By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (June 8, 2022) US Soccer Players - Most successful MLS teams have an identity. It could be a particular way of playing, or a physical edge that gives them an advantage. Maybe it's a leg up that comes from a bigger budget or a super productive academy. Real Salt Lake is known for developing talented players but doesn't get the current day academy accolades of the . . .
Six games in for six MLS teams
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Apr 5, 2022) US Soccer Players - For a while there, it was easy to judge Major League Soccer teams against one another. With an even number of clubs this season thanks to the addition of Charlotte, the league's weekend schedules had balance. Twenty-eight teams playing fourteen games in a given week means the season creeps along at an equitable clip. When everyone . . .
Underestimating Real Salt Lake is a bad idea
By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Mar 23, 2022) US Soccer Players - The American soccer public does not learn. Entering the 2022 MLS season, several clubs were in the conversation as Western Conference contenders. That included the usual suspects: perennial favorites Seattle Sounders, Bounce-back candidates LAFC and the LA Galaxy, MLS Cup runners-up Portland Timbers, and new Western Conference . . .
The top of the Western Conference after four weeks
Monday's soccer news starts with the top of the Western Conference with three teams undefeated. LAFC and Real Salt Lake both have 10 points with LAFC ahead on a tiebreaker. 3rd-place Minnesota is on eight points, trading a win for a loss. That none of them are on a dozen points might resonate more if it wasn't the same situation at the top of the Eastern Conference. MLS remains a week-by-week . . .
Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders renew MLS’s most nuanced “rivalry”
By Charles Boehm – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 3, 2022) US Soccer Players - "Rivalry." You don't have to be an MLS obsessive to know how heavily the word gets used around the league, to the point of inflicting fatigue on even the most dedicated fans. What started as an attempt to cultivate additional meaning in a young entity with shallow roots eventually became a central pillar to how MLS promotes and . . .
Mastroeni drops the interim title at Real Salt Lake
Tuesday's soccer news starts with USMNT alum Pablo Mastroeni getting the coaching job at Real Salt Lake. Mastroeni moved from assistant to interim head coach on August 27, leading the club into the playoffs as the 7th-seed. Real Salt Lake began an unlikely run, knocking out the 2nd-seed Seattle Sounders and 3rd-seed Sporting Kansas City on the way to the Western Conference finals. “I am excited . . .
Playing past distractions, RSL stays in contention
By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Sep 8, 2021) US Soccer Players - Typically, the on-the-field play suffers when things are chaotic for Major League Soccer teams off the field. Distractions are real. Teams tend to find it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand while keeping an eye on off-the-field issues. Eventually, it becomes too much. All that, though, simply makes Real Salt Lake's 2021 . . .
Real Salt Lake was the club making moves at the MLS transfer deadline
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Jun 4, 2021) US Soccer Players - Major League Soccer's primary transfer window closed on Tuesday night. It hardly made a noise when it did. The end of the first period for signings and trades across the league did deliver a few "at the deadline" moves, but most of the big business happened months ago. While we might be waiting on the European transfer window to . . .
Bobby Wood will move from Hamburg to Real Salt Lake
Friday's soccer news starts with USMNT player Bobby Wood's near future. Real Salt Lake announced the forward will make the move to MLS following the completion of the 2.Bundesliga season with Hamburg. Wood will join the club as a free agent with his contract at Hamburg done at the end of the season. "It was really important for me to get into a club that felt like a family and that's why it . . .
The underdogs in the Western Conference
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 24, 2021) US Soccer Players - The 2021 season arrives for Major League Soccer behind a vanguard of uncertainty as formidable as any in recent memory. 2020 wreaked havoc on preconceived notions and reasonable expectations while laying waste to rosters throughout a stop-start campaign. It’s impossible to know what might have happened in the absence of the . . .
