Real Salt Lake Looks to Future in MLS: Interview with Garth Lagerwey

Real Salt Lake pulled off one of the biggest upsets in professional sports, coming from the number eight-seed in Major League Soccer’s post-season, to win the 2009 MLS Cup. En route to its first MLS Championship, RSL had to beat the defending champion Columbus Crew and the surging Chicago Fire on consecutive road trips.

Finally, RSL took on and defeated a star-studded LA Galaxy team, headlined by David Beckham and Landon Donovan. This was no easy task, squeeking into the playoffs, and then facing three tough teams with internationally known “designated players”. However, upstart RSL, a team with no designated players, was up to the task and came out MLS champions.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Real's General Manager, Garth Lagerwey, a former MLS Goalkeeper, and one of the architects of building the surprisingly successful RSL team. Garth had a lot to say about how RSL operates as an organization, and about what their off-season Christmas list looks like. You can find the full interview at www.soccerhype.com.

Real Salt Lake Wins MLS Cup - And Deserved the Win!

Real Salt Lake won the 2009 MLS Cup the way they won all of their games in post-season play - they gutted it out and never gave up. The players that Jason Kreis brought together and utilized to form the RSL team took on Kreis's personality during the course of the season, and that was the plan all along. Kreis is a hardworking, pragmatic coach, and he has one rule when it comes to who plays on the pitch: Play the individual who is perfoming the best and wants to win.

Another reason RSL won the MLS CUP - RSL is a "true TEAM". Simply, RSL is made up of 20+ players that all contribute. The team is not built around one or two star players who make salaries larger than the bulk of the team; rather, RSL has parity among its players as far as pay and expectations. That is why when Javier Morales was forced out of the game with an injury, and Will Johnson had to leave due to illness at the half, Kreis could bring in Ned Grabavoy and Clint Mathis and be confident they could get the job done.

Every year you build a new team, that is just the way that MLS and most professional leagues work. This year RSL had something special and the team was very much a reflection of Jason Kreis. That said, there is a reason the team got where it did and toughed it out to the final PK. Congratulations RSL... enjoy the moment and rest up for next season. Everyone in MLS now understands just how tough you are.

Real Salt Lake Gives Columbus Crew a Fright on Halloween – Takes Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals

Robbie Findley, MLS’s Player of the Week during the last week of the regular season slipped a late goal past the diving Columbus Keeper from a beautiful Yura Movsisyan pass, and delivers the victory to Real Salt Lake in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semis. The score came late in the game, and it became apparent early on that Columbus would have been happy to get out of Rio Tinto with a nil-nil draw, but RSL was just as determined to get a win at home. I was lucky enough to be sitting on the front row of the game, just past the Columbus Crew Bench.

I was puzzled by Columbus’s strategy from before the game even started when I saw their star, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, not working that hard in warm ups and actually never taking his sweats off. I figured, as did the RSL coaching staff, that he would come in at the half or at least by the 60th minute, but other than running back and forth in front of me and dodging occasional tossed colored paper-rolls (I had nothing to do with that, by the way), Schelotto saw no action. The same was true for The Crew’s Alejandro Moreno, who rode the pine, as well. Turns out that this was all “strategy” by The Crew’s coach. He thought he’d have the two slightly built stars sit out in favor of larger, more physical forwards Emilio Renteria and Steven Lenhart. It seems the Crew was still remembering the 4-1 spanking they received during the regular season by RSL in Rio Tinto and thought that maybe the bigger guys would fare better. Maybe they did, because it sure looked like the game was heading for a scoreless draw until Movsisyan came in and became a nuisance along the Crew’s back line.

Movisisyan did not come into the game until late in the second half, but as soon as he was on the field you could see the disruption he caused in Columbus’s game plan. The Crew actually figured a draw was good, and then they could go home and win. Sure, that could work… maybe, but what if RSL actually takes the game and has momentum going into Columbus on Thursday night?

I’ve never thought that sitting back and trying to tie was a good idea. Better to just go all out and shoot for a win and see what happens. Maybe Columbus actually thought they were going to handle RSL better with the bigger team, but RSL’s fast, small midfielders and forwards seemed pretty tough. Now RSL has the momentum and all they need is a draw in Columbus to move on. The thing is, Jason Kreis won’t go into Columbus with a “strategy” to get a draw. He will take RSL into Columbus with a plan to win the game. That is always the way to go. Always.