Nothing's working for woeful RSL

The coming weeks are very critical for not only Real Salt Lake, but also coach Jason Kreis.

It's unlikely that Kreis is feeling pressure yet from his fiercely loyal owner Dave Checketts, but the bottom line is RSL is struggling. It is coming off a month in which it posted a 0-4-2 record with a whopping three goals scored.

The coaching staff has juggled personnel, formations and tactics in hopes of reviving what was once a pretty confident and exciting team, but nothing seems to be working.

Kreis insists he hasn't lost confidence in his players, but admits he's feeling some pressure.

"I am trying everything I can. Thinking about it all the time, and if you have doubts you can call my wife and ask her," said Kreis. "And that's all we can do as a staff, continue to try and continue to believe and continue to hammer away and try and get the right things done in the training session, and hopefully it's going to come clean and I still believe it will."

Kreis naysayers believe his lack of coaching experience is catching up with him. His supporters are quick to point out that it's the players who are underachieving.

Perhaps it's a combination of the two that has pushed Real Salt Lake toward the bottom of the Western Conference standings in the past month.

"The stretch has introduced doubt in myself. I still don't doubt these players, but I still keep asking myself what I can do to get these guys to play better," said Kreis.

The 35-year-old Kreis, still the youngest head coach in MLS, is trying to draw upon his experience as a player to help figure things out.

"As a player, I always felt like we'd go through difficult patches, and sometimes you think the coach isn't doing the right stuff to have the players feel like they're playing well," he said. "So I'm thinking about what we can do differently, and what we need to do a little bit differently to get these guys to play better."

The talent seems to be good enough, after all this is virtually the same group of players that led RSL to its first playoff berth last year. The players, however, don't appear to be performing up to their potential.

General manager Garth Lagerwey reiterated this week that there's no reason this team shouldn't be competing near the top of the MLS table. Right now RSL isn't even close to the top, and even though the MLS season is extremely long, the window is shrinking for the Real Salt Lake coaching staff to figure things out.

RSL keeper Nick Rimando said it's up to the players to pull their weight as well.

"When you lose a game, the players look at themselves and the coaches look at themselves about what they could've done right," said Rimando. "When you keep on switching things up and it's still wrong it's tough to swallow. Not saying that he was wrong, they're just trying to find a mix of a players and a combination of people that can get the job done."

Internally, RSL it is one victory away from turning things around. It would be even sweeter if that win came this Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium against rival Colorado.

A loss could be a devastating result for RSL, a historically bad road team that plays its next two games on the road.

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com