RSL enters playoff mode, Plata stays hot and a potential CCL bid

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

-Tony Beltran

That is the general consensus surrounding Real Salt Lake. And it's hard to think of the club entertaining anything else in mid-October. Two games remain on RSL's 2014 regular-season slate. Friday's match at Portland officially puts third-place RSL (14-8-10, 52 points) in postseason mode. The Timbers flat need a win, and anything less than three points would seriously hamper their chances for MLS Cup postseason qualification.

So what better way to test themselves against a team in must-win territory?

"They have to give everything they've got when they play us because we do well against them," Tony Beltran said. "Yeah, they're in a difficult position, backed into the wall a little bit, but it doesn't change anything. We'll go there and when they push forward, that's when we have joy because we have players that can pass and expose them."

RSL captain Kyle Beckerman called his team's final regular-season road match of the season "a unique opportunity in front of us." To end Portland's dream of returning to the postseason promises to be difficult.

"Ultimately, if they don't win, their season's done, so to take a team's season, it's a tough task, so it will give us good practice going into the playoffs," he said.

Javier Morales can't wait. Facing the Timbers is one of games he circles on the calendar.

"Especially there, it's a playoff mentality because they must win Friday," he said. "It's going to be a good game because they want to attack, we want to attack, so it's going to be fun. Always it's the same against them, but now I think it's going to be do-or-die, so now it's going to be a little bit different."

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Mighty Plata, Rimando stays unbeaten • When will Joao Plata slow down? Well it doesn't seem to be anytime soon. The 22-year-old RSL forward — who leads RSL with 13 goals in 2014 — continued on his breakout season as a professional Tuesday, this time with the Ecuadorian national team. Plata scored twice in Ecuador's 5-1 win over El Salvador at Red Bull Arena.

The two goals were his first at the senior international level. He now has two goals in four career appearances with Ecuador. The first came in the 16th minute when Plata's 40-something-yard strike took a dipping deflection, sailing over the goalkeeper and into the net.

His second came nine minutes later when Plata finished off his patented left-footed strike to the far post after beating both his defender and the goalkeeper in the box.

RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando went 90 minutes for the U.S. men's national team in a 1-1 draw with Honduras in Boca Raton, Fla. Rimando, who remains vying for the No. 1 goalkeeper job with Aston Villa's Brad Guzan, made his fourth appearance and third start of the year. It was his first start in goal for the U.S. since the 2-2 draw against Mexico on April 2 in Glendale, Ariz.

The U.S. is yet to lose when Rimando plays. Despite the draw, Rimando remains 13-0-3 when he's taken the field for the national team.

RSL coach Jeff Cassar said Tuesday he expects Rimando, who has been gone with the national team the last 10 days, to put himself in contention to start Friday at Portland.

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Third place = Champions League spot? • As if the pressure to stay out of the Wild Card game wasn't enough, a scenario brewing could present RSL with an opportunity to clinch a CONCACAF Champions League spot. With Seattle and L.A. fighting it out over the last two weeks for the Supporters' Shield and Western Conference regular-season crown, RSL could conceivably achieve this year — MLS Cup trophy or not — what it painfully missed out on three times in 2013.

Firstly: It depends on who wins MLS Cup on Dec. 7, but should RSL finish third in the West ahead of Dallas and the No. 2 seed in the East in terms of overall points, there's a strong chance any duplicate Champions League spot earned by either L.A. or Seattle or D.C. United (assuming one wins MLS cup) could fall to RSL.

"It's definitely on my mind," Cassar explained. "I'm trying not to put that on the players' mind, but we know what's at stake. This is an experienced group, we know where we want to be as a club and the Champions League is a major, major goal for this club every year, obviously when you lose the Open Cup, that's one way we're not going to be able to get in and now you've got to win MLS Cup or finish with the most points we possibly can, so we're going to do that."

So what are the further benefits to finishing in the third spot and not fourth?

"If we finish in fourth, you can write off Champions League," Cassar said. "You're playing another game, you're putting some more wear and tear on the players' bodies and right now at this time of the year we want to train the right way and prepare our minds and bodies the right way and if we're throwing in another game in there, it's just more wear and tear, but this team's built to handle it and we want to stay away from that, for sure."

I asked Nat Borchers if such a scenario is on his mind.

"I haven't even thought about that," he said, laughing. "I'm going to take it and put it in my pocket and use it for more motivation. So yes, it is on my mind now."

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Answering the call • Beckerman, like most of RSL's core, has been here for every postseason clincher each of the last seven seasons. So when the 32-year-old midfielder was asked if qualifying for the postseason year after year has lost any of its shine, he said: "It's a testament to what we've built here in Salt Lake City and the state of Utah is that we expect our soccer team to be in the playoffs every year. It's always fun, it's always a challenge. It's never easy. The Western Conference keeps getting more difficult each year, but we keep answering the call and we give ourselves a chance to win a championship at the end of the year."

Borchers? "Seven years in the playoffs, seven inches of beard," he said. "Feels right."

Beltran: "This league is very tight, especially at the end of the year. You don't see the same teams every year making the playoffs and some teams try and buy their way into it, but it's very hard. It's such a long, grueling season. It's a testament to this group. We're producing and we know how to get the job done."

"It's a positive reflection on us," Beltran continued, "and over the years we've been consistent and that's something that's very hard to do, especially as this league has grown and with us being the smallest market in the league, staying and competing with those big markets as they bring in these big players, so it's definitely not easy to make the playoffs, so it should be something we're proud of."

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Twitter: @chriskamrani