Both teams are below the playoff line, but Real Salt Lake expecting the usual, high intensity battle when it hosts Sporting Kansas City

Herriman • Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City know each other very well. The two teams teams faced off four times last season, the last two being the two legs of the Western Conference semifinals of the MLS Cup playoffs.

SKC eliminated RSL in that playoff round last year. And who can forget the 2013 MLS Cup final where the two teams made it all the way to penalty kicks only for Salt Lake to fall?

Over the years, the rivalry between Sporting and Real has been exciting, memorable and, at time, contentious. But going into the first matchup of 2019 between the two teams, it’s one of the only times in recent memory that both have been below the playoff line. RSL (20 points) sits in eighth place in the Western Conference, while SKC (19 points) is 10th.

The reasons for RSL’s current position have been discussed by the team ad nauseam: road-heavy first half the season and inconsistency at home have the main culprits. Sporting, on the other hand, have been marred by injuries to some key players, and also played a lot of soccer in the beginning of year because it competed in the CONCACAF Champions League.

But despite how different the two teams feel this season compared to last, some with RSL say the matchup between these two rivals won’t look very different compared to years past.

“It’s close again,” Nedum Onuoha said Thursday after training. “I think it’s a good matchup. Obviously the score might be whatever the score is, but there shouldn’t really be that much between both sides.”

Kansas City lost in the conference finals to Portland in last year’s MLS Cup playoffs after finishing with the best record in the West during the regular season. But in 2019, Sporting’s season has been up and down to say the least. Just a few days ago, they won their first road game of the season after winning eight last year.

Regardless of SKC’s position, however, there is still plenty of reason for RSL to have a healthy respect for the visitors going into Saturday.

“They’re one of the best teams in the league,” midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. “They’re consistently at the top. Where they are in the rankings right now, for me, it doesn’t show who they really are.”

RSL has also changed since last season, particularly with the additions of Sam Johnson and Everton Luiz. Onuoha said that while SKC is a team that has plenty of experience winning when it matters most, Real has also added experience to its roster. That’s part of the reason why he feels not much separates the two sides this year.

“We feel like we’ve progressed,” Onuoha said. “They obviously feel like they have, even though their position doesn’t necessarily say that.”

RSL coach Mike Petke attributed SKC’s struggles this season to the myriad injures its players have suffered, calling it the “main reason” Sporting are where they are.

“It’s not that they’re doing anything differently,” Petke said. “I just think that the injuries along with maybe just a little rut based around the injuries has kicked in for them.”

But regardless of conference standings or recent wins and losses, when RSL and SKC face off, the games tend to be anything but lackluster or soporific. Even SKC coach Peter Vermes thinks so.

“It’s always a difficult match and I don’t suspect it’ll be any different this game,” Vermes told Kansas City media this week.