Real Salt Lake looks for home-field advantage
The enormous expanse of green is almost certainly the first thing that one notices when walking into the main area of seating, and with the soccer field laid out, there are still plenty of blades on the sidelines that will go unused. Real Salt Lake has decided to go with a playing field with dimensions of 120 yards by 70 yards.
"We want to keep the same home field advantage we had at Rice-Eccles," said Real Salt Lake General Manager Garth Lagerway of RSL's impressive 7-1-5 record at home. "We have had success with a little bit narrower field, so we wanted to keep close to the same field dimensions. It is pretty close to most of the other stadiums, but for the last two games of this season we wanted to keep it about the same as we had all season."
According to the Web site athleticfieldmarker.com, an ideal soccer pitch is 120 x 75, and can be as much as 80 yards wide, meaning RSL is leaving out five and as much as 10 yards. That doesn't seem to be of much concern to the players as long as the playing surface stays as nice as it appears.
Perhaps more importantly than the size of the field, the club hopes the people surrounding it will keep Real's home field as a true advantage.
"We could have a tremendous amount of help from the crowd," added Lagerway. "With a little bit more intimate setting and the fans being right on top of the action, plus, with the roof aspect, it could get pretty noisy in there. The noise could be contained in there and it could get rowdy.
"I think it could be a little bit contagious with the crowd getting into it," Lagerway continued. "Unlike Rice-Eccles where we had a couple of spots with the different groups, we will have a lot of them spread out through the whole stadium. Once some of the crowd really gets into it, I think that more and more people will see how much fun it is and start really getting into it with them."
But coach Jason Kreis knows the ultimate method of getting a home field advantage.
"Win," he said. "We just need to come out and do the same things we have been doing. For the last five or six games we have been playing very well and just had a couple of mistakes. If we take those out, we should be good.
"I am a huge fan of the crowds and the influence they can have," Kreis added. "I think the support here has been second to none through the years, and we haven't really had the results to bring the crowds out. I think now we are playing the type of soccer to generate some excitement. It is the type of soccer the crowd can get behind. If the fans can get loud and boisterous, that's what we are asking for."
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com
Recent comments
Enter comment -- that's my comment
Anonymous | Oct. 9, 2008 at 1:04 a.m.
Hey Indifferent, the feeling is mutual. We wont have those ugly American…
James | Oct. 8, 2008 at 11:29 p.m.
Ha ha, so gradualy you are hating soccer less and less... dont act…
Re: Indifferent | Oct. 8, 2008 at 3:42 p.m.
