Lehi » On paper, it's been four months since Real Salt Lake shocked the Major League Soccer world by winning the league title over the Los Angeles Galaxy in Cinderella fashion.
In reality, for the RSL players, those four months have flown by.
"It doesn't seem that long ago," Chris Wingert said. "We're ready and we're very excited to get back to it."
Real Salt Lake has been holding training camp since late February. This weekend, and during the next two weeks, they finally get to face some live competition. RSL will travel to Charleston, S.C., for an exhibition against the College of Charleston on Saturday.
The next week, RSL competes in the Carolina Challenge preseason tournament, in which they will start off against DC United on March 13. On March 17, Real Salt Lake will face off against Charleston Battery.
And on March 20, RSL will meet up against Toronto FC. All matches are scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m.
It's a challenging two weeks, but a fun time as well. It's a chance for the team to build chemistry on and off the field, a chance for Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis to settle on a rotation and a chance for the team to test itself against good teams.
"I'm looking forward to getting out of the cold and getting to some nice weather," RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman half-joked. "We want to go down there and learn about ourselves. We want to play well, and we want to stay injury-free."
As Real Salt Lake held a long workout that started late Thursday morning, some things became apparent. RSL is just as athletic as it was a year ago, it has an abundance of players who are capable of scoring and the depth in the defensive backfield, led by the likes of Jamison Olave, has the potential to be imposing on other teams.
What RSL wants to do, more than anything, is avoid the slow starts that have plagued it the past few springs. The key to doing that, Wingert believes, lies in Real Salt Lake's ability to stay injury-free.
"If we can do that," Wingert said, "we have the chance to get out to a good beginning."
