This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sandy

Real Salt Lake's desperate drive to hang onto fourth place in the Western Conference is not exactly good material for a marketing campaign. Yet that's what this season has become for RSL, as the calendar finally turns to the last month of the regular season next weekend.

RSL wanted more than a 0-0 tie with FC Dallas, Major League Soccer's best team, Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium. Even so, the one point Real earned in the standings may prove critical in the team's bid to stay in the West's top four and host a playoff game in late October.

That's the only acceptable landing spot for a team that lately has been in some danger of spoiling a season that looked very promising at various stages — such as mid-April and late August, during the interminable MLS schedule. From his view in goal Saturday, Nick Rimando labeled RSL's effort "a step in the right direction" after last weekend's 1-0 home loss to lowly Houston.

Coincidentally enough, the day's best news came from Houston. The Dynamo beat fifth-place Portland 3-1, preventing the Timbers from making any move in the standings.

"Teams have to catch us, right?" said RSL coach Jeff Cassar. "But we have to make sure to stamp our authority on this at some point."

So the question of the night for RSL was whether a defensive shutout was encouraging or a third straight scoreless production was discouraging. How about both? Cassar liked the way his team limited Dallas' dangerous counterattacks, but he wished his offense could have created more scoring chances beyond the shots that Jordan Allen and Joao Plata delivered in the game's late stages.

Cassar's question, going forward: "Can we ratchet up on the offensive end and still be able to play defense the correct way?"

That's any team's dilemma. In RSL's case, with three games left in the regular season, this effort becomes both a case of solidifying a decent playoff seed and playing well enough to have some success in November.

Following that loss to Houston, RSL defender Tony Beltran spoke of the team's need to regroup for a push toward the playoffs. That's because missing postseason play in 2015 for the first time in eight seasons created "a waste of a year," in his words, and he summarized it well.

Worrying about RSL's missing the playoffs again would require some degree of paranoia at this stage, considering six teams will qualify in the West and seventh-place Seattle is 10 points behind RSL. Then again, the Sounders have played three fewer games, so the mathematical possibility exists.

The realistic goal for Real (12-10-9) is maintaining fourth place and hosting a knockout game in the playoffs. Anything less than that would be a disappointment, after the team's 4-0-2 start created big hopes for a turnaround season.

How long ago does that seem? In MLS, anything that happened early in the season is in the distant past. That initial six-game stretch ended April 16, more than five months ago.

Thanks mostly to a dropoff in its road performance, RSL has experienced all kinds of ups and downs since then. As recently as late August, the team stood 12-8-7 and was talking about a run toward the Supporters' Shield for the best record in the league. Then came a crazy 3-3 tie with Los Angeles, followed by 1-0 losses to Portland and Houston.

So Real needed to come out of Saturday's game with something favorable. Afterward, Cassar cited "a lot of positives" coming from this match — but not as many points as a win would have produced.

Twitter: @tribkurt