This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
If there was one thing that might have been even sweeter for Real Salt Lake than advancing to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League, it was discovering that it might finally have learned how to handle the pressure of high expectations.
The team hasn't done so well with that — last season or even last week.
But coach Jason Kreis praised his team for putting together a dominating display when it needed it most, beating the Columbus Crew 4-1 in the must-win second leg of their quarterfinal series at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday night to reach the tournament semifinals for the first time.
"Good, strong performance by them," he said.
It hasn't always been that way when RSL was expected to win.
It withered in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs last season after being widely considered a championship favorite following the best regular season in its history, and Kreis blamed "a lot of our faults" during the scoreless draw in the first quarterfinal leg at Columbus on putting "too much pressure on ourselves."
In fact, Kreis admitted to being "a little concerned" that his players would struggle in the home leg against the Crew.
"We've been talking a lot about" succeeding in the Champions League, he said, "and what we've managed to do is put ourselves under a tremendous amount of pressure. We really raised the level of expectations for ourselves. On prior occasions, we've struggled with that, so I was nervous that the guys would come out again very nervous. ... Obviously, we didn't, so I'm extremely pleased with that situation."
As a result, RSL will meet either Saprissa of Costa Rica or Olimpia of Honduras in the semifinals, first with the home leg at Rio Tinto Stadium on March 15.
Saprissa — the team for which RSL's Alvaro Saborio scored 95 goals in five years — leads the quarterfinal series against Olimpia 1-0 heading into the second leg at Olimpia on Thursday night. Olimpia is unbeaten in its past six Champions League home games, winning the past five by a combined 11-2 margin.
Most RSL coaches and players said they don't yet know much about either team, and they don't really care which one they meet, though midfielder Will Johnson said they would just as soon avoid the artificial turf at Saprissa's stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Either way, Kreis senses he now has a more mature team on his hands.
"We hope that we've learned," he said. "You hope that when you get guys in the same situation multiple times that they improve and they learn. Now I think that we've seen that, if we can calm down and relax a little bit in our possession, that we'll have some success. I would hope that, in the next round, we can expound on that and maybe even play better."
CONCACAF Champions League
QUARTERFINALS
Second leg
Tuesday
• Cruz Azul (Mexico) 3, Santos Laguna (Mexico) 1
Cruz Azul advances on 5-1 aggregate
• Real Salt Lake 4, Columbus 1
RSL advances on 4-1 aggregate
Wednesday
Monterrey (Mexico) vs. Toluca (Mexico), 6 p.m.
Thursday
Olimpia (Honduras) vs. Saprissa (Costa Rica), 8 p.m.
SEMIFINALS
First leg, March 15-17
Monterrey-Toluca winner vs. Cruz Azul
Real Salt Lake vs. Olimpia-Saprissa winner
Second leg, April 5-7
Cruz Azul vs. Monterrey-Toluca winner
Olimpia-Saprissa winner vs. Real Salt Lake