LEHI, Utah — Having lost out on this year’s Champions League trophy
following defeat to Mexico's Monterrey, Real Salt Lake will take this
year's US Open Cup very seriously, head coach Jason Kreis said.
RSL begin their domestic tournament in earnest when they face the
Wilmington Hammerheads in at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday night (9 pm
ET, listen LIVE).
“We put a ton of weight into CONCACAF [Champions League] last year, as
everybody knows, and this is somewhat an extension of CONCACAF for us,”
Kreis said. “We view this as the shortest route to get back in that
tournament.”
The winner of this year's US Open Cup will earn a chance to qualify for
the 2012-13 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League. Following a
successful outing on Saturday in which they defeated Toronto FC, 3-1,
RSL are heading into their third round matchup against a lower-division
opponent feeling confident.
“We’re obviously excited, and we feel like we have a pretty good chance
to get a win and move on in this tournament,” midfielder Ned Grabavoy
said after Monday’s practice.
In fact, team captain Kyle Beckerman said he hopes the recent win is a sign the team is moving into a new phase.
“It’s a really good start to this new chapter of the season,” Beckerman
said. “I feel like we’re headed in the right direction. We’re starting
to see some bright lights to get out of it, and so hopefully there is
more to come.”
However, despite all the optimism, the squad understands that it has a
lot of work to do as it faces a USL PRO side that made it this far
thanks to a hard-fought 3-2 extratime victory over the Charlotte Eagles.
“This is going to be their World Cup,” defender Nat Borchers said.
“They’ve put in a lot of effort to get here, and they’re obviously
taking this very seriously — as are we. We want to get more hardware
and put it in the trophy case.”
“You can’t come into games like this [feeling] overconfident,” Borchers
added. “You can’t overlook your opponent. They obviously have some
players who will be dangerous and if we don’t come out and bring our 'A'
game, they’re going to punish us.”
Kreis offered his own perspective on the potential dangers of playing against lower-tier competition.
“As a player, I was involved in so many of these games where you have a
lower division team that comes in all hyped up, and essentially what
they want is your job as a player,” Kreis said. “I think every one of
those players would like to wear the Real Salt Lake jersey and is
looking to take someone’s job tomorrow night.”
However, despite the cautions, the team is confident about its chances in the tournament.
Unlike Champions League a year ago, RSL were able to enter the domestic
tournament straight in at the Round of 16 thanks to finishing the 2010
MLS regular season second overall. Because of this advantageous seeding,
they would only need four victories to take home the trophy.
“We feel like we have more than enough talent to do the job,” Grabavoy
said. “We’ve already bypassed some of those beginning games, and we’re
in a good position to go far in this tournament.”
