Commerce City, CO (Sports Network) - Real Salt Lake has quite a bit at stake
against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.
Not only will the Claret and Cobalt be looking to make it a clean sweep of the
Rapids in the final Rocky Mountain Cup clash of the season, but they can move
to the top of the Western Conference with three points at Dick's Sporting
Goods Park.
It certainly won't be easy for the visitors, who are coming off of a midweek
road loss to Herediano in CONCACAF Champions League play.
"I thought our guys came out a little bit low on energy," said RSL head coach
Jason Kreis. "We struggled to get possession of the ball and we're a team that
likes to have possession of it, control the tempo of the match and we
struggled to do that. And then we got punished for it, I think rightly so,
when Herediano scored a very scored a very good goal. But as the game wore on
I thought we got better and better."
Real Salt Lake is riding a two-game winning streak in league play, the first
of which was a 2-0 defeat of Colorado at Rio Tinto Stadium on July 21.
The Rapids have been far less fortunate in recent memory, falling to Seattle
Sounders FC 2-1 at home to extend their losing streak to six games.
During its poor run of form, Colorado has found some solace in the leadership
capabilities of Drew Moor. The defender stepped in as captain while Pablo
Mastroeni has been sidelined, and Moor said that he recognized the
responsibility of pulling the Rapids out of their current funk lies within
himself.
"You do have to step up a bit, you have to be more vocal, players do look to
you at moments in the game and at moments in the season to say, 'How can we
get out of this?'" Moor told MLSsoccer.com. "I had a perfect example, a
perfect leader in Pablo the past couple seasons because he's the consummate
professional, the consummate captain.
"Every decision he makes, everything he says, obviously the way he performs.
When I perform, I try to lead by example, and Pablo is a great example of
that. And if I'm half the captain he was, or can instill half of what he
brought into the team or the rest of the boys, then I'll consider my captaincy
a success."
The Sports Network