The remaining Utah Royals players turned at the sound of the men’s team jogging past. They were working out a clapping pattern, and the women smiled, reminded of their youth soccer days when that exercise was common.
Led by captain Kyle Beckerman, the Real Salt Lake players hit their hands against their thighs twice, touched their shoulders and clapped once above their heads.
“They’re getting on the same page too,” striker Amy Rodriguez said.
It was a sunny April afternoon at America First Field, and RSL’s training session began as the Royals trickled off the field following their practice.
RSL was about two weeks into an experiment Mike Petke had launched after a 3-1 loss at Toronto. He put a different player in charge of the first half of warmups every day in an effort to bring out personalities and encourage leadership. Between that and continuous conversations with individuals and the group on the subject, Petke said he’s seen players respond by being more vocal.
“Certain players are looked at by other players as leaders, and they have to start acting a little more like it,” Petke said, “expressing their opinions, getting the guys going a bit.”
DC UNITED AT REAL SALT LAKE <br>When • 7 p.m. Saturday <br>TV • KMYU
After that two-goal loss to Toronto, Petke said he knew what the problem was and vowed to fix it. The next week in training, he characterized it as an issue in mentality. Soon after, he introduced the new format.
“It’s on them, whatever they want to do,” Petke said after training two weeks ago. “It depends on personality. Some have been real lighthearted, some have been a bit more serious, but the good thing is they’ve all done actually some stretching and some active movement.”
There are some parameters. Albert Rusnák, who has become more of a vocal leader in his second year with the team, said he wanted to go straight into drills with the ball.
“But they didn’t let me,” he laughed, “so we had to keep jogging.”
The Monday after beating Colorado 3-0 he added: “It seems to be working.”
RSL hasn’t claimed a win since, but in its past two losses the team has put together 60- to 70-minute stretches in which they played as more of a cohesive unit than they have all season, including Sunday’s 3-1 setback at Orlando.
Corey Baird finding success up top
RSL Academy product Corey Baird was expected to collect most of his playing time with the Monarchs this season, but on Saturday the rookie made his fourth start and scored his second goal for the first team.
Baird scored the only RSL goal in the Orlando loss, but was unable to put away two other opportunities: a shot that glanced off the post and a one-on-one with goalkeeper Joe Bendik.
“He’s a young kid,” Petke said of the 22-year-old fresh out of Stanford University. “He put himself in good positions to get there, but that’s part of the learning curve.”