RSL gets victory, but not the preview it wanted

OGDEN — Real Salt Lake's 2-0 win over the Ogden Outlaws on Tuesday night served more than one need, but it may not have served one of the most important desires for the coaching staff right now.

With three international roster spots open on the squad, coach Jason Kreis has several international players in as trialists. Tony Versailles from France and Uche Chinyere of Nigeria have been training with the team for more than a week, and Argentina's Javier Morales, who arrived a couple of days ago, and Matias Manilla, who flew in Tuesday morning, began training with the team before the game against the Outlaws. They were not able to play in the game, however.

"I was hoping to get a look at them in some game action," said Kreis, "but there are some crazy rules that we have to follow with MLS, so we were not able to get them in there. Hopefully, we can get all of the things out of the way, and they will be ready to play in the reserve game this weekend."

A fellow countryman of Manilla and Morales, Edgar Espinola, who came up through the Boca Juniors club that RSL tied in a friendly last week, is expected to join the team sometime today. It is not a guarantee that any of the players brought in will make the team.

"I am excited to be here and I am going to give it my best effort to show them what I can do," said Manilla. "I am a hard, physical player and think that I can bring a tough approach to the team. I think I can help them."

Although the trialists still don't have any time logged in an actual match, Kreis said that he has seen enough to make him think there may be some help on the way.

"I like what I have seen so far in training," he said. "The guys are very physical and are out there giving their all, so I think there may be a couple of guys that can make us a better team."

While the game with the Outlaws was originally slated as a reserves match, the team used it as a training exercise and most of the No. 1s started and played the first half. Kyle Beckerman gave Real the lead in the second minute as he chested down a ball sent in from Jamie Watson and had a nice right-foot blast to finish.

"I thought we used the game as a good practice for us," said Beckerman. "We used it to work on our possession even more, and I thought we did a pretty good job of holding on to the ball for long stretches."

Andy Williams added the game's other tally in the 81st minute on an assist from Chris Lancos.

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