Real Salt Lake: Team veterans preaching 'opportunity'

There was a lot of talk at Real Salt Lake's media luncheon earlier this week about opportunities, and in particular not squandering them.

Veterans like Clint Mathis and Dema Kovalenko talked about how they've made a lot of playoff appearances in their career, but rarely have their teams advanced to the championship game.

"I've been in this league 10 years and only been in the finals twice," said Kovalenko. "I just hope we understand it doesn't come that often and we need to take advantage."

General manager Garth Lagerwey even reminisced how during his rookie year he proudly led his Kansas City team into the conference final, only to lose and never make the playoffs again in his career.

Even coach Jason Kreis recounted how, during his playing days, his teams advanced to two conference finals and zero MLS Cups.

Clearly RSL has been presented with a fantastic opportunity with a home game tonight — something no one could have seen coming four weeks ago.

After all, Real Salt Lake barely made the playoffs, and now here it is hosting the Western Conference final tonight against New York as a No. 3 seed. It's a golden opportunity, one the players hope not to waste. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Rio Tinto Stadium, with the match being televised on Fox Soccer Channel and HDNet.

As for the prospects for playing for the MLS Cup next weekend in its first playoff appearance, RSL defender Chris Wingert doesn't even want to speculate. In fact, he was annoyed with what little speculation there was by RSL's coaching staff during the luncheon.

"We've got one game right now, it's a conference final against a really tough New York team. We can't be thinking about winning the championship right now," said Wingert. "All our focus needs to be on New York, and they're thinking the same thing. They're thinking 'We've got Salt Lake to get to the final' — this is a dream scenario for them."

Realistically, it's a dream scenario for both teams to be on the MLS Cup doorstep after average regular seasons.

Despite playing in different conferences and only seeing each other twice a year, there's definitely some familiarity between the teams. The Red Bulls were RSL's opponent for the opening game at Rio Tinto Stadium last month, and they somewhat spoiled the grand opening with a 1-1 draw.

RSL definitely isn't bitter toward New York, though. In fact, at the media luncheon, team president Bill Manning thanked New York for beating Houston in the other Western Conference first-round series. It ensured that Real Salt Lake would host the one-game conference final.