The last time Real Salt Lake went on the road was a month and a half ago. Since then, RSL has played five games since they faced the Kansas City Wizards at Arrowhead Stadium, before the All-Star break.
"We haven't been on a road trip in a while; I can't even think of the last time that we went on one," midfielder Carey Talley said.
But now, Real begin a stretch of six games, five played on the road. The trip begins Sunday in Los Angeles against Chivas, then Real return home to play Kansas City before heading out to play four in a row away from Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Although earning victories on the road is difficult in Major League Soccer, Talley said RSL has some things to look forward to in the out-of-town games.
"The guys are looking forward to getting out of town and playing those games," Talley said. "We will be together for 10 days; it will be nothing but us together. We've got good morale on the team, and just being around each other, maybe it will give you a little more belief in the guys next to you."
Coach Jason Kreis also said Real could benefit from the road trip.
"You don't have a lot of pressure to make the game; the pressure is going to be on the home team always in soccer," Kreis said. "The pressure is always on the home team, to make the game, to make the plays, to win the game, and to thank their fans for buying tickets to come and see them."
With only two victories in league play, Real is on track to finish the regular season with the league's worst single-season record. Currently, that dubious record is held by the Tampa Bay Mutiny team of 2001 that went 4-21-2.
In their position, Real might be dreading the road trip. But on the other hand, RSL has shown a knack for coming up big in difficult situations: Real's only two wins this year came against the top teams in the league, D.C. United and Houston Dynamo.
Those victories, combined with the intensity of the training sessions, has kept the team's morale high.
"We've had a couple of unlucky breaks here and there, but it's not that we are a bad team," Talley said. "The morale is still high amongst the group, and we know that we should be winning games, and teams that we play, guys that we talk to have said the same thing, that they don't know how it's not happening. Some teams, they just manage to dig out wins, and we haven't dug them out."
To be sure, RSL players remain aware of the team's poor record, and feel some added pressure to perform well. But without the added pressure of having to appease the home crowd, Real could turn things around on the road.
"There's that added pressure of being in front of the goal, and hey, this could change the whole game, and maybe this turns our whole season, and this is what the team needs, and a little bit of pressure goes through a guy's mind when that happens," Talley said.
Real's first shot at turning things around and getting their first win on the road of the season comes against a Chivas team fresh off a dominating victory against the LA Galaxy. After watching the Red-and-White handle the Galaxy 3-0, Kreis knows his team is in for a challenge.
"It's a very, very good team, in good form," Kreis said. "They've got some creative attacking players, and they have a real good team mentality about how they attack. They have a very good awareness of where each other was in their attacking movement, and they created a lot of chances going forward."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
