(by Brad Rock desnews.com 9-15-10)
So this much we know about Real Salt Lake in its post-MLS Cup season: That championship was no shot in the dark. RSL has the second-best record in the league this year.
So what about someone else's league? How would the Claret and Cobalt fare there?
It's trying to find out.
Wednesday at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL continued in CONCACAF Champions League play with a 4-1 win against Toronto FC. It took awhile, but once RSL got going, it looked like a club with a global plan.
Break out the vuvuzelas.
If you're wondering what Real is doing interrupting a perfectly good MLS season to play a club from north of the border three times in a month — two of them not counting in league play — the reason is this: international glory.
Sure, it's cheesy, but this is soccer.
Glory is its middle name.
"We're establishing ourselves in this country, and now it's important to try to establish ourselves in the region," said defender Chris Wingert.
By winning the MLS Cup last year, RSL qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League group stage, which began last month. Wednesday's was the third for RSL in CONCACAF competition.
For those who tune into international soccer as often as they read junk mail, this is how it works: CONCACAF is the governing body of soccer teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean. Teams qualify for the Champions League playoffs by winning in their own leagues.
CONCACAF is one of six continental regions. Hence, in the unlikely event that RSL were to advance out of CONCACAF to the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in 2011, it could ultimately meet one of the biggest names in global sports. The last three winners were FC Barcelona, Manchester United and AC Milan. To put that into an American frame of reference, that's like facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Yankees or Los Angeles Lakers — at once.
It's the next-biggest thing to winning the World Cup, where nations, not clubs, compete.
If there is anything more ubiquitous to world soccer than vuvuzeas — those annoying, blatting horns — it's acronyms and abbreviations. For some reason, the soccer loves them, and the longer the better. If these were any longer, they could double as an eye chart. CONCACAF stands for Confederation of North and Central American and Caribbean Association Football. But that's just getting started. In other regions there are CONMEBOC (South America), CAF (Africa), EUFA (Europe/Asia), AFC (Asia/Orient) and OFC (Oceania).
And you thought boxing's system was complicated.
While American teams have done fairly well in CONCACAF competition (the L.A. Galaxy won in 2000, two years after D.C. United prevailed), they have never won the FIFA Club World Cup. In the first three efforts (2000, 2005 and 2006), Brazilian teams got all the glory (there's that word again). In 2007, it was AC Milan, followed the next year by Manchester United and FC Barcelona.
Of course, anyone who brings that up with RSL players will end up whiffing. Nobody's going to look that far ahead. That's an unthinkable dream. Still, you have to start someplace. Thus, RSL continued its quest for world (or at least regional) fame by hosting Toronto, Wednesday. Javier Morales and Fabian Espindola were out with injuries. At the same time, Toronto was recovering from firing its coach, Tuesday.
Salt Lake didn't appear especially well rested at least at the start. The match was the beginning of six games in 18 days and part of a grueling 14-game, 56-day stretch. RSL looked sluggish and uninspired early. It took just eight minutes for Toronto to score the first goal.
"All we did was talk about having a great start and it tuned out to be one of our worst starts of the year," said Wingert.
But two makeup goals in the first half quickly restored order.
Still, Wednesday's match was likely the easy part of this month. There's more to come. A lot more. That cushy once-a-week schedule people are accustomed to seeing?
Pay no attention.
That's for teams whose sights only reach as far as their own borders
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