Real Salt Lake are looking at reinforcements.
On the heels of a recent rough patch, they have brought in three trialists to look at as potential summer acquisitions. General manager Garth Lagerwey, however, insists that the timing is purely coincidental.
“Some of it's just convenience,” Lagerwey said of bringing the three players in at this point in time. “It’s timing. The European seasons are done usually by the end of May. This is our first practical opportunity to look at trialists. I would say this is business as usual.”
While that may be true, it’s also clear that the team is short on bodies, as they have had to use coaches to fill out the numbers in training drills over the last several weeks, and at times they have struggled to try to round out the game-day 18-man roster.
The three trialists are Chris Agorsor, a forward from the Philadelphia Union reserves prior to being waived recently; Samir Bengelloun, a French left back; and Sony Norde, an attacking midfielder who has played on the Haitian national team alongside RSL striker/midfielder Jean Alexandre.
Agorsor could potentially add an element that Real Salt Lake are currently lacking in the attack: speed.
“He is a kid that was on our radar in college,” said Lagerwey. “He played at UVA. He’s a very, very fast forward. Obviously, we don’t have a ton of forwards on our team right now, and so we are looking at Chris.”
Lagerwey gave a brief run-down of the other trialists as well.
“Samir Bengelloun is a left back,” explained Lagerwey. “He played most recently in Bulgaria. He’s of French nationality — speaks perfect English. He’s a good pro, he’s a good option. He’s got good size.”
In addition, Bengelloun could fill a role that RSL has been lacking for quite some time.
“The last true left back we had on the squad was Ian Joy three years ago, so I would tell you that we are perpetually looking to get a little deeper at outside back. It’s the equivalent of a left-handed middle reliever," Lagerwey said. "There just aren’t that many of them out there and the ones that are [out there] tend to be very expensive because they are so rare.”
Norde rounds out the group.
“Sony Norde is the other trialist who is a Haitian international, and a buddy of Jean [Alexandre]’s — he’s another attacking player,” concluded the RSL GM.
