When Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids kick off at Dick's Sporting Goods Park this Saturday, it won't just be second place in the highly competitive Western Conference on the line: It will also commence the fifth edition of the Rocky Mountain Cup, one of Major League Soccer's best rivalries.
"It's very, very similar to Dallas and Chicago. There's so much emotion and there's been so many physical matches," said RSL head coach Jason Kreis.
The Rocky Mountain Cup -- awarded to the regular season series winner between RSL and Colorado -- was started by supporters of both teams when RSL joined the league in 2005 to augment the obvious geographic rivalry that exists between the teams. And while the cup started as a contest among fans, it quickly caught hold among the players themselves.
"There's going to be an automatic rivalry there because of the cup itself," said RSL's Clint Mathis, a member of the original Salt Lake team who later played the other side of the rivalry in Colorado. "From the first game [in 2005] we realized that Colorado is going to be more than just a regular-season game."
And while the novelty of the Rocky Mountain Cup has worn off, the passion of the rivalry and the players' desire to win the Cup hasn't. "I know from being on both sides it is just as important [to us in Colorado] now as it was [to us in Salt Lake] back then," said Colorado -- and former Salt Lake -- midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy.
"I would say the rivalry is even stronger now," said Nat Borchers, another player who has played in cup games for both Colorado and RSL. "We've played some big games against them. Being able to knock them out of the playoff hunt a couple times has intensified things."
In addition, the number of players who have played on both squads adds fuel to the fire of this intense rivalry. Between the two rosters, there are currently five players who have played in at least one Rocky Mountain Cup contest for each team -- Chris Wingert, Kyle Beckerman, Borchers and Mathis for Salt Lake, and Ballouchy for the Rapids. Familiarity breeds contempt, and there is no doubt that some players bring a little something extra when they face their former team.
"When you have players that swap teams, that always makes it a little bit more special," said Borchers.
And like other good soccer rivalries, there have been plenty of wild finishes, controversial results, bulletin board material, and postgame antics. After a win in Salt Lake City in 2006, Colorado's Pablo Mastroeni antagonized the home crowd to the point that RSL owner David Checketts confronted Mastroeni on the field. In 2007, with RSL having already been eliminated from playoff contention, they returned the favor in the final game of the season, winning 1-0 to knock Colorado out of the playoffs and claim the Rocky Mountain Cup for the first time.
But none of the many games between the two clubs were as important as the last one they played: The final regular-season match of 2008 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. A win by Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Cup and the final playoff spot would go to Colorado, while an RSL win or a draw would give the Cup and the final playoff spot to Salt Lake. It looked like it would be Colorado's day in the winner-take-all match, until Yura Movsisyan scored in the 90th minute. Real escaped with the draw, the cup, and the playoff berth.
That memory has stuck in the minds of the entire Rapids team, and they are anxious to exact revenge for the way their rivals so painfully took everything they had worked for in 2008 when it was only minutes away from being theirs.
"It was definitely a big one at the end of last season when we needed the win," said Ballouchy, "so there's some added motivation that comes with that."
Kreis agrees. "I believe that after the last game last season, the rivalry is probably going to ratchet up another notch," he said.
Jeremy Horton is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
