REAL SALT LAKE vs. CHICAGO FIRE
RICE-ECCLES STADIUM, Salt Lake City, Utah
March 29, 2008 | 4 p.m. MT (My50 Chi)
WEEK # 1 | GAME # 2
Real Salt Lake kick off their fourth season, beginning the countdown to the opening of their new stadium in Sandy while also aiming for a first playoff berth in club history, as they play host to the Chicago Fire in the season opener at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Fire enter the season with an "old" new coach in Denis Hamlett - just the fourth in club history, he also guided the team on an interim basis for three matches last season as the team eventually played for the Eastern Conference Championship.
REFEREE: Terry Vaughn. SAR (bench): Fabio Tovar; JAR (opposite): Chris Strickland; 4th: Tim Weyland
MLS Career: 83 games; FC/gm: 30.5; Y/gm: 3.9; R: 27; pens: 27
Games involving Real: P5 W1 L1 T3; FC/gm: 23.6; Y/gm: 2.8; R: 0; pens: 4
Games involving Fire: P19 W9 L5 T5; FC/gm: 31.1; Y/gm: 4.2; R: 8; pens: 5
INJURY REPORT: REAL SALT LAKE - PROBABLE: FW Fabian Espíndola (L knee hyperextension), MF Brennan Tennelle (L ankle sprain), DF Chris Wingert (L MCL sprain) ... CHICAGO FIRE - QUESTIONABLE: DF C.J. Brown (L hip pain); PROBABLE: MF Brian Plotkin (L hip strain/L sacroiliac sprain); DF Wilman Conde (L ankle sprain) INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none SUSPENDED: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (6 meetings): Real Salt Lake 1 win, 5 goals ... Fire 4 wins, 11 goals ... Ties 1
IN SALT LAKE: (3 meetings): Real Salt Lake 1 win, 3 goals ... Fire 2 wins, 6 goals ... Ties 0
• This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season, the only one on the Wasatch Front. Real Salt Lake will make their lone visit to Toyota Park on July 19.
LAST YEAR (MLS):
5/27: CHI 0, RSL 0
8/18: RSL 0, CHI 2 (Blanco 43; Wanchope 78)
• For the second time in three seasons, the Fire claimed the season series a year ago, the teams playing to a scoreless draw in their lone Bridgeview encounter before the Fire won in Salt Lake City.
• The Fire won both meetings in Real's inaugural season, then each team won on their home turf in 2006, the RSL win on June 3 the club's only victory in the all-time series.
• Coaches record: Jason Kreis v CHI: P2 W0 L1 D1 ... Denis Hamlett vs. RSL: first game
REAL SALT LAKE
As Real Salt Lake begin their fourth season in Major League Soccer, the club has one overarching goal: to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time. Jason Kreis, who was the league's all-time goalscoring leader when he was named head coach of the club about a month into the 2007 season, has set out rebuilding the playing staff in the offseason in order to turn the team into a viable contender.
• Real concluded their formal preseason schedule with a 1-0 loss to the Kansas City Wizards on March 22 in Norman, Okla., as Jimmy Conrad knocked home a free kick in the 64th minute for the game's lone goal.
• Here's Kreis's team: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran, Nat Borchers (Jamison Olave 46), Matias Mantilla, Ian Joy; Kyle Beckerman, Carey Talley, Javier Morales, Andy Williams (Dema Kovalenko 46); Yura Movsisyan, Fabian Espíndola (Tino Nuñez 76)
• Real had gone into the match looking at the game as a true dress rehearsal for the MLS season ahead. "A lot of other games we've been going through have just been exercises for us. This is basically going to be a dry run for the first game of the season," said Kreis. "We're looking at this as the culmination of a lot of hard work in our preseason."
• The game was also only the second of the preseason against MLS competition. RSL played to a 2-2 draw with the Colorado Rapids more than a month earlier, in their Florida swing.
• Since the start of preseason - with a plethora of midfield options - Kreis has put in a 4-4-2 scheme that will see the wide midfielders tuck inside and encourage the fullbacks to get forward. It was a system RSL tried with some success over the closing months of the 2007 campaign.
