"The first time I met Dave, I just had a little bit of a connection with him. He really struck a cord in me about how passionate he is about everything he does," said Kreis. "To go from being a player to somebody he believed in as much as he did to make me the coach, it just made me want to succeed for him very badly."

With a little luck along the way in the form of 90th-minute goals and a big playoff upset by New York, RSL has stumbled upon tremendous success the past three weeks and is now hosting the Western Conference final this Saturday.

Whether or not RSL had made the playoffs or even advanced out of the first round, defender Chris Wingert was a big believer in the philosophy and direction of Kreis and Lagerwey.

Shortly before being traded to Real Salt Lake last summer, Wingert was on his way to California to finalize a trade with the Galaxy. He received a call from RSL though expressing interest in sweeping in and making a better offer to Colorado to acquire his services.

"I had some long talks with Jason and this was a place that was heading in the right direction. I really liked what his vision was and liked where they were heading as a franchise," said Wingert. "I was in a situation in Colorado where the owner didn't care that much."

He noticed right away that wasn't the case Checketts either.

It was the continued work ethic of Kreis and eventually Lagerwey when he came aboard a few months later that had Wingert thinking boldly about the future.

Wingert recalls back in training camp how meticulously Kreis was determined to establish a foundation for success, and it had everything to do with defense. Wingert said the team worked on one-on-one defending, followed by pairs defending and then eventually team defending. It was borderline overkill how tirelessly the guys worked on defending, but Wingert loved.

"The organized teams in this league are the most successful because there's so much parity in terms of talent the way the league has spread out their talent, so organized teams are the ones who are going to stand out in the end," said Wingert.

Playoff success realistically wasn't supposed to come until next year according to Kreis and Lagerwey, yet here Real Salt Lake is two wins from a championship.

The duo has already provided Checketts a nice return on his two big gambles.

Western Conference Finals

Real Salt Lake

vs. New York Red Bulls

Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Rio Tinto Stadium

TV: Fox Soccer/HDNet

Radio: AM-1600, 7:30 p.m.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com