Lehi » When a team looks back on its season, the first thing that jumps out is the dominance at home. Or lack of dominance. Or somewhere in between.

And few months from now, Real Salt Lake would love to say it was dominant at Rio Tinto Stadium. That would've been possible earlier in the year, when RSL won its first three matches, culminating with a 6-0 shellacking of New England.

But heading into tonight's match against Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake is a team that's three contests without a win in front of its home fans. There was the tie against the L.A. Galaxy. There was a bad loss to Kansas City, and there was another tie against Colorado. Both draws were games in which RSL felt it should've won. So with a two game homestand beginning tonight, this represents a match in which Real Salt Lake figures that anything less than the three point victory would be a huge disappointment.

"A win against Toronto is a necessity," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "We need to pick up these three points. We can't crawl forward. We have to take full advantage of every opportunity, and that means every home game."

The good news, for Real Salt Lake, is that they appear to be playing their best soccer since the beginning of the season. With a three match unbeaten streak, including a 1-1 tie with Houston last week in a match RSL controlled until letting the lead slip away in the 90th minute, the confidence appears to be back for a team that endured seven consecutive matches without a win at one point in the year. That and the fact that Real Salt Lake's defense has played extremely well of late has RSL believing that they can truly turn the corner and go on a run.

"I think we have played well," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "The defense has really stepped it up, and I think that's helped the offense. This game is huge for us. We need to come away with three points, and that's what we're going to be shooting for on Saturday night."

The Reds come into Rio Tinto toting their own three match unbeaten streak. This is the first time the two teams have met this season, with the two clubs splitting the season series 1-1 last year. RSL will be without Jamison Olave, who is serving a one game, league mandated, suspension for drawing a red card last weekend against Houston. Real Salt Lake, who has 16 points in 14 games, comes into Saturday's match in fifth place in the Western Conference.

tjones@sltrib.com