Real Salt Lake went into the break for Copa America Centenario with a 3-2 win over New York City FC to elevate the Claret-and-Cobalt to a 7-4-2 record through the season's first 13 matches. With the 2015 MLS Cup champion Portland Timbers visiting Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, it gets RSL back into league play, where six of the next eight matches will be at home. We caught up with RSL General Manager Craig Waibel about the first 13 matches and where he sees the team going from here.
Q: You’re at a natural break right now. With the way this team has played through 13 games, this team has played so many different ways. Does that surprise you?
Waibel: “It doesn’t surprise me because I’m responsible for putting the roster together and I know the type of roster we’ve assembled for this season is a very attack-minded roster with very special players in the attacking half that don’t want to be two way players every day. Some days they’re legs are gone because they’ve attacked so much. It doesn’t surprise me that we’ve been in more volatile games or high scoring games – as a defender I call that volatility. But it does surprise me that in certain games – whereas last year we saw a consistent performance where what we were in the first half, we were the same in the second half – and what’s unique about the team so far is we can play two different halves. A couple weeks ago I was at the New York game and did an interview at halftime and I was quite displeased. Everyone was. And everyone deserved to be, the players included. But the second half was a different game. We have players that are unique enough and special enough now to change with tactical awareness that the coaches make great points and adjustments at the half and it worked. What surprises me the most is the consistency along our back line. We had so much talk about the center back position and who was going to step in. Aaron and Justen have done a fantastic job. Jamison has done a great job in his role. He was fantastic in Colorado and we didn’t get the result and I felt horrible for him because he did well. But the surprise to me is the fact that we have the ability to change mid-game and get better.”
Q: Does that encourage you that the team can go out and have a bad half or a bad stretch to start a game and still find ways to get results?
Waibel: “We’ve started a few games flat and you always try and solve that riddle of what to do different and what to change, but the team, overall, has done a really good job of being dangerous and pretty entertaining going forward. The lapses where on the day LA was extremely efficient with the ball in the first half and remarkably efficient in front of goal, but on the flip side we weren’t that good. And it was a combination of a really bad half compared to another team’s really good half. Those are the headscratchers that drive you the most crazy. Where we’re heading is to continue working on the discipline on the defensive side of the ball. When we are disciplined on the defensive side of the ball, we are in the correct positions to attack the way we want to attack, be it a quick transition and counter or playing quickly to feet wide and isolating 1v1 and running at guys. When we lack that discipline defensively, we get all out of sorts and quite frankly when we win the ball people aren’t in the right positions to find another player. That’s the main thing for us to have more success is to continue to get more and more disciplined in our defensive structure. And, of course in MLS the biggest trick that everyone tries to balance is don’t collect injuries. Because injuries in MLS with the way the rosters are built are sometimes insurmountable.”
Q: This year the team hasn’t seen the same absences to injury and suspension as last year. What else has separated this team from last year?
Waibel: “I wouldn’t be surprised by the end of the year to see 25 or 26 guys start. The difference is, the 25 or 26 guys that start will have earned their opportunities. Last year, I think injuries caused a lot of opportunities to be presented. We are at 18 guys that have started and by and large have earned those opportunities. None of them have been gifted. Some people grasped those opportunities, put them in a headlock and never let go. What separates us from last year is that the people that have been called upon this year, our approach is much more professional from our staff, from our players, from our strength and conditioning staff and our training staff. We’re not perfect, but our approach is better and we are preparing players off the field better than we ever have and that’s putting us in a position where when we call on those players, they are playing with confidence instead of being a little bit wide-eyed and that’s what was happening last year.”
Q: This team has had great success at home and has found a way to get results on the road as well. What is the key to that? Is there something about the way this team plays that makes it successful on the road?
Waibel: “It’s the MLS rope-a-dope. You try and survive on the road. In nine road games, we’ve played five completely different styles. It’s been great to see. What we present is, we finish our chances. When you score goals, it changes soccer games. When teams try to play us straight up because the natural reaction when you’re at home is to play more aggressive and that leaves more space. Sometimes we’ve been able to take advantage of it and in a couple road games we haven’t been able to take advantage of it. But by and large we are far more dangerous in the attacking half which is truly giving us more success on the road this year. We haven’t gotten a lot of shutouts on the road, which is an issue that we need to continue to focus on and work on. But we’ve been able to score goals, which is the reason we’ve been able to get points.”
Q: This team has had success even without necessarily seeing players at their best. Does that make you more optimistic going forward?
Waibel: “It certainly makes me optimistic. We haven’t hit our peak level so we still have improvement. The good thing is we’re scoring goals consistently. We’re dangerous consistently. We’ve only really had one game where we weren’t dangerous. The big difference is, it’s not just the starting guys. It’s the reserve guys when they come in. We’re far more consistent in our creation of chances. Ever since Yura has joined our team, we’ve had two clear scoring chances every game. It’s interesting because the intangibles of what Yura brings are almost as important than the tangibles – the goals and the assists. Yura is a grown man and a mature athlete. He understands that it’s not just his goals that make the team win. Yura’s been all around the world and played in big spots and he’s interested in one thing – winning games. Whether that means his name is in the box score or someone else’s. It doesn’t matter to him. That’s what makes him unique, but it also makes the team unique. We’re just in a great spot mentally and we haven’t even come close to figuring everyone out. We like where we are and we love our depth. We’re building a team that’s an actual full team where anyone can start and everyone brings a different attribute so you can change depending on your opponent.”
