This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Coach Jason Kreis insisted his team is right where it had hoped to be, heading into the home leg of its CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series — even though some might argue that RSL could be disappointed with not achieving more than a scoreless draw in the first leg against an inexperienced Crew lineup."We accomplished our objective last week," Kreis said. "I know there's a lot of people that are maybe looking at that with a little bit of a negative eye. We are not. That was our objective going in, was to get a draw. We stated very clearly to everybody inside our locker room and outside of our locker room that it wasn't going to be the prettiest game — and it wasn't. We were right, so there you go."Certainly, the cold and icy weather conditions in Columbus made it risky to push too hard, and RSL did not want to come back home trailing on aggregate. The loss of defenders Nat Borchers and Tony Beltran to second-half red cards made it even more important for the team to simply escape with the draw.And though RSL now must win the home leg on Tuesday night to advance, Kreis said that represents no unusual pressure for a team that has long emphasized protecting its home field. The team is riding a 33-game unbeaten streak at home, in all competitions."It's soccer the world over," Kreis said. "You play a two-leg series in a tournament like that, that's always the objective, to walk out of the away game with a draw, and then to take care of business at home. It's no different than we've been emphasizing now, at Salt Lake, for 2 ½ years at least. The only thing that's acceptable at home is three points, so it's no different than every other time we step on our pitch."