After two days off back at home, Real Salt Lake gets back out on the road for the next leg of training camp on Tuesday, heading out for a 10-day stint in Irvine, California. During that time, the team will continue to integrate new players into the squad and work on fitness while also fine-tuning the nuances of the technical side of the game. RSL just came off a six-day camp in Casa Grande, Arizona, for the first leg of preseason and Head Coach Jeff Cassar aims to build on the principles established there.
“We planted the seeds and now we want to cultivate them in each camp and get better and better as the preseason goes,” Cassar said. “We laid the groundwork, but we have a lot more work to do.”
The team is scheduled to fly out to California on Tuesday and then get on the field for the first training session. Over the 10 days in Irvine, RSL will face UC-Irvine and the USL Pro’s OC Blues before returning to Utah on February 12. In those matches, Cassar hopes to see continued progress in the team’s cohesion as the 2015 season inches closer.
After the grueling first leg, he was optimistic about what the team had already accomplished in reaching for those goals.
“I think we introduced some new ideas. We want to keep building on those – make sure they become the foundation. And then start to introduce more,” Cassar said. “By no means is this the final product on day one, but if we have a good concept and intelligent and dynamic players on the field, we’ll be very tough to beat. As we get better and sharper and cleaner with our play and our decisions, I think it’s going to be a fantastic dynamic.”
RSL will continue to train without Nick Rimando and Luis Gil, who will be in nearby Carson, California, training with the U.S. National Team ahead of a friendly on Sunday against Panama at the StubHub Center. Last week, Rimando played 90 minutes in a 3-2 defeat to Chile, but Gil did not see action in the match.
