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SANDY — Real Salt Lake enters its 2013 season after one of its best seasons yet, where the Salt Lake club not only made records in wins, but also hit attendance records nearly every match toward the end of last season. That said, many unanswered questions still remain for the club that used its offseason to gut the existing roster into a roster with many new, young names while leaving only its core players intact.
With all the trades, acquisitions, signings and goodbyes that filled up the offseason for the Salt Lake club, RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey is calling the 2013 roster RSL 2.0. Even with the uncharted territory his club is about to undertake, the Claret and Cobalt front office and coaching staff has nothing but positivity just days before its season opener, even with all the talk of its predicted season.
“I think a lot of the popular reaction has been that a lot of people feel we’re going to take a step back this year, and I think that we’re fully capable of fielding an improved team. Especially if we look at it over the long haul of the entire season,” Lagerwey told ESPN 700's Bill and Hans during a radio interview this week. “I think that is something that our guys are going to rally around, and we obviously have a tough stretch to start the season, but I think they are all highly motivated and ready to prove themselves. Even though we’ve lost a couple of guys, we’ve got a couple guys out, the young guys are ready to play and the veterans are here to show that they haven’t lost a step.”
Even with the Salt Lake club’s positivity, that doesn’t mean RSL head coach Jason Kreis doesn’t have nerves about his club’s upcoming season with the roster he worked to build over the last few months.
“I’m a nervous guy, always have been,” Kreis told ESPN 700 during a radio interview this week. “Used to get to borderline ill before games when I played. I’m already nervous this week — I’ve been lacking in the sleep department for sure, waking up in the middle of the night thinking about what I could do.”
Kreis may have nerves, but there’s no reason to panic — his nerves aren’t aimed at the roster or what he thinks his team is capable of this season.
“I think some of it’s just the responsibility and accountability I feel to not just myself or the team, but also this community, this great soccer community that we’ve helped to build here in Salt Lake. I think we all feel a debt of gratitude and a real desire to do well for everyone here.”
The Claret and Cobalt will begin its first two games on the road — facing the San Jose Earthquakes and D.C United — before returning to its fortress, Rio Tinto Stadium, to host the Colorado Rapids in the first leg of the Subaru Rocky Mountain Cup. All three matches, Kreis says, will be a challenge for RSL.
“When you think of a team like San Jose, that’s now probably entering into their third or fourth season where almost all of the players are still the same, under the same coach and playing in the same system, I think they’re a stronger team,” said Kreis. “When you look at our second opponent, D.C. United, who’s now entering their third year under Ben Olsen, who made the playoffs last year all the way to the conference final, that’s going to be a more confident and more a winning team — that’s going to be a tough match.”
The Salt Lake club’s first month of the season will only feature the team at home twice in six matches — a schedule Kreis says the new, young roster is ready for, even with the challenges it will present.
“We are, I think, going to be testing our depth all year round, but we feel pretty strongly that we’ve added a lot of very good players in a lot of key positions for ourselves,” said Kreis. “What we think we’ve put together here is real competition every single week for each spot. It’s going to be a pretty interesting year and a physical task maybe for the coaching staff to keep everybody on the same page.”
Its new depth and challenging schedule is embraced by the Salt Lake club as a challenge it is prepared to handle, even with the doubt that’s floating around.
“I think that we do have something to prove,” said Lagerwey. “The last time we won something was in 2009, and we’re four years removed from that at this point and I think we’ve got a lot of proud guys in our locker room who feel like we’re still capable of winning championships. I think that a lot of those guys are pretty motivated and we know they are talented. So if you combine those two things, I do hope we prove a lot of folks wrong and I think that’s something that’s going to drive us this year.”
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