• "We're buying into the system that the coaching staff has given us and we all believe in it," midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "We just hope all this hard work is going to pay off in the end."
• Striker Kenny Deuchar, last with Gretna in the Scottish Premier League, one of RSL's three big offseason acquisitions hopes to have his visa in place by the start of the season, allowing him to play against the Fire.
• Along with Deuchar, midfielder Matias Cordoba (Argentina) and defender Jamison Olave (Colombia) were brought into the RSL fold. U.S. international Ian Joy, last with FC St. Pauli of the German Bundesliga, and Nat Borchers, who played for the Colorado Rapids before moving to Norway, were also signed by the club.
• "Both of those guys are true professionals, having played overseas and been pros for a number of years now, and both played for youth U.S. national teams," starting right back Chris Wingert said. "They're both not only really good leaders, but really good guys and I think that's kind of the direction we're heading. We're trying to get good personalities who are going to buy into our system and the way we're trying to accomplish it."
• RSL then concluded their preseason with a 3-0 victory against Ogden-based club Lobos PFC in an exhibition at Skyline H.S. in Salt Lake City on March 24. Fielding a squad consisting primarily of reserves, RSL got a pair of goals from Dema Kovalenko and a late tally from Yura Movsisyan in the victory.
CHICAGO FIRE
Perhaps the hottest team down the stretch last season, the Chicago Fire were 90 minutes away from reaching the MLS Cup Final a year ago. It's a new era this year in Bridgeview, as Denis Hamlett has taken over the head coaching reins following the move of Juan Carlos Osorio to the New York Red Bulls. Hamlett was in charge for three games in 2007, between the departure of Dave Sarachan and the arrival of Osorio.
• The Fire concluded their 2008 preseason with a 1-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids on March 22 in Ridgeland, Miss. Rapids defender Stephen Keel scored the game's only goal, heading home a free kick in the 86th minute.
• Here's Hamlett's team: Jon Busch, Gonzalo Segares, Bakary Soumare, C.J. Brown (Diego Gutierrez 37), Brandon Prideaux (Austin Washington 76), Justin Mapp, Logan Pause, Chris Rolfe (John Thorrington 66), Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Tomasz Frankowski (Andy Herron 66), Calen Carr (Stephen King 82).
• After three victories in their first three preseason games, the Fire didn't win again, playing to four successive draws (two against Mexican clubs, Dorados de Sinaloa and Necaxa) before the loss to Colorado.
• "When we went to Mexico (for exhibition games) they started to get better at recognizing each other," Hamlett said. "It is still going to take time. We have only been together for a month."
• The Fire's turnaround a year ago also coincided with the arrival of Cuauhtemoc Blanco. With a full season with which to work - and the addition of a pair of new strike targets - the Fire are looking to rebound after scoring an all-time club low 31 goals a season ago.
• "We have a good nucleus of guys returning," Hamlett said. "Of the new guys, I think the two that will have the biggest impact are forwards Andy Herron and Tomasz Frankowski, to have a big impact in that part of the field where we struggled a little bit last season. But we have no real changes on defense."
• Frankowski, a former Polish national teamer, was last with CD Tenerife in Spain after spending the majority of his career with Wisla Krakow. Herron returned to the Fire after he was a draft day trade to the Columbus Crew before the 2007 campaign, scoring four goals with two assists with the Crew.
• The main strike pairing for the Fire in '07 was Chad Barrett - who spent much of the preseason with the U.S. under-23 team that qualified for the Beijing Olympics - and Chris Rolfe, who has been played mainly in an attacking midfield role where he saw some time last year.
• The other main change will be in goal, where MLS veteran Jon Busch will take over the starting role after Matt Pickens left to go to England. "This is a big year for me, to see how I will feel for a whole season," said Busch, who suffered two significant injuries in his time with Columbus. "Last year, I never missed a single training session or game, so I feel I got over the hump. I feel back to normal, health-wise and goalkeeper-wise."
