Real Salt Lake returned to the training field on Thursday for the first time since suffering a 2-1 defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday. With still 10 days until RSL hosts Sporting Kansas City, Head Coach Jeff Cassar is measured in his workload being asked of his team as it prepares for the final two matches of the regular season.
Cassar outlined three phases of training in the buildup to the match with Kansas City on October 16. First, the team will have competition-oriented sessions in the first three days, ending with an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday. The middle section will be technical and tactical. Finally, that leaves the final days for final preparations for the matchup with Kansas City.
“These first three days aren’t extremely tactical. They’re more for fitness and touches and competitiveness. We’re trying to see what our reactions are like and today was great,” Cassar said after the first session on Thursday.
RSL had several additions when the team returned to the training field, too. Most noticeably was Yura Movsisyan, who has been limited in training over the last two weeks after picking up a bone bruise in his heel in training. In addition, several Real Monarchs players joined the fray as RSL ramps up to the final two matches of the regular season.
With the USL season over for the Monarchs and RSL looking to extend some of the upcoming sessions, Max Lachowecki, Connor Sparrow, Charlie Adams, Amet Ramirez and Jesus Leal all worked with the first team to add depth to the training roster while Emilio Orozco did work on the side and James Moberg is slated to join the group on Friday.
“You can do a few different things. You can get your numbers bigger and have a team out resting or shooting or some other capacity to the game,” Cassar said. “It also brings a little bit of life to it. At times it can make it more competitive if it’s done the right way. We’ll be using them going forward.”
