Pressure between the posts for Real Salt Lake

No Real Salt Lake player is under more pressure this year than D.J. Countess.

As the only RSL keeper with MLS experience, which is minimal at best, the stage has been set for Countess, 23, to be the goat or the hero every night — and there's realistically no one to save him.

Sure, backup rookie keepers Jay Nolly and Noah Palmer have enjoyed solid training camps, but their inexperience should keep Countess between the posts all season long.

"The goalkeeping position in particular is a position you have to learn psychologically to thrive on pressure," said RSL assistant Peter Mellor, who is also the team's goalkeeper coach.

No one knows about that pressure more than Mellor. He was a professional keeper in England for 17 years, and now his task is to impart that wisdom on to Countess. It is by no means a new task either.

When Countess was with the under-17 U.S. National Team, Mellor was the teenage prodigy's coach. As a teenager working his way up the soccer ladder, Countess was often regarded as the next great U.S. National Team keeper.

"Even Bruce Arena called me after the U-17 championships and said 'your keeper is unbelievable,' " said Mellor.

Back then, Countess was a diamond, according to Mellor. Now, he's a diamond in the rough.

"First and foremost, my job is to make sure he becomes that diamond for Real, and I'd like to see him also, in the not too distant future, get back into the national scene," said Mellor.

Two things that have seemingly held Countess back all these years is a starting job he could call his own, and coaches who believed in him. You'd be hard-pressed to find coaches with more faith in their keeper than Mellor and head coach John Ellinger.

During the MLS expansion draft last November, RSL's coaching staff bypassed several outstanding and experienced keepers to go with Countess in the second round. If that wasn't a show of confidence, then what is?

"We have to just get him back to being a diamond, and take off those rough edges," said Mellor. "All around I feel he's pretty solid, he just needs the opportunity and an extended run to prove himself."

One of those rough edges is his ability to read the game. Countess reads the game pretty well, according to Mellor, but acknowledges that the next step can only be attained through game experience.