Real Salt Lake: Team happy to make playoffs

SANDY — The fact Real Salt Lake trounced Colorado in the final match of the season wasn't surprising. It finished with the best home record in MLS and its plus-23 goal differential tied a league record.

What is surprising is that one of the long shot scenarios panned out for RSL as it clinched the final playoff berth on the last weekend of the regular season.

The organization is no doubt ecstatic about reaching the playoffs for the second straight year, but was it really a regular season to celebrate?

RSL had a brutal May, was one of the worst road teams in MLS, dropped critical points along the way courtesy of stupid red cards, and didn't really meet expectations internally or externally by finishing with a sub-.500 record and 40 points in the standings.

Had the team missed the playoffs those deficiencies might've contributed to a busy offseason for the front office. It's amazing how things can change with one timely victory.

"We're in a black and white business. At the end of the day if you make the playoffs you're good, if you don't you're not," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey. "Since I've been here we're batting a thousand and we've gone to the playoffs twice. This is a tribute to the guys in the locker room. It's a completely new group than we had here two years ago."

Last year RSL won its first-round playoff series and advanced to the conference final. Lagerwey is confident about a similar playoff run.

"We're playing well at the right time, and that's what we did last year and last year we were able to translate that into a playoff run," he said. "We're a more experienced team, we're a deeper team this year and I would say we're a more talented team this year."

Don't be mistaken, RSL's GM knows how easily things could've played out differently. He was as nervous as anyone about the ramifications of missing the playoffs, and his team was minutes from that scenario had D.C. United not blown a late lead in Kansas City.

"It's night and day. If you miss the playoffs, last year was a fluke, you got in on the last kick in the last game in the last minute. I don't think that would've been a fair characterization, nor is characterizing us as home-run hitters because we got into the playoffs two years in a row," said Lagerwey.

Regardless how it unfolded, RSL is in the playoffs again and Lagerwey has seen improvements along the way. Despite finishing with 40 points in the standings back-to-back years, RSL scored three more goals in 2009 and allowed four fewer goals.