Real Salt Lake silences critics

On paper, Real Salt Lake was a long shot to play for the Major League Soccer championship. It took a tiebreaker for the 11-12-7 Real to make the eight-team MLS playoffs.

But after squeaking into the playoffs, Real Salt Lake won three straight playoff games, including a thrilling shootout victory against the Chicago Fire to qualify for the title game against the Los Angeles Galaxy in Seattle on Sunday. The star-studded Galaxy, led by midfielder David Beckham and forward Landon Donovan, has won the league title three times. This is Real Salt Lake's first appearance in the finals.

To characterize this matchup as a David-and-Goliath epic isn't quite accurate. Real Salt Lake's record against LA Galaxy this season is 1-0-1. The series record between the two clubs is 5-5-5.

Even so, the national media consider Real Salt Lake an underdog, something that suits RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey just fine. "It's been kind of fun proving these critics wrong," Lagerwey said at a press conference Tuesday.

It has been fun. And it's exciting to have a Utah team in contention for a league championship, something that hasn't happened since 1998 when the Utah Jazz lost in the NBA Finals to the Chicago Bulls.

Hopefully, scrappy Real Salt Lake, which has few of the distractions of the tinseltown Galaxy, can ride their remarkable three-game winning streak to a championship Sunday at Qwest Field in Seattle.

We applaud Real Salt Lake for qualifying for the MLS Championship. Real Salt Lake has brought recognition to the state and given all Utahns a reason to feel proud. Best of luck, guys.