Sandy » It hurt, no doubt about it, watching shot after shot sail just a little too high or a bit too wide, or carom off seemingly every inch of the goalposts and the crossbar to deprive Real Salt Lake a chance to advance to the Major League Soccer championship game for the first time.
Coach Jason Kreis said he had to laugh to keep from crying.
But now that the coaches and players have lived through the agony of the home loss that ended their season in the MLS Western Conference final last year, they're hoping the painful experience will help them when they get another crack at it against the Chicago Fire in the MLS Eastern Conference final at Toyota Park on Saturday night.
"As bad as it sounds, losing last year gives us a little bit of an advantage because of us wanting it even more," goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "Losing it on our home field ... really left a sour taste in our mouth. We don't know when we might get back there again, and I think the guys realize that."
Winning would send RSL to the MLS Cup title game -- it's at Qwest Field in Seattle on Nov. 22 -- while losing would once again crush an unexpected playoff run that defied the team's mediocre regular-season performance.
Yet the team is hopeful not just because it endured that nightmarish 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls, but because its roster now is full of players with playoff experience. That was hardly the case last season, when too many of the players -- still learning to play with one another after the rebuilding of the roster -- had never reached the league's postseason.
"We've been together for a couple of years now, most of these guys," midfielder Will Johnson said. "It's a good core group, and now that experience is starting to pay off a little bit."
That was never more evident than last week, when RSL rallied from a two-goal deficit at Columbus to win 3-2 and advance to meet the Fire.
The team had never rallied from two goals to win on the road, and that has happened only five times in league playoff history. Coaches and players chalked it up to being able to learn from their previous disappointments on the road -- and there have been many -- and having a stronger veteran presence.
"It's huge to have guys like that who know what to do when you're under pressure," defender Nat Borchers said.
For his part, Kreis agreed that the experience of reaching the MLS Western Conference final last season can make a big difference for RSL against the Fire - a team that has lost the Eastern Conference final three times in the past four years.
"It's invaluable," Kreis said. "This team had never even been to the playoffs, so to make it to the conference final is eye-opening and new and not enough guys out there had experience being in that situation. And this year, obviously, we have a whole lot more who have that experience."
If nothing else, the players don't figure to step on the field wide-eyed at the prospect of playing 90 minutes with the whole season on the line. That's an especially important prospect because Toyota Park is expected to be a roaring cauldron of wild fans.
"Last year, we were like, 'Wow, we're here!' " forward Yura Movsisyan said. "This year, we're like, 'We want to go further.' ... We're a team that has gotten better, year by year, and I feel we're a team that can do it, all the way."
