Like it or not Middle America, people like me take you for granted. I’m a lifelong West Coaster, am used to my sports starting at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and with almost half a life in the books, I’ve become set in my ways. Before soccer writing became my profession, that meant watching an East Coast game, a West Coast game, then going to sleep. I imagine my East Coast urbanite friends did the same, albeit at different times.
The net effect is an East Coast bias. And a West Coast bias. Basically, an anti-Middle America bias that has nothing to do with politics, lifestyle, or even geography. Sometimes, it just comes down to time slots on calendars.
It’s something to consider when we think about the question implied by this tweet, with our friends at Real Salt Lake nice enough to let the world know about some of PST’s work:
[tweet http://twitter.com/RealSaltLake/status/351915069115875328]
Saying no one’s talking about Real Salt Lake may be an exaggeration. I think. I mean, I don’t really know since I haven’t actually heard anybody talking about the West’s first place team, a squad that has their conference’s best defensive record and second-best goal difference. Yet for various reasons, it seems like Jason Kreis’s team is garnering less attention than any of their conference competition, be that attention for good reasons (Portland, FC Dallas, Colorado), disappointing reasons (LA Galaxy, Seattle, San Jose, Chivas), or anything in between.
Perhaps it’s because RSL has been too consistent for too long, and in more ways than one. Since claiming their title in 2009, Real Salt Lake has been a perennial contender, playing the exact same system with the same cast of leading men: Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Nick Rimando, and over the last two-plus years, Alvaro Saborio. While RSL hasn’t necessarily been taken for granted, their stability leaves us short on stories that haven’t already been told. Javi Morales is good … Yeah, we know!
Although they don’t have as many trophies, Real Salt Lake are like an MLS version of the San Antonio Spurs. Or Bobby Cox’s Atlanta Braves. We all know they’re good, but we can’t just keep talking about the same things, can we? Even when we’re talking Tim Duncan or Greg Maddux, there’s only so many times we can cover the same ground.
Of course, after what happened this offseason, that view is a bit lazy. This year’s big story about Real Salt Lake is that there are differences, even if they’re small. Will Johnson, who has been one of the best midfielders in Major League Soccer this season for Portland, had to move on this offseason. Jamison Olave, who has been excellent in defense for New York, was also traded this winter, as was Fabian Espindola, another player from that 2009 team. Those are major losses.
But in what’s become a trademark of their current run, Real Salt Lake reloaded, leveraging Major League Soccer’s best scouting as well as what seems like endless depth. They convinced Joao Plata to come back from Ecuador, incorporated New Mexico’s Devon Sandoval, brought Olmes Garcia up from Colombia while promoting Carlos Salcedo into the senior team. They’ve brought in Aaron Maund, Lovel Palmer, Khari Stephenson, and Josh Saunders, persisting with what has to be an annoying habit (to other front offices) of getting the most out of others’ scraps. Luis Gil is getting more time, Ned Grabavoy has stepped up, and Robbie Findley’s come back from England.
In case you lost count, that’s 11 contributors who’ve either newly arrived or have picked up their game in the wake of what some people saw as a dismantling. Even RSL’s staff spoke about this as process, especially when the season started without Nat Borchers and Chris Wingert …
But who are we kidding? RSL clearly knew what they were doing. They knew the talent they had. They knew what they were capable of acquiring. They’ve come to epitome the cliché: They don’t rebuild; they reload.
Had they rebuilt, we’d probably be talking about them more. But because Garth Lagerway just keeps reloading, because Jason Kreis has his system down, we never stop to consider RSL as a new project. We only see the same stories – the same characters from a team we know is good. As a result, we don’t talk about RSL.
At least, we don’t talk about them enough. In fact, we almost don’t talk about them at all.
