Real Salt Lake are not a franchise with much big-game experience, especially compared to the Los Angeles Galaxy, who are appearing in their sixth MLS Cup in the 14-year history of the league.

Despite the perceived advantage for the Galaxy, though, both teams feature players with experience in the Super Bowl of Major League Soccer.

Real Salt Lake have four players who've played in the big game whereas the Galaxy have six. No one from either team, however, has appeared in MLS Cup since the L.A. Galaxy beat the New England Revolution 1-0 in overtime in 2005.

Then there's David Beckham. Even though he will be playing in his first MLS Cup this Sunday when Real Salt Lake face the Galaxy at 6:30 p.m. (MDT) at Qwest Field, he probably has more combined big-game experience than the other 21 players who will be on the field.

Regardless of experience, nobody wants to let this opportunity go to waste.

For Clint Mathis, this is his first final since 1999 when he lost the MLS Cup as a member of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Teammate Andy Williams was on the losing end in 2003 with the Chicago Fire.

Then there's Kyle Beckerman, who was 0-4 in his career in conference finals prior to last Saturday's shootout victory at Chicago in the Eastern Conference final.

Coach Jason Kreis, who is appearing in his first MLS Cup as either a player or coach, knows that opportunities to win championships are rare, which is why he and his players are grateful to the shootout heroics of Nick Rimando.

"He was superb. If you look back at the history of Nick Rimando, you're gonna find a lot of saved penalty kicks," said coach Jason Kreis. "No surprise to any of us."

It was the second time in Rimando's career that he came up big in a conference final shootout, and he's hoping to follow it up with a championship just like he did in 2004 with D.C. United.

"We're not done yet; we have one more game. We're not happy enough with this win," said Rimando.

Ned Grabavoy, the unlikely midfielder who clinched RSL's win over Chicago on the final penalty kick, also has a championship ring like Rimando.

Grabavoy started for the Galaxy back in 2005 when it won its second MLS Cup in franchise history. He was teammates with Landon Donovan, Todd Dunivant and Alan Gordon that season, the only three remaining Galaxy players from that championship season.

Los Angeles defender Tony Sannah has three years' worth of MLS Cup experience from 1996 to 1998 with D.C. United, but that was more than a decade ago and he hasn't started a match for the Galaxy since June 6 this year.

The other two Galaxy players with big-game credentials are very familiar faces to Real Salt Lake. Chris Klein, who spent a year and a half with RSL in 2006 and 2007, won an MLS Cup with the Kansas City Wizards back in 2000 assisting on the game's only goal against Chicago.

Galaxy midfielder Dema Kovalenko was a teammate with Nick Rimando at D.C. United during the 2004 championship season. Kovalenko came close to getting back to the MLS Cup as a member of Real Salt Lake last season but this Sunday he'll play against his former teammates.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com