Real Salt Lake: Playoff spot, Rocky Mountain Cup at stake on Saturday

Geographically speaking, Real Salt Lake and Colorado have been rivals ever since RSL began play in 2005. Realistically though, it took a year or so for things to really heat up.

It took moments like the teams swapping Jeff Cunningham and Clint Mathis prior to the 2006 season. It took Pablo Mastroeni celebrating like he'd just won the World Cup at Rice-Eccles Stadium to incite a post-game shouting match on the sidelines with Real owner Dave Checketts. An additional trade that had Kyle Beckerman and Mehdi Ballouchy switch sides, not to mention RSL eliminating Colorado from playoff contention on the final day of the regular season last year, and the rivalry has escalated in magnitude each year.

It's developed into one of the elite rivalries in Major League Soccer, and the teams are about to crank it up a major notch further this Saturday.

Heading into the final weekend of the regular season the Western Conference No. 3 seed is up for grabs, and it will go to the winner of the Real Salt Lake at Colorado match this Saturday, a match that will be broadcast on HDNet at 7:30 p.m.

The loser misses out on the playoffs.

"In the past the rivalry was all there was to play for," said Beckerman. "This game will be what it is, it's a playoff game pretty much."

For the players, they'll try not to get too wrapped up in the rivalry aspect of the game, but Beckerman as much as anyone knows it will be foremost on the minds of the fans.

Beckerman was on the Rapids team that claimed back-to-back Rocky Mountain Cups with late wins at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2005 and 2006. He was part of the post-game celebrations which Mastroeni took to new heights by egging on the RSL fans.

Checketts took exception with the way he taunted fans and waved his jersey around back in 2006 and wasn't shy about confronting him. Clint Mathis, who was with Colorado at the time, actually had to step in and separate the two.

"That first little thing that went on with Colorado and Salt Lake made it such a big deal right away," said Beckerman. "That was the perfect thing to happen for an early rivalry, it heated it up right off the bat."

The rivalry has become less tepid recently, primarily with Beckerman trading places midway through the 2007 season. RSL fans loved to hate the Colorado Rapids because Mastroeni and Beckerman represented public enemies No. 1 and No. 2. Beckerman has since become a fan favorite in Utah, and conversely the hating options have been slashed in half on the other side.

The Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry has cooled off a bit as well because the teams haven't played nearly as often this year. Between the regular season and U.S. Open Cup last year, Colorado and RSL met five times. So far this year they've only met twice, with the third this Saturday to determine the Rocky Mountain Cup and an MLS playoff spot.

"I don't think there's any heated stuff right now, but that could always change, I guess, in a game," said Beckerman.

Count RSL coach Jason Kreis among those who hopes it doesn't get heated. He doesn't want it to distract from the primary objective.

"I really think it's probably the least important thing, it will probably be the least focused upon thing by either coaching staff or by either team," said Kreis. "Now it's not about who you're playing, it's just that you know you have to get a result to get into the playoffs."

---

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com

Recent comments