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SANDY — Real Salt Lake wrapped up its second and final week of preseason training camp in Irvine, Calif., on Thursday and will face the Los Angeles Galaxy in a closed-door exhibition match Friday before entering preseason matches.
The Claret and Cobalt will enter the match against the Galaxy off a 0-2 loss to the University of California-Irvine, which took place earlier this week. RSL midfielder Ned Grabavoy told ESPN700 during a radio interview Thursday that the club does put weight into these matches, even though they are simply exhibition.
“Obviously we put weight into it. I mean, there’s guys out there, pretty much every guy that’s out there is a bit unproven,” Grabavoy told ESPN700. “So you’ve got guys fighting for minutes, you’ve got guys fighting for spots on the roster and at some point I think with these preseason games, especially early on, you kind of stop watching the soccer so to speak and you start to watch some other things.”
Grabavoy also told ESPN700 that the loss to UC-Irvine this week put up some red flags for the Salt Lake club.
“I think the game against Irvine, you know, there was a couple red flags, I think we kind of got pushed around a little bit by a college team and I think that’s probably the more sufferable thing than anything because I know guys are tired, I know guys haven’t been together for a long period of time,” said Grabavoy.
“I think it’s a bit of a wake up call because we have guys on our side who are being paid and, realistically, they are playing against guys that aren’t professionals, guys who aren’t being paid. So hopefully that’s a bit of a wakeup call moving forward and if anything it will just help us finish out the preseason strong.”
With a few of the Salt Lake club’s veteran and regulars on the roster fighting injury and away on international duty, the roster spots may see new and young faces come the first few weeks of the regular season.
“I think it’s a bit of a work-in-process right now. I think it’s just one of those things where you have to wait and see who steps up and who wants a spot and shows that they are willing to do all the things asked of them,” Grabavoy told ESPN700. “I think we’re kind of still in a situation where we’re still kind of moving some things around and trying to see what’s going to fit best here to probably start the first couple weeks of the season without some of the veteran players.”
And the veteran midfielder said it may be a good situation to begin the season with so many new faces on the roster.
“There has been teams with a lot less talent than we have that have won games in this league. So I think going forward maybe it’s easier for some guys to know that they’re going to get a string of games to prove themselves instead of just thirty minutes here, thirty there,” said Grabavoy. “Sometimes mentally it’s a little bit easier for guys to step into that spot. It’s a long season. I think for the most part you find out about teams in July and August in this league and going forward from there. We have a lot of road games to start and we want to get off to a good start and so we just need to try to compete and pick up as many points as we can in the beginning.”
“I think right now camp is basically every one learning the concepts and principals of the team and trying to stay positive as we try to move forward knowing that it’s a bit of a work-in-progress, but hopefully good things will come.”
Following Friday’s match, RSL will return to Utah for a few days before heading to the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup preseason tournament in Arizona. The Claret and Cobalt are scheduled to face the New York Red Bulls on Feb. 13 to kick off the tournament. RSL will also face the Seattle Sounders Feb. 16 and the New England Revolution on Feb. 20.
Following the preseason tournament, the Salt Lake club will only be days away from the MLS regular season, which begins on the road March 3 against the San Jose Earthquakes before moving to the other side of the country for a March 9 game against D.C. United.
Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
