It hardly was surprising that Real Salt Lake took until the seventh round of penalty kicks to beat Chicago and advance to Sunday's MLS Cup.
That's just like these guys. They have become known for doing only what's absolutely necessary, when they really feel like it. Any admonition to this team must include, "This time, I mean it."
RSL is the lovable slacker, the confounding teenager and the procrastinating college student of Major League Soccer. After responding to a seven-month regular season of prodding and warnings with eye rolls and shoulder shrugs, the team became interested just in time to qualify for the playoffs and advance through two rounds, sending it into the championship game against the Los Angeles Galaxy in Seattle.
When these guys get around to it, they're really good. Apparently, all they needed was a deadline.
They may want to make it a little easier on themselves next season. But what's the fun of that?
Last year, they waited until the last minute of the regular season to score a tying goal against Colorado and earn a playoff berth. RSL almost reached the MLS Cup, but lost 1-0 to New York after failing to convert any of a late flurry of scoring chances.
So, naturally, the players showed what they learned from that experience by making it even more difficult this year. RSL needed a victory over Colorado in the final game, plus considerable help from other teams, to qualify for the playoffs. Hey, why start worrying before then?
In advance of that game, once it became evident that a loss at Toronto was not "fatal" ( The Salt Lake Tribune 's word) to his team's postseason chances, after all, coach Jason Kreis acknowledged wryly, "We've lied to them now for weeks."
Sure enough, his team beat Colorado and found its way into the playoffs. Three weeks later, the players were sporting "Eastern Conference Champion" T-shirts. Well, they do play slightly east of I-15.
That's a function of the MLS playoff system, the most forgiving in all of sports. While the Galaxy capitalized on the best record in the West, RSL did just fine itself to show that, as Clint Mathis said of the playoff seeding, "it doesn't matter if you're first or eighth."
Reaching the MLS Cup required winning only a home-and-home series and one road game. In two years, RSL has compiled a 21-22-17 record in the regular season, and twice made the league's final four. After entering the 2009 playoffs at 11-12-7 and being assigned to the East as a wild-card qualifier, this team can win the title.
That either diminishes the value of the league's interminable regular season or illustrates RSL's recognition that what happens in the playoffs is all that really matters in pro sports, or both.
"We believe the Real Salt Lake story is a very positive one," MLS commissioner Don Garber said Monday, adding the team's playoff run is "good for the league" in providing hope for teams working hard to qualify. While the league keeps evaluating the playoff format, Garber doubts any adjustments will be made to favor the higher seeds.
Reviewing RSL's history, Garber remembered being concerned about "how long it was taking" for the team to become competitive.
Now, birth-to-MLS Cup in five seasons seems like rapid growth, even with a 42-72-40 lifetime record.
After all the slumps, missed opportunities and perceived failures this season, RSL is playing for a championship. Now that we know the ending, it all makes for a pretty good story.
