Real Salt Lake notebook: Wingert didn't exactly want break

SANDY — Chris Wingert's coach thought he needed a break last weekend. He disagreed, but it didn't matter what the Real Salt Lake defender thought.

RSL coach Jason Kreis was determined to mix things up a bit heading into last weekend's match with D.C. United, and the result was an exit from the starting lineup for Wingert along with striker Yura Movsisyan.

"Whenever I'm not starting it's never a good thing, but you just gotta have faith in the coaching staff and kind of roll with it," Wingert said. "There's not much I can do except for try and have a good attitude and keep pushing forward. I wasn't happy with the decision, but we got a good result on the road with the zero."

Kreis said the decision was more about fatigue than performance.

"I think Chris needed a mental break because he's been going very hard since January with the (U.S.) national team camp, so I think he's suffering a bit more from fatigue than the rest of the players," Kreis said.

Wingert did eventually come on as a substitute in the final three minutes of the 0-0 draw with D.C. United, RSL's first road result of the season. Wingert might again find himself on the bench this weekend at San Jose if the coaching staff opts to build on last week's tie.

As disappointed as he'd be with that decision, Wingert admits overall it's a good thing.

"It's always good to have competition in practice," he said. "That's good at all times. It's one of the reasons we were good last year, because we had a deep team."

NEARING A RETURN: After missing nearly two months of action with a hamstring injury, RSL defender Ian Joy is close to being back to full strength.

Joy is expected to resume technical training this week, and all signs point to him returning to full training next week if things go well.

Joy pulled the hamstring in RSL's final preseason game back in March, and then he aggravated the injury perhaps rushing back too quickly last month.

Kreis joked that he had to introduce himself to RSL's new player at training on Tuesday.

Another player who's nearing full strength is Chris Seitz. The back-up goalkeeper separated his shoulder against Kansas City on May 16, and even though it seemed he might be out for a month, Seitz might resume full training next week also.

SECRET TRIALIST: An unidentified player trained with Real Salt Lake on Wednesday at Xango Field in Lehi. The team declined to reveal the name of the player, as it plans on filing a discovering claim with the league on the player and it doesn't want other teams in the league learning who he is.

EMAIL: jedwards@desnews.com