Real Salt Lake

Coach Jason Kreis couldn't understand it.

To his eyes, way too many of his RSL players were acting as if they were “scared” during the first half of their eventual 1-0 victory over defending champion Columbus at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night, and it was putting their season in jeopardy. So he tried to straighten them out at halftime, with the game still scoreless.

“I thought there was a lot of guys that were playing with a little bit of fear,” he said. “And I couldn't understand why. I really tried to get at them a little bit and say, 'You got no reason to be scared. You guys are fantastic players that can play fantastic soccer when you go about it with a little confidence, with a little swagger, with a real positive mentality.'

“I just thought we had a little bit too negative a mentality, a little bit of too much questioning what-ifs,” he added. “So I just tried to get the guys to feel good about themselves.”

That's a pretty harsh assessment — and a pretty loaded word, "scared" — but it looks like it worked.

And now RSL has a one-goal cushion going into the return leg at Crew Stadium on Thursday night, with the knowledge that the Crew have scored only one goal in their last five games. Kreis expects that will help the mentality, immeasurably.

“They've been going through a little tough patch right now,” midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. “I guess they're trying to find themselves again, and this isn't the best time for that to happen. But that's what they're going through.”