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Vancouver, British Columbia • Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Real Salt Lake …
The team dressed only 17 players for its 3-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at B.C. Place on Thursday night — one under the limit — for a variety of unusual reasons, and even coach Jason Kreis just barely made it to the game because of a case of food poisoning.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, team officials said Kreis suspected he was felled by some bad clams eaten at a restaurant recommended to him by former team trainer Jake Joachim — who now works for the Whitecaps.
Kreis arrived late to the stadium and watched the game from one of the radio booths above the field, rather than the sideline.
His team already was shorthanded, with forward Alvaro Saborio and midfielders Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson and Jean Alexandre all away on international duty. Forward Fabian Espindola suspended for yellow-card accumulation.
Knowing that, midfielder Arturo Alvarez turned down an opportunity to play a 2014 World Cup qualifier for El Salvador on Friday in order to stay with RSL. But Alvarez learned the day before the game that his grandmother died, so he left the team to attend to his family in Houston.
And on-loan midfielder Yordany Alvarez was not able to travel with the team in the first place.
Alvarez is a Cuban defector, and unable to leave the United States because of his immigration status. If he does leave the country, a team official said, he would not be allowed to return for 10 years.
"We didn't have as many options as we wanted to," assistant coach Jeff Cassar said, "especially down a goal" after the first half.