This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Real Salt Lake followers understand the quirky nature of the Major League Soccer playoffs as well as anyone. Their team won the 2009 championship after posting a losing record in the regular season.
Yet having teams operated by two former RSL executives in Saturday's MLS Cup final is not what this franchise needed, in terms of owner Dell Loy Hansen's image these days. The club would welcome any favorable impression, after last month's moves of retaining coach Jeff Cassar and parting ways with midfielder Javier Morales were not exactly embraced by the fan base. This is not helping.
RSL's proud history will be represented in the 2016 title game by Seattle general manager Garth Lagerwey and Toronto president Bill Manning. Anyone who witnessed their impact with RSL should be happy for them personally, and everything they're doing reinforces how fans should appreciate how former owner Dave Checketts brought them here.
The problem is how often the "former" label appears in this story. The success of Lagerwey and Manning only drives home the point that they're not working here anymore. Real may never be the same without them or former coach Jason Kreis.
The NBA comparison is how Atlanta reached the 2015 Eastern Conference finals with ex-Jazz players Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver and DeMarre Carroll. Each departure was defensible, when analyzed independently. But when viewed collectively, and with the Jazz and RSL not having any playoff success lately, questions naturally persist about why they got away.
Saturday's Toronto-Seattle meeting will conclude the second full seasons for Manning and Lagerwey with their new teams. Their work is measurable in those markets and their absence is noticeable in Sandy, where RSL lost in the first round of the 2016 playoffs after missing postseason play last season.
Those teams are where they are because of divergent decisions. Manning kept Toronto's coach last year and Lagerwey fired Seattle's coach in July.
Each move took some courage. Sigi Schmid was synonymous with the Sounders after eight years and Greg Vanney had not distinguished himself with the Reds, as of Manning's arriving in Toronto in October 2015.
Manning chose to halt Toronto's constant turnover of coaches. Lagerwey made a midseason move by promoting assistant coach Brian Schmetzer with Seattle in ninth place, nine points below the Western Conference playoff cut.
The Sounders' rise under Schmetzer (who was awarded the permanent job in early November) coincided with the arrival of star midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro. With a 14-14-6 record, Seattle earned the West's No. 4 seed — finishing two points ahead of No. 6 RSL, thanks to a 2-1 victory in the regular-season finale.
Seattle cruised through the West playoffs, beating Kansas City, Dallas and Colorado. The Sounders have done it without Clint Dempsey, sidelined since August with an irregular heartbeat.
Toronto, with former RSL midfielder Will Johnson having recovered from a broken bone in his leg, was the East's No. 3 seed. The Reds have beaten Philadelphia, New York and Montreal. The all-Canada conference final series was crazy, with Toronto trailing 3-0 after 53 minutes of the first leg before winning 7-5 in aggregate.
It would be worse for RSL's perception if Kreis were having more success since leaving after the team's 2013 MLS Cup final loss to Sporting Kansas City. Then again, Kreis' firing by the expansion New York City FC after only one season shouldn't indict him, and he's already shown signs of progress after being hired by the Orlando City SC in late July.
Cassar, his successor, has earned one more year to prove himself. And that's where RSL's story resumes, regardless of whether Lagerwey or Manning hoists a trophy Saturday in Toronto. The club already faced pressure to show significant progress in 2017, even without the latest reminder that the people who made RSL a model franchise are gone.
Twitter: @tribkurt