SALT LAKE CITY - Real Salt Lake has had a bad taste in their mouth ever since their last regular-season meeting with the Colorado Rapids.
Eight months ago, the Rapids claimed the Rocky Mountain Cup for the second consecutive year and made RSL's run to the playoffs seem a lot steeper with a 1-0 victory. But it was what happened after the game that has stuck with the Salt Lake players.
"At the end of last year, they disrespected us on this field here," midfielder Chris Klein said after Saturday's training session. "They beat us, and they beat us fair and square, but to act the way that they did on our field to our fans, regardless of what our fans did, is disrespectful to me."
After that game, Colorado's Pablo Mastroeni taunted the Salt Lake fans, waving his shirt and reportedly making questionable gestures. As Mastroeni exited the field, he and Real investor/operator Dave Checketts had an altercation; the rest of the Rapids broke it up before it got serious, but the exchange was anything but cordial.
"It was disrespectful to our owner, and from there, it bleeds down," Klein said. "We don't want that to happen again; for that not to happen we need to do our job and make sure that at the end we will celebrate with our fans."
With a score to settle on the field, Real Salt Lake have some extra motivation to win Monday's game.
"The last contest of last year has kind of been weighing on their minds a little bit," Real coach John Ellinger said. "That was a crucial factor in our playoff run. That one was at home towards the end of the season when we needed a win, and how it ended weighs on their minds a little bit too. They won, they had a right to celebrate I guess, but it's tough to swallow sometimes."
Real are 0-1-2 in the MLS standings, although they did defeat the Kansas City Wizards in an U.S. Open Cup game earlier this month. After three games, Real have only two points in the standings; not the fast start they were hoping for this season.
"We need to get on the board with a win," Klein said. "We have a team that can do it. This is a team, playing Colorado, that we feel we should do very well against."
Rookie Chris Seitz will get his first start in a regular season MLS match; he replaces Nick Rimando, who gave up four goals, including one in the first minute of the game, against Chivas in Real's last game.
"I'm excited," Seitz said. "Obviously it's my first time, and it should be good to get my first game in with the first team in an MLS game, so I'm pretty excited."
But, he is approaching this game like any other. If he starts, he will become the second-youngest goalkeeper to start a game in MLS history; at age 20 years, 49 days on Monday, he will be a few months younger than Tim Howard when he started for the MetroStars against Colorado on Aug. 18, 1998 (19 years, 165 days), and a few months older than former RSL 'keeper D.J. Countess, who was 20 years, 178 days when he started for Dallas against Kansas City on July 6, 2002.
"I'm going to stay confident," Seitz said. "As a team, we're looking for our streak to get started, to get out and have the momentum going for us. It's important to get a good start going and start building up some points."
Seitz said Real has all the training they need, the right attitude and all the experience playing together that they need to get a first win on the season.
"The only pressure, we put on ourselves to play our first complete game, from the beginning minutes to the 90th minute," Seitz said. "We've had great halves in every game that we've played, but we haven't played a complete game together. As a team, we're looking to put that first complete game together and get a win."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
