4/07 News

[AreliusII]

Team will play hard, Stingers skipper says

Pitching and defense will be better this season, Ebel vows

*****

NOTE: Longtime Stingers broadcaster Steve Klauke, who now is doubling as the team's director of public relations, took a little jab at the area's new pro soccer team, Real Salt Lake, which opened its season with a 0-0 tie, by saying he would guarantee that "Our opener won't be nothing-nothing."

[AreliusII]

Real Salt Lake's players show fitness commitment

By James Edward
Deseret Morning News

Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger saw something during Wednesday's training session that he'd never seen before.


To sweeten up the intensity during intra-squad scrimmages, coaches often punish the losing team with some form of conditioning. Wednesday's punishment was three minutes of fitness drills while the winning team watched happily from the sideline with a refreshing bottled water.


After this particular drill, however, both the losing and winning teams voluntarily joined assistant coach B.J. Johnson for fitness drills.


As the players ran, Ellinger turned to fellow assistant coach Peter Mellor and asked if he'd ever seen anything like that. Neither coach, who have realistically been involved with soccer for a combined six decades, could recall a winning team voluntarily participating in a punishment drill.


The gesture doesn't guarantee a win this weekend at L.A., or even success throughout the season, but, Ellinger said, "It's a good sign."



UVSC TRAINING: The team's search for a permanent grass practice facility is still ongoing, but RSL officials have found a temporary solution.


Utah Valley State College has agreed to let Salt Lake train on its practice field beginning Thursday. In anticipation of its Saturday game at Los Angeles at 8 p.m. (KSL TV), the team was tentatively scheduled to travel to California today to practice on one of the Home Depot Center's outlying fields, home of the Galaxy.


The team hasn't trained or played on grass since training camp ended March 24.


Since that time, RSL has trained strictly on field turf, both in Rice-Eccles Stadium and the University of Utah indoor football facility. Even Saturday's game against the MetroStars in Giants Stadium was played on field turf.


Even though UVSC is at least 45 minutes from the team's offices, training on grass leading up to a game on grass is essential.



OFFICIAL SIGNEES: Jordan Cila and Cameron Knowles, who have been training with Real Salt Lake for the past month and a half, officially signed contracts with MLS, making them eligible to play in this Sunday's reserve game against the Galaxy Reserve.


Cila and Knowles join Jay Nolly, Noah Palmer, Michael Lookingland, Sergio Flores, Kevin Novak, Kenny Cutler, Nicholas Besagno and Jamie Watson as developmental roster players. All 10, however, are eligible to play with the senior squad during any game.



DRUG TESTING: MLS commissioner Dan Garber issued the following statement Tuesday following a request from the House Committee on Government Reform about the league's performance-enhancing drug policies.


"Major League Soccer is proud that together with our players we have been able to create the strictest performance-enhancing drug policy among the major professional sports through the new (collective bargaining agreement) that takes effect this year," said Garber. "It speaks to the caliber of athletes in MLS and our mutual steadfast commitment for zero tolerance with regard to performance-enhancing drug abuse. We look forward to working with Congress on its investigation."



BESAGNO GETS CALL: U.S. under-17 National Team coach John Hackworth announced his 18-man roster for CONCACAF Final Round Group A qualifying from April 12-16 in Heredia, Costa Rica.


Among the players chosen was RSL midfielder Nicholas Besagno. The 16-year-old was Salt Lake's No. 1 pick in the 2005 SuperDraft, but he has yet to join the team because of commitments with the national team.

[Jose Luis Luviano]

But on the other hand, RSL players' steroid tests will also finish 0-0.

RSL is paying tribute to the Blitzz....instead of playing home games 45 minutes away from where they usually do; now they are practicing 45 minutes away.

[clarette]

Originally Posted by Jose Luis Luviano

But on the other hand, RSL players' steroid tests will also finish 0-0.

Someone give the man a newspaper column!

[AreliusII]

MLS: Making best of bad now elementary for Watson
By Peter Richins
The Salt Lake Tribune





Jamie Watson, left, who is RSL's youngest active player at 18, defends teammate Matt Behncke. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Real Salt Lake's Jamie Watson considers himself lucky.
The 18-year-old developmental-team player is the youngest on the team, and therefore often gets the short stick from the veterans. During five-on-two practice drills, Watson is always the first in the circle. After training sessions, he is the last to get a massage - if he gets one at all. But it's not all bad.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Watson said. While he gets some second-class treatment, he said, "It is also like they are looking out for me, like I'm a younger brother."
Still, Watson would like a massage after practice.
He is actually the second-youngest player on the roster after Nikolas Besagno, but with RSL's No. 1 pick in January's SuperDraft away helping the United States' U-17 national team qualify for the World Championships, Watson gets the last-place treatment.
"Hopefully we can get Nik in here, so he can do all that stuff," Watson said.
Fortunately, Watson does not wallow in a hopeless position. As one of 10 players on the developmental roster, Watson still has a chance to play most weekends. The league this year expanded the roster limit to 28 players, so teams have enough reserves left over from the first-team games for development-team games the following day.
RSL's developmental team will play its first game against the L.A. Galaxy's reserves Sunday morning. Assistant coach Peter Mellor will coach the reserve-team games. Before Major League Soccer started the program this year, Mellor said, "Players outside of the starting 11 used to work hard all week without any closure to it."
But now that the league has allowed this kind of organization, players that do not see time in the first-team's game on Saturday against the Galaxy


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will have a chance against the reserves the next day.
"It's well overdue; we needed it badly," Mellor said. "It gives the players something to live for."
The league's new method of organizing teams mirrors how teams work on the international scene. In England, Mellor said, the reserve teams play an important role.
"It is a key ingredient for a player that is not established to prove [his] point," Mellor said. In addition, the quality of play in the league should develop quicker now. A player such as Watson, for instance, would otherwise be playing in college against lower-level opposition.
"The league is taking steps to become like every other league in the world," Watson said. "This is one of the best things the league has done."
Developmental-team player Sergio Flores knows all about the international model, having played on reserve teams in South America the last three years.
"In Argentina, it's a big thing," Flores said. Soccer fans in that country, he said, show up early to watch the reserve teams in action and end up watching two games.
"It's a good thing that the league is doing that this year," Flores said. "It's going to end up being like what Argentina has now."

[Jim Umber]

Originally Posted by AreliusII

NOTE: Longtime Stingers broadcaster Steve Klauke, who now is doubling as the team's director of public relations, took a little jab at the area's new pro soccer team, Real Salt Lake, which opened its season with a 0-0 tie, by saying he would guarantee that "Our opener won't be nothing-nothing."

Well, their openner wouldn't even have been played! Baseball games get cancelled for a lot less rain and wind than that!