Real Salt Lake opens the 2017 season on Saturday with a 2:30 p.m. MT start against defending Eastern Conference champions Toronto FC. It’s been a busy offseason for RSL and we sat down with the architect of the roster, General Manager Craig Waibel, for a brief Q&A to talk about what to expect from the club this season.
Q: Start off on the way last year ended. Obviously it’s not what you wanted, but what lessons were you able to take from that and help shape how you built the team for this season?
Waibel: “Some of the lessons we learned and some of them we were handed, right? We took each time we learned something and implemented it back into either the way we are applying our filters in terms of personality, performance, physicality, psycho-social – the things we go through while selecting players. It just altered our thought a little bit. There are a lot of us in the organization who are learning as we go and we’re being humble and taking the lessons as they come.”
Q: You talked at the end of the year about getting younger. How comfortable are you with the move to youth and how does it shift the expectation?
Waibel: “They do change because there is no way you can implement the same expectations on a different group. The fans’ expectations are that we win every game regardless of the moves and the strategy and the long-term vs. short-term plans. But the expectations change because we’re into a much more optimistic, growth-oriented mindset right now where we are defining our roster. We’re defining our style of play. We’re giving opportunities to individuals to define themselves as RSL stalwarts and longtime contributors and that’s a lot of responsibility that falls on everyone through the organization. Not only from myself and my group signing these players and presenting them to the staff, now it goes back to the staff to prepare them the right way, but then it goes to the player to take advantage of those opportunities. If the balance doesn’t happen, then we address it as we go. We’re in a very optimistic state of the roster. Now, with optimism requires some patience. Sports, in general, doesn’t require a lot of patience from a fanbase and I get that and understand that. But we’ve not only gotten younger, but we’ve gotten very, very talented. Now I might talking about getting a little older with some more leadership and more experience and that might be the next couple of moves. I think we’re now back to that point. We’ve really built a roster that’s very solid. Now we need to make it better. The balance could be anything from a world-class centerback to a world-class winger to … you never know. It’s really now about evaluating the group, seeing who’s taking their opportunity and making it last and then being honest about where it isn’t happening and making sure we pick those guys up when needed.”
Q: The four guys that are at the U-20s right now, Justen Glad, Danny Acosta, Sebastian Saucedo and Brooks Lennon – how important is it to the organization that players that are coming through the system have those types of rewards and that you can point to those when you get to the next group of guys that is either in the Academy now or will be coming to the Academy in the future?
Waibel: “It’s enormous for the club and for the individuals. We can take some of the credit. Obviously we’ll never take all of the credit because the players ultimately earn their right to be on that team. But there are opportunities that come along. We do have a role in it, but we’ll never take credit from players in their own accomplishments. We can only assist in their development. We certainly believe we’ve had a major impact in those, but that’s up to them to decide. I think some things are obvious. The playing time Justen Glad got last year clearly led to his ability to transition and to start games this year. At the same time, every player has a different story. Every club has a different story. From a club perspective, we would say we played a role in it. How much that role we played is up to those guys to decide.”
Q: How instrumental and important have Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando been in transitioning from last year to where we’re at now?
Waibel: “Obviously they are the stalwarts. They’re the guys that have made the transition and that comes from proving themselves valuable in multiple ways. And also from having the correct mindset to go through a transition. It’s a humbling process when you were the young guy in that process, battled your way through it, had a lot of success and then all of a sudden you’re the veteran in that process. Having the patience and the mindset to assist in making the group successful is really a unique quality. It’s a compliment to both of them and we keep them very informed in what we’re planning and that’s out of respect to who they are what they’ve done.”
Q: What is the expectation that this team has this year?
Waibel: “My expectation is that we make the playoffs this year. And that we put forth a quality effort and an organized identity throughout the performance of the season and then throughout the playoffs, be it one game or six games. We need to be consistent with who we are and how we play. Injuries in MLS – you never know when you’re going to run into them and how it’s going to happen, so some things are out of your control. It’s not a 40-man roster with 20 internationals, but at the same time we can control who we are and who we think we are. We may have to adjust tactics based on injuries throughout the season. But the expectation is that we define who we are, we believe in who we are and we execute who we are.”
Q: What is that identity? Is it defined at this point?
Waibel: “It’s a process. We certainly have it written down on paper who we think we are and who we want to be. 4-2-3-1. We want to be extremely organized defensively. We want to be explosive in the attack. But we also want to be courageous enough to put our foot on the ball and possess it when a quick striking opportunity isn’t there. We want to create opportunities through our possession and individual excitement. That’s who we need to be, but first and foremost – and we haven’t been it for quite some time – is a proud team when it comes to getting shutouts. You can’t lose a soccer game if you don’t give up a goal. You don’t have to be boring. You have to be committed.”
Q: What has you most excited for this season?
Waibel: “Most exciting is the optimism that comes with change. Every year in professional sports, there are a couple guarantees and that’s that something’s going to change. That could be two people on the roster or 12 people on the roster, a staff, a front office or whatever it is.. We made a lot of changes. We brought a lot of really good people in on the staff. We’ve brought some really good players in. We’ve brought some really good players back. We’ve re-signed some really good players that were here. The optimism is what has me excited. To really start to see that transition from where we were as a team that was slowly losing its identity to one that is hopefully quickly gaining the group’s new identity.”
