Owner says RSL preparing to handle 'unfinished business'

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Defender Nat Borchers had tears in his eyes, team owner Dave Checketts recalled, in the moments after Real Salt Lake was eliminated from the Major League Soccer playoffs last month.He wasn't the only one, either.But it was Borchers who Checketts said gave voice to what all the players and coaches were feeling after their unexpected exit — that they wanted another chance to prove themselves. And that's the way Checketts already has started to frame the next year for his team, as an opportunity to make amends by winning the CONCACAF Champions League as well as the MLS Cup."I've been around a lot of teams that have lost in playoff series and lost tough playoffs series," Checketts said. "I've never seen a team take losing as hard as this team did. In all my time, I've never seen anybody even close. And as a result, I think what we're dealing with here is unfinished business."Checketts said RSL "added a very good piece" by acquiring midfielder Arturo Alvarez in a trade from San Jose, and that retaining leading scorer Alvaro Saborio by signing him to a new four-year contract has allowed the team to improve in an offseason in which it expected to get weaker by losing players in the expansion draft.

Instead, RSL lost only young defender David Horst and forward Robbie Findley — one player who did not play for RSL last season, and another who said he planned to leave for Europe. Many analysts figured RSL already has enjoyed the best offseason in the league.

"They want another shot to go at it again, and that's what I wanted to give them," Checketts said. "We're building a team that's poised for long-term success and is going to be competitive for a long time. But most importantly, this now is about 2011 and unfinished business. We want to win CONCACAF and we want to go back and win MLS Cup.""We're stronger, we're better and we have Sabo back," he added, "so let's see what they can do."