Real Salt Lake on a grand train ride

SANDY It wasn't entirely a press conference. In fact, it was just as much a pep rally. Except there weren't any fans there, just media, management and players.

Still, that didn't stop Real Salt Lake officials from waxing enthusiastic, and a bit philosophical, on Tuesday at Rio Tinto Stadium. No reason not to, when you think about it. RSL is playing Los Angeles for the MLS Cup on Sunday in Seattle. When it comes to American pro soccer, it doesn't get higher than that.

If you don't pull out the rhetoric now, when do you?

"Almost a year has passed since I said the best is yet to come," said team president Bill Manning. "I believe that time is now."

Said coach Jason Kreis, "Fortune favors the bold. I believe that in my heart of hearts."

In that case, give the Cup to RSL.

Bold is now its middle name.

You'll have to forgive RSL if the grandiosity is getting a little deep. The club has never been this far before. For five seasons, Real has been one of the worst teams in American soccer. It almost always lost on the road. It fired its first coach, changed some management positions and struggled for its identity.

Now it's just one game from a championship.

"We're not done yet," said general manager Garth Lagerwey.

So it was, the media was summoned to RTS on Tuesday to get the lowdown on the upcoming game. They got some chiding from Kreis and Lagerwey, who reminded the media they had written off RSL again this season.

"It's been kind of fun proving these critics wrong," said Lagerwey.

If it seems the local soccer club is wagging its tongue at critics, it has probably earned the right. The media did declare RSL dead and would do so again, given the circumstances. The club finished the regular season with 11 wins, 12 losses and seven ties.

Not exactly a blueprint for success.

Yet the late surge that put Real in the title game changed everything. The club went from train wreck to contender in just a few weeks. Speaking of trains, the team's resurrection so inspired Lagerwey that on Tuesday he referenced the golden spike that joined the transcontinental railroad at Promontory in 1869. It was quite the deal — railroad officials, politicians, laborers, media.

And, of course, speeches.

When Leland Stanford drove in the spike, America was a different country.