Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jeff Cassar can’t help but smile when he talks about the progress his team has made in the first weeks of preseason.
The reason can be summed up easily in a 10v8 exercise on Tuesday. The group of 10 was focused on the offensive combination play that has been a key during the start of camp while the eight-man team was focused on the defensive side. The execution, effort and competition showed Cassar everything he needed to know about the team’s mindset and progress heading into the third preseason match on Thursday against the OC Blues.
“The commitment level from both sides was unbelievable. If we have that kind of performance against the OC Blues, that’s a positive for us,” he grinned.
The progression for RSL has been palpable with each session and subsequent match. However, Cassar also knows there is plenty of room for improvement. Increased sharpness, he says, will come with more repetition and that’s why matches like the one on Thursday are important.
“I hope to see longer stretches of positive things. We’re showing flashes of it and now it’s trying to get more consistent each and every time,” he said. “Making sure our movement is good. Just starting to ask for a little more quality and we’ve been getting that in camp. It’s been great.”
Cassar plans to play one group of players 60 minutes and another for the final 30 minutes, extending his first group further than in any other match thus far. Building that match fitness is the next step in the process of readying for the season opener on March 7 against the Portland Timbers.
On the field, Luke Mulholland targets two areas of play that he hopes to see most improvement in during Thursday’s match.
“Speed of play out of the back. Getting the ball into the midfielders and letting the ball do the work. In preseason you want to get your fitness levels up and eventually the football will start gelling. The sooner we can start doing that, the better.”
After the match on Thursday, RSL will return to Salt Lake City briefly before embarking on the third and final trip of preseason in Tucson, Arizona. There the team will play four matches in the FC Tucson Desert Diamond Cup in the final buildup to the start of the 2015 MLS season.
