Herriman • A few days ago, Sunday “Sunny” Stephen sat at a table reminiscing about Real Salt Lake’s season. The games lost that should have been won. The points unearned that should have been gained.
It’s a thought that crept into the heads of some RSL players in the three days after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Portland Timbers, which took the team’s playoff destiny out of its hands. It’s not what they wanted, but now Real has to sit and watch the L.A. Galaxy and Houston Dynamo battle it out Sunday — and hope Houston finds a way to either win or tie that game on the road.
“It’s not where you want to be,” Kyle Beckerman said this past week after training. “We definitely all had plans of being in the playoffs by now. So it’s disappointing, but we’re keeping our hopes up.”
The team is training as though it has a playoff game on Wednesday. Coach Mike Petke said he’s preparing RSL for three teams he feels are most likely to end up in the third spot of the Western Conference, and thus would face RSL, which is sixth, in the knockout round.
“We’re preparing as if we’re in the playoffs because at this moment we are,” Petke said. “If it’s a bad scenario for us, our attention turns to preparing for preseason next year.”
SUNDAY’S MLS SCHEDULE
All times MDT
Atlanta at Toronto FC, 2:30 p.m.
D.C. United at Chicago, 2:30 p.m.
FC Dallas at Colorado, 2:30 p.m.
Houston at LA Galaxy, 2:30 p.m.
Los Angeles FC at Sporting Kansas City, 2:30 p.m.
Minnesota United at Columbus, 2:30 p.m.
Montreal at New England, 2:30 p.m.
Orlando City at New York, 2:30 p.m.
Philadelphia at New York City FC, 2:30 p.m.
Portland at Vancouver, 2:30 p.m.
San Jose at Seattle, 2:30 p.m.
RSL finished the season with 49 points — four more than last year. The Galaxy are just one point behind, and a win will leapfrog them over Real. A draw puts RSL in the postseason due to the games-won tiebreaker.
Brooks Lennon said he takes at least some comfort that RSL is currently above the playoff line. But that hasn’t prevented him from looking back at certain points of the season and wondering what could have been.
Lennon pointed to a home draw against the Colorado Rapids as an example of a game in which RSL left points on the table.
“I believe those are teams that we should be beating at home and picking up three points,” Lennon said. “To drop those points at home, it falls on us. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we did wrong. But, hopefully, we have to look up in the sky and hope that things go our way on Sunday.”
After the loss to Portland, Petke said his team had a “one in a million” chance to make the playoffs. He walked back those comments Thursday, saying it was reactive in a moment of frustration after a loss.
While Petke acknowledged that the Galaxy will be the favorites to win Sunday against Houston, he is not ruling out the Dynamo.
“I’ve seen crazier things happen in this league in my 20 years,” Petke said.
Some RSL players have already decided where and how they will watch the Galaxy-Dynamo game. Beckerman will likely watch at home with family; Glad is sure he will watch, but alone; and Lennon thinks he will watch with some teammates.
Whether they watch or not, there will be one action in which every player, coach, front office executive and fan will be engaged: hope.
“We have a slim chance of going through because L.A. is playing at home,” Sunny said. “But of course we just have to be positive and keep our fingers crossed and move on.”
