Fri Oct 31 17:55:33 2008

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RSL, Chivas USA square off at Rio Tinto

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Sandy, UT (Sports Network) - Real Salt Lake has waited four long years for this moment.

Finally, in its fourth season in Major League Soccer, the Salt Lake City club earned a spot in the league's playoffs. It will kick off its postseason on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Chivas USA at Rio Tinto Stadium in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinal Series.

RSL (10-10-10) head coach Jason Kreis admits that because his team had to wait until the final weekend of the regular season to clinch it's spot in the second season, it has been in playoff mode for a while.

"We've been in the playoffs now the past three or four weeks," he said. "That's the way I feel. I don't think that this game in particular has any more pressure than the last three that we've played. Our guys I think are almost comfortable in that setting."

Midfielder Kyle Beckerman also stated that even though his club is the lower seed and has to travel to Chivas USA for the second leg of the home-and-home total goals series, it has an advantage hosting the first leg.

"The verdict's not out if it's a home-field advantage playing away first or playing away second," he said. "For us, we have a home playoff game to start this whole series, for me I'd probably take that if I had to choose."

Chivas USA (12-11-7), which was upset last year in the semis after earning the West's top seed, has a lot more experience this year, and hopes that translates to playoff success.

"You look on our roster and the one good thing about this year is that we have a bit more experience, we have some guys who have won some championships and have gone late in the postseason," Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch said. "Hopefully we can bring a little of that experience to our team and hopefully it will add up to something that gives us a chance to win these big games at big moments."