Real Salt Lake experienced heart-stopping scares, dramatic resurrections and gleeful acquisitions during the offseason.
A public financing deal for a new stadium got axed, leading to negotiations that could have made RSL stand for Real St. Louis. Such an event would have forced Jason Kreis into retirement, but a push by Utah governor Jon Huntsman in the state legislature brought the stadium back to life.
Also during the offseason, last season's starting goalkeeper Scott Garlick unexpectedly retired, forcing Real to scramble to get Nick Rimando back on the roster. And, in a move that injected renewed life into the rising club, Salt Lake acquired Freddy Adu.
After such an eventful few months, Kreis is glad to have the upcoming regular season to focus on.
"All of us are expectant and waiting for a shovel to go into the ground over at the stadium where we can actually see some progress," Kreis said. "But having all that political stuff behind us is definitely a good thing."
On the field, Real should be stronger than they have ever been. The team had its most successful season last year, missing the playoffs by two points.
And now, coach John Ellinger said the team is well ahead of the curve.
"I feel that we're ahead of where we were last year," Ellinger said. "How we handled the preseason this year, physically we are where we need to be and mentally the guys look pretty good as well. All in all, we are mentally ready to do it. We want to win the opening game for sure; it's something we haven't done yet."
Players are excited to have Adu on the field with them. Adu joined RSL hoping to play in the center of midfield, but Ellinger likely will play him wide on the left, with freedom to move forward and support Jeff Cunningham.
"There was a point where he said, 'I'm not really feeling this position,'" Ellinger said. "I tried to use the analogy that if its good enough for Ronaldinho, it can be good enough for you, so he's adjusted to that. He feels pretty good now."
Last season, Real were somewhat weaker on defense, giving up 49 goals and ending with a minus-4 goal differential. Ellinger, who often complained last year about young players he once coached coming back to score against him, said his team now is stronger defensively.
"It helps that we have Freddy with us, because now he can't score against us," Ellinger said. Real's back four should be solid as well.
"Right now, Eddie [Pope] and Danny [Torres] have started to form an exceptional central defense corps," Ellinger said. Also, Jack Stewart on the right and Willis Forko on the left should be strong. In goal, Nick Rimando has the coach and the players in front of him feeling confident.
"From what we've seen out of Nick, he's playing very well and he's got something to prove," Ellinger said. "Defensively, we have more depth and more talent than we had the first two years, obviously, so I'm hoping if we keep our main guys healthy we'll be better. We'll try to score as many goals as we can, and if we can cut that goals-against number in half, than we'll be pretty successful as well."
Overall, Ellinger said Real have more depth than ever before.
"It's about as good as anybody in the league," Ellinger said. "This year we have a roster that's pretty talented and pretty deep. We've got a guy like Luis Tejada that's not in the starting lineup, and he can definitely score goals."
While the team is pleased with its performance during the preseason, Kreis is not about to take anything for granted.
"In '05 we had a tremendous preseason," Kreis said. "We were beating everybody in the preseason, and we all know what happened during the season that year."
Ever since Real's forgettable inaugural season, Kreis has seen the team become gradually stronger. Now, the team intends to achieve the goal it fell two points short of last season.
"It's been good for me to see that we keep moving forward here," Kreis said. "We keep moving in the right direction. We've had a lot of turnover, and the group keeps getting better and better. The team's playing more and more together, the coaching staff and the leadership is getting more and more of an idea of what it takes to win. And all those things being said, we know what the next step is."
Peter Richins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
