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Real Salt Lake coach Mike Petke's rousing critique of MLS's refereeing and the review process after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Sporting Kansas City turned heads nationally.
Internally, it stoked a fire.
"I thought it was great," said captain Kyle Beckerman, who received a red card at Portland Wednesday that RSL unsuccessfully appealed, leaving Beckerman ineligible to play on Saturday. "He's our leader, and he's fighting for us, and he's letting us know.
"And it's important because we're a small-market team here, and a lot of the small-market teams, they get looked over. And Mike's not going to let it happen. It's great to see. We all want to fight for him even harder."
In his postgame press conference Saturday, Petke criticized referees, the independent panel in charge of reviewing appeals and the MLS Disciplinary Committee for what he saw as inconsistencies in their handling of disciplinary sanctions.
Petke has not received a response from the league, he said, but he expects to.
"It definitely had us all fired up and kind of playing with a chip on our shoulder now," midfielder Luke Mulholland said. "If we didn't already, we will for the remainder of the season, definitely."
RSL fans had a similarly enthusiastic reaction. They borrowed from Petke's postgame comments to start hashtags like #thefreakingprinterbroke and #passtheseouttrey.
An account called "Mike Petke's Printer," surfaced on Twitter.
"I am who I am," Petke said on Tuesday. "I just spoke my mind. It wasn't premeditated, and that's it."
Opening the flood gates?
Forward Luis Silva scored his first MLS goal in an RSL uniform Saturday. He had gone goal-less in 28 league appearances, but Petke said he hadn't been worried about that statistic.
"His combination play with Jefferson [Savarino], Joao [Plata] and Albert [Rusnák] is big and vital for us," Petke said. "In his movement, his creativity, he opens up so many gaps for us. And I'm glad that he's getting the goals, but he's also had his hand in a number of goals this year, whether it was directly or just his movement drawing players out."
Silva scored his first goal for RSL in Monday's exhibition match against Manchester United. With that checked off, his first MLS goal of the season quickly followed.
"It's a good feeling," he said after Saturday's match. "I knew it was going to come eventually. I was just trying not to get frustrated because I had other chances in past games."
Petke said he expects more goals to follow.
Movsisyan's recovery
RSL striker Yura Movsisyan is ready to get back on the field, Petke said.
The designated player suffered a hip injury over the break and has not seen action in two league matches and a friendly since. He was available off the bench Saturday, but Petke opted to keep him off the pitch.
"He wasn't able to play in Portland because it didn't feel right," Petke said, "and then to come home really and have one or two training sessions after being out for so long, it didn't make sense. It was a thought, but it didn't make sense fitness-wise and health-wise for him."
Movsisyan was unable to train for 10 days, during which time we did a lot of off-field work, Petke said. He stayed in Utah to train with the Monarchs when RSL traveled to Portland for Wednesday's match against the Timbers.
"It's just about starting from zero," Petke said of his recovery, "and then running without the ball and then incorporating the ball."
Sporting's Dwyer traded to Orlando
Sporting Kansas City forward Dom Dwyer has been traded to Orlando City for what could be a Major League Soccer-record $1.6 million. The Associated Press reported. Orlando traded $900,000 in guaranteed allocation money, plus more based on performance in the deal for Dwyer, who recently got his first call-up for the U.S. national team after becoming a citizen.
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