RSL youngster happy to be with new team

BRADENTON, Fla. — Imagine you're 19 years old, you've just been selected in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft, and your coaching staff is gaga over your potential.

There's not a doubt in your mind you belong.

As a member of the U.S. under-17 residency program a few years earlier, each day at practice you consistently outperformed players like Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley and Danny Szetela. As if that didn't make you confident enough, you were presented with the unique opportunity around the same time of starting at left midfield in a scrimmage with the full U.S. National Team around the same time, you more than held your own.

Now, imagine with all that talent and hype, you don't play a single minute of your rookie season with Chivas USA, a team that suffered through a horrible expansion year.

That was soccer reality for Christian Jimenez last year.

"I'd go to practice, and it was the same thing every day," said Jimenez, who Real Salt Lake acquired in an offseason trade in November. "I'd go to practice and go back home, knowing I wasn't going to play."

So when Jimenez learned that Chivas had traded him and teammate Douglas Sequeira to Real Salt Lake for Brian Dunseth at the end of last year, you can imagine his euphoria.

"That's what I wanted all year. I wanted to get traded, and I was lucky enough to come to a team where I wanted to be," said Jimenez.

So as RSL begins its second week of training camp in Bradenton, Fla., Jimenez is definitely one of the giddiest players on the field. He knows hard work isn't a futile prospect with Real Salt Lake — coach John Ellinger has assured him of that.

"He wasn't getting a chance in Chivas. I wouldn't have brought him here unless I figured he was going to get a chance," said Ellinger.

The ironic thing is that Jimenez's inclusion in the offseason trade was almost an afterthought.

Chivas was mostly interested in unloading Sequeira, a Costa Rican National Team player, and picking up Dunseth. Jimenez was kind of like a pack of gum at a grocery store checkout stand, something thrown in your cart at the last minute.

It's definitely odd that Chivas would give up on its second-round pick so quickly.

"He's a very talented player," said Ellinger, who coached Jimenez for over a year when he was the U.S. U-17 coach. "He's got a magical left foot."

It's that left foot, and his quickness on the left flank that should help Jimenez see the pitch some point this year. As it stands now, he's penciled in along with other RSL midfielders Tiger Fitzpatrick and Seth Trembly as back-ups to Robert Scarlett in Ellinger's imaginary depth chart at left midfield.