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Sandy

Don't claim to know every nuance, every in and out, of the CONCACAF Champions League series and Real Salt Lake's impressive involvement in it. What I do know is that men in shorts aren't meant to be running around a frosty pitch along the Wasatch Front at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, kicking a ball to and fro in 30 degree weather.

It's unnatural.

A rule to live by: If the soccer ball is frozen or near-frozen, the game shouldn't be played.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought so. At 20,000-seat Rio Tinto Stadium, a number of them stayed unoccupied during a match that soccer purists tell me is big-time significant. Just not significant enough to stir the thorough imagination of a fan base that appreciates soccer on warm summer nights, but a little less on the first night of March. All despite the fact that some tickets were up for grabs for the price of a polish dog.

Even the beautiful game isn't worth a case of pneumonia.

But, then again, maybe it is.

They say it was much worse a week ago on an icy field in Columbus for the first leg of the CCL quarterfinals featuring RSL and the Crew, made even more frigid by way of a 0-0 result.

I showed up this time because I had to for work.

The press box at Rio Tinto is outdoors and those of us forced to be up there suffered a few freezer burns. If there was a soul on hand who said he actually wanted to be covering this game in these conditions, typing away on a computer straight through the chills of winter, he's a liar.

I am not a liar. I hated the conditions and hope whoever scheduled this two-game set at this particular juncture slams his fingers in his car door sometime soon.

Here's the remarkable thing, though: the action on the field was compelling and thrilling, dressed out even more by what was at stake in the action.

RSL, which made history by winning its group in earlier games, went ahead and beat the Crew, 4-1, outscoring its MLS foes in aggregate goals after the previous draw.

"A good, strong performance," Real coach Jason Kreis called it.

RSL's stars showed up in a major way: Alvaro Saborio got a sweet goal in the 23rd minute on an assist from Javier Morales, and, in the 36th, Morales sent home a deft shot. Those goals were the result of the kind of "building" Salt Lake prefers, utilizing steady ball control.

Some of that control evaporated early in the second half, when the Crew scored in the 49th minute. From that point on, there were terrific attempts, mostly by Real, and nervous moments all around — until Morales popped in his second goal in the 77th, assuring the RSL win. Andy Williams added icing late.

On account of that, they move on to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Championship stage, where they will face either Olimpia (Honduras) or Saprissa (Costa Rica). If RSL advances again, they go to the regional finals to play a team from Mexico. And if they win that — "We have the team to take it all," Williams said — they find themselves in rarefied air, heading off to Japan to play for the Club World Cup, pitting champions from around the globe.

That means, at least in somebody's pipe dream, RSL could play — and theoretically win — meaningful matches against, say, Manchester United or FC Barcelona or AS Roma.

A heady chance worth freezing for at the foot of the Wasatch on the first night of March.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 104.7 FM/1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.