Real Salt Lake had a pretty good week last week. The team earned its second consecutive Major League Soccer victory, won its second straight road game, and for the first time in team history scored four goals in a game when it beat Colorado on Wednesday.
Salt Lake also broke ground on a new soccer stadium in Sandy city, a nearby suburb, and played a respectable game against Real Madrid in a 2-0 exhibition loss on Saturday. With so much good news surrounding the team, RSL is feeling confident going in to Wednesday's match against the Columbus Crew.
Salt Lake kept Madrid in a scoreless draw almost until halftime; Madrid went ahead right before halftime with a penalty kick.
"We went into the locker room and the attitude was that everyone was happy with the performance," forward Jeff Cunningham said.
In the second half, Madrid took over when Salt Lake's Atiba Harris was sent off with a red card. There was little chance Real could recover, but after the game the players were pleased with their performance.
"It's important for us," forward Jason Kreis said. "It's a confidence builder, because we didn't just hang with them in the first half. I thought we created a decent amount of chances and really played good soccer."
Cunningham would like to see his team learn enough from the Madrid game to make a strong run at the MLS playoffs.
"We need to take some negatives away from the game and try to improve on those," Cunningham said. "We need to play a lot better, and we keep playing a lot better."
The last time RSL played Columbus, the Crew earned a 1-0 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Real dominated possession and outshot Columbus 11-4, putting six shots on goal to the Crew's two. But for once, Real (6-10-5) enters the game with a better record than their opponents, and are feeling better than ever about earning a road victory.
"We're enjoying our away games now because we're on grass," Kreis said after the Madrid game. "This team really enjoys playing on grass, and I think we play a better brand of soccer on it. All of us are looking forward to it, and we take a lot of confidence out of what we did tonight."
The Crew (4-10-8) enter the game with the worst record in Major League Soccer, and are coming off a 4-0 loss to the Kansas City Wizards.
"They are not going to be in a great mood," Salt Lake coach John Ellinger said. "They are going to play a little better defensively than they probably played against Kansas City, and because of that we're going to have our work cut out for us."
Four of Real's six victories this year have been against Eastern Conference teams; three of them have been on the road.
"We know that we're feeling pretty good about winning games on the road now, so we're looking forward to getting some points," Ellinger said.
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
