“Play ball.”
The two simple words tweeted by Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando (@NickRimando) were a signal that the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Soccer and the Major League Soccer Players Union had been reached.
What had been a cloud looming over the last week of training camp, particularly with many teams missing key players while they worked around the clock to finalize the agreement on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., has now parted and the spotlight that broke through those clouds can now duly shine on the opening weekend in MLS.
Rimando, Chris Schuler and Tony Beltran were all in D.C. representing the RSL locker room and they rejoined the team on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s matchup with the Portland Timbers.
“These last two weeks have been a little bit weird with all the negotiations. As a coach, you want everybody’s minds concentrated on one thing, but I understand what had to be done,” Head Coach Jeff Cassar said. “Now we can move forward and really start to focus on ourselves and Portland.”
The RSL trio flew from D.C. to Salt Lake on Thursday, then trained in Sandy before flying to Portland, putting to end a whirlwind week filled with meetings and negotiations.
“I was proud of the group in there because that’s an extremely tough position to be having to make those decisions as they come,” Beltran said. “Now we’ve got a game in a couple days and you’ve got to shift back to ‘get it done’ mode.”
All 20 MLS teams will take the field on opening weekend, with Real Salt Lake facing the Timbers on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. MT with live television coverage on KMYU.
