Real Salt Lake: Opens preseason camp with familiar faces

SANDY — It's been an extremely quiet offseason — even in the rumor department — for Real Salt Lake on the player movement front.

In an offseason when Yura Movsisyan left for Europe and the club traded away Clint Mathis and Chris Seitz, the lone inbound players were a striker picked off the waiver wire and four rookies claimed in the SuperDraft. It hardly seems like a recipe for defending a championship, especially when that title creates a busier schedule.

When Real Salt Lake reports to training camp on Feb. 10, a week after the mandatory mini camp for the four rookies, 22 of the 27 players in camp will be holdovers from the year before. It's a vastly different approach to many MLS teams who bolstered their rosters by signing international players.

"We believe in ourselves. I know there's some folks out there that don't and who feel like we went on a run, played good soccer for two months and got lucky, and that's fine," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey. "They're entitled to that opinion. But that's not how we feel. We feel like we're a pretty good team and we feel we performed to our potential, and because of that we're going to keep the same group."

Lagerwey said the first bite of the playing-time apple in 2010 will go to those who contributed in 2009.

"We feel like the guys in our locker room have earned the chance to try and take the next step," he said.

That's great news for Ned Grabavoy, the unsung hero of the MLS cup, along with second-year players Nelson Gonzalez and Jean Alexandre, and rookie Collen Warner. Lagerwey said they'll each be given the opportunity to earn more playing time in the midfield with the departure of Mathis to the L.A. Galaxy.

At striker, Real Salt Lake is prepared to hand over the scoring void created by Movsisyan's move to Denmark to the combination of Fabian Espindola, Pablo Campos and newcomer Abe Thompson, who Kansas City waived at the end of last season. Even though RSL hasn't added anyone significant to the roster this offseason, Lagerwey said the club is still keeping its eyes open.

"It's not like we're not looking. You're always looking, you always want to get better and there's always ways to get better," said Lagerwey. "We're not a perfect team, nor are we arrogant on that level that we've built this unstoppable juggernaut where there's no risk and no margin for failure."

If six weeks of training camp and the first three weeks of the regular season doesn't convince RSL's coaching staff that it has the necessary pieces to be competitive early in 2010, they have until the MLS primary registration window closes on April 15 to find replacements.

Real Salt Lake took a similar approach last season, which ultimately panned out with a championship but looked like a failed experiment for most of the season. After making a late-season push to get into the playoffs in 2008, and making a run to the Western Conference championship, RSL's coaching staff believed those same players were good enough to make the club a contender in 2009.

The gamble backfired as the team opened the campaign with a disappointing 3-6-2 record. RSL eventually figured things and snuck into the playoffs on the final weekend. Nonetheless, in an offseason where most teams appear to be improving, the team can't afford another slow start.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com