When Raphael wakes up from his coma in the 1990 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie, there’s a short training montage showing all four brothers, reunited again. The fervor with which they practice shows how long they’ve been apart, and just how anxious they’ve been to be together again.
That’s a little like how Real Salt Lake felt when the team completed its first full training session Monday since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Major League Soccer to suspend the season in mid-March.
“The boys, they’re buzzing just to be back on the field,” assistant coach Tyrone Marshall said during a Zoom call with media. “You can see the excitement. They don’t want to leave the pitch. We had to kind of usher them off the field and say, ‘Hey guys, get out of here. There’s another day.’”
The league started allowing teams earlier this month to submit plans for full team training.
Marshall said players noticed on social media that Atlanta United and other teams had started their full sessions and asked why it was training, but not RSL. He said the club wanted to make sure it was following the health protocols and was waiting on just a few more approvals.
“You could tell how anxious those guys are to get back on the pitch and get playing, get the ball rolling,” Marshall said. “It’s players. That’s what they want to do. They want to get on the field and play.”
RSL conducted a light session for about an hour and a half Monday, which Marshall said was typical of normal Monday sessions during the season.
Midfielder Damir Kreilach said everyone was happy to be back with one another. He added that from his perspective, no one on the team looked like they lacked fitness because the individual and small group training sessions were performed at a high level.
“Because of that, you could see today that everyone is fit,” Kreilach said. “At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.”
Captain Kyle Beckerman said the mood around the team was positive and filled with a sense that getting back to what the players are accustomed to.
“It was just a lot of fun,” Beckerman said, “I think everybody had a ton of fun out there just competing, being able to play more of a soccer-style game with 8-vs-8 and do some sessions just like a normal practice.”
Marshall said the coaching staff talked after Monday’s session and concluded the team looked “better than how they did in preseason.”
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