current home-field advantage format. In the first seven years of MLS, the first round was a three-game series in which three points were awarded for a win and one for a tie. The series winner was determined by the most points at the end of those three games, not aggregate goal totals.

"For me, that's when you can have true home-field advantage," said Kreis.