After last Saturday's 2-1 victory against D.C. United, Real Salt Lake finally has its first win of the season. The question is now: Can RSL sustain its winning ways?
Real started the season 0-2-2, not nearly the hit-the-ground-running start the team anticipated. At that point, John Ellinger was relieved as coach and the team captain, Jason Kreis, retired from playing in order to take over as head coach.
Between the Kreis takeover to Saturday's game, RSL went 0-3-4.
"I said it really from the beginning, that it wasn't going to happen overnight," Kreis said after Saturday's victory. "I would have liked to have come into this position and switch the light and say this is how we want to play and have it happen. You know it's not going to be that way; it's taken a long time."
Forward Alecko Eskandarian said the team has worked hard during that stretch.
"All the guys that have been out there have been working their butts off, week in and week out, and we have deserved better than what we've been getting for it," Eskandarian said. "But you've got to go out and show it, and tonight we did that."
The win against D.C., then, was like the end of a long, hard climb.
"Tonight we saw a culmination of that, and it's something again that we're building on," Kreis said. Kreis expects the team to continue improving.
"It wasn't a perfect game, by no means it wasn't," Kreis said. "And certainly the misplay at the end of the game is something, again, that we have got to clean up because let's face it, if we were only winning 1-0 at that point we would have been really snowed under."
Eskandarian, for one, believes things will only get better.
"I really think it will pick it up a little bit, and everyone will know what it takes to get a win," Eskandarian said. "Regardless of what anyone says, we are a family here, and we played for each other [Saturday]."
Several things point to better results in the future. Carey Talley is back on the field, Chris Brown should be back in the lineup after a couple of weeks when his hamstring strain heals, and a trio of skilled U.S. U-20 national team players will join the team around mid-July. Having Freddy Adu, Chris Seitz and new addition Nathan Sturgis available should help.
Another asset just as valuable: the pressure to win the first game of the season is gone.
"The monkey's off the back right now," Talley said. "The performance we put out tonight, the hard work, the effort, that's going to be expected from us every game. I think we came out and played hard and I think we had the better of D.C. United the whole night."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
