Real Salt Lake Technical Director Craig Waibel joined the Bill and OC Show on Wednesday to talk about his impressions of preseason training camp so far and how the team is developing.
After spending a few days with the team in Irvine, California, and talking regularly with Head Coach Jeff Cassar and the rest of the coaching staff, Waibel was pleased with the progress of the team after nearly three weeks of preseason. He credits Cassar, but also the leaders within the team like Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales.
“I think they’re at a really good spot. Jeff has been introducing formation tweaks and different looks. The guys have taken really well to it,” Waibel said. “It’s your leadership that drives the buy-in and we’ve got great leaders. We’ve got good people in this locker room and guys that want to succeed no matter what they’re doing.”
RSL made some key changes to the roster in the offseason. The team, thus far, has adapted very well to those changes, with Demar Phillips, Jamison Olave and Pecka working seamlessly into the rotation in training.
Part of that is the returning players on the team leading the charge, but so is the work put into scouting those players before bringing them in. The ability to work their way into the team was a key element to RSL when they decided to acquire the new players. Because of that, the team is optimistic it can maintain the lofty expectations held by Real Salt Lake.
“We didn’t take a step backwards. We brought in good players. That was important to all of us and it’s good to see it in training camp and visually confirm what we thought we knew,” Waibel said. “Our main focus going into the off-season was to make sure that we acquired players that added to what we already had on the roster to give us a few more options. I think we accomplished that so far.”
To hear the full interview with Waibel, click here.
