SANDY, Utah — Changes are afoot for a Real Salt Lake squad that's been struggling to find the back of the net lately.
On Friday, the club announced it has waived forward Conor Chinn. Chinn was drafted by the New York Red Bulls in 2010 and was picked up by RSL earlier this season.
In conjunction with that move, the club signed forward Artur Aghasyan of the Ventura County Fusion. Aghasyan had played with RSL in the preseason in 2009 and is the cousin of former RSL striker Yura Movsisyan. During his previous preseason stint with the team, Aghasyan scored a goal for RSL against Chinese club Shandong Luneng Taishen.
“He’s a player that we took a glimpse of a long time ago,” said RSL head coach Jason Kreis. “At that time we had Yura, and we had Robbie [Findley] and we had Fabián [Espíndola]. And so we are sitting on three really young, fast forwards that we were trying to develop, and so we just didn’t have room for him. And so now to have him come back and take a look at him a couple of years later and see how his game has developed — he still has those intangibles — he’s fast, he’s good with his running and he gives us another option at forward.”
Kreis admitted that the recent developments at the club affected Chinn’s longevity with the squad.
“We brought Conor Chinn in as I guy that we could be patient with and develop," Kreis said. "And he was a big body, which was a little bit different than some of our other forwards. You go into it with the right mindset that you’re going to be patient and develop this kid, and then you find out now we don’t have time for patience and development.”
“We need somebody that we think can contribute right now,” he continued. “We feel like Artur is a little bit more that possibility, but still a little bit unknown as well.”
Assuming all of the proper paperwork gets finalized, Kreis indicated that Aghasyan will be on the eighteen man roster against Seattle n Saturday (9 pm ET, Direct Kick, MatchDay Live).
Another player likely on that roster is Luis Gil, who can play either at forward or midfielder. Gil was recalled by RSL from Portugal where he was participating in a tournament with the US U-18 squad.
