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Sandy • The streaks are over, the aura of invincibility shattered, and Real Salt Lake is back to being — in the eyes of many — just another pretty good team in Major League Soccer.
And the team is fine with that.
"We like when people doubt us, call us underdogs," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "I like that. We seem to play better when we're not on top. So … that's OK with us. It's fuel for the fire, and we just want to go out there and get some points."
The team certainly better earn some points against the Vancouver Whitecaps at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night, lest its sterling reputation slip yet another notch, along with its place in the Major League Soccer standings.
The Whitecaps are an expansion team that has gone 0-5-7 since an inaugural victory, just replaced their coach, and will be playing without one of their best players just three days after a shorthanded draw on the road.
If that's not a recipe for RSL starting a new unbeaten streak at home, well … it could be a long season.
"We just have to keep working on doing what we do best," defender Chris Wingert said. "That's obviously playing high-pressure defense when possible, winning the ball, keeping possession and hopefully creating some chances, and the goals will come."
RSL has scored only twice while going 1-2-2 in its past five league games, mostly without injured midfielder Javier Morales.
But it finally began to show flashes of its old, confident self early in the second half of a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders last weekend that snapped its 29-game regular-season home unbeaten streak — before defender Jamison Olave received a red card that will keep him out of the game against the Whitecaps with an automatic one-game suspension.
Coach Jason Kreis said RSL was "very, very close" to rediscovering its top form during that stretch.
"You start off that 15 minutes and you're starting to remember, 'Wait a second, I remember when we beat LA 4-nil at home and I remember scoring two goals in the first 15 minutes,' " he said. "All to do with how we pressured them. Nothing to do about beautiful soccer or anything else.
"And as I've said 100 times now and I hope the players are hearing me: Barcelona plays fantastic soccer, but what they do without the ball is sometimes more impressive than what they do with it," he added. "When they lose it, they're pressing back instantaneously to get the ball back, and that's a part of our game I think we've really let slip."
Defender Chris Schuler is expected to replace Olave in the lineup for RSL, which also will play without forwards Álvaro Saborío and Arturo Alvarez and midfielder Will Johnson — all away on international duty at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The Whitecaps, meanwhile, present a curious challenge.
New coach Tom Soehn — a former teammate of Kreis in Dallas — made four lineup changes and shifted the positions of two other players in his first game in place of the fired Teitur Thordarson, and RSL coaches and players have said they're always wary of playing a team with a new coach because its players tend to be motivated to impress the new boss.
At least RSL was able to get a sense of how the Caps will play, having watched them hold on for a 1-1 draw at Chivas USA on Wednesday night, after losing forward Eric Hassli to his third red card of the season that left him suspended for Saturday.
"The shape is the same — they're still a 4-4-2," Kreis said. "I do think they played a little bit more compact, probably didn't want to play as direct as they were playing under the former coach. And I know Tommy; I know what he wants. He's going to want to be a possession-oriented team," like he did as coach at D.C. United. —
Vancouver at RSL
P At Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy
Kickoff • Saturday, 7 p.m.
TV • KMYU 2.2 / Comcast 22 / Dish 12
Radio • 700 AM, 1600 AM, 106.1 FM
Records • RSL 5-2-2, Vancouver 1-5-7
Series • First meeting