Real Salt Lake hopes to team up on L.A. stars

SEATTLE — Since taking over as head coach of Real Salt Lake, Jason Kreis has adhered to a pair of sayings when dealing with his team.

The first is "Fortune favors the bold," which the players see painted on the wall every day they walk out of the Rio Tinto Stadium tunnel. The other is "The team is the star," and the players also see that every day they walk into the locker room.

It might sound corny, but internally the players have whole-heartedly bought into the phrase, and it's a big reason Real Salt Lake is playing in MLS Cup this Sunday against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"It's the mantra of the team, it's posted up on our locker room, so it's kind of hard not to buy into it when you see it everywhere," said Robbie Russell. "I think the team does the best it can to follow through on what Jason started."

The "Team is the star" mantra was a huge motivational ploy against Chicago in the Eastern Conference final. Most of the attention heading into the match was on the Fire and their designated player Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who made $2.9 million this season.

RSL, which doesn't feature a single player with a salary over $200,000, ultimately won the match in a penalty shootout, and the players proudly talked about how the "team" beat the "star."

It will try and do so again this Sunday against a team with even bigger stars.

"I find it fitting that as we're preparing to play a team with two of the league's brightest stars, we shall see if our star, the collective team, can measure up to theirs," said Kreis.

L.A. superstar David Beckham makes $6.5 million annually, while Landon Donovan is among the league's highest paid players at $900,000. Overall, the Galaxy's payroll is roughly five times as high as Real Salt Lake's this season.

That disparity will be on display in full force on Sunday, but Kyle Beckerman isn't worried at all.

"We came here to win. We think we can win," he said. "We don't really care who we're playing, who's on the team."

RSL defender Nat Borchers believes Kreis' mantra has helped unite Real Salt Lake during a turbulent season at times.

"Among us, we feel everybody needs to do the dirty work," Borchers said. "Everybody needs to defend and attack, it's not going to be one guy freely playing an attacking role like Chicago has. I think that just builds a good team mentality just fighting for each other. I buy into it and I know a lot of guys do."

Wingert is another player who's bought into the phrase, not so much because of its rah-rah nature but because of what it represents and the goals it can help RSL achieve.

"Part of the point of that is when the team has success individually you all have success," said Wingert. "We've talked about teams that have succeeded in the past, teams like Houston and New England. Now you would look at those teams and say maybe they have stars, but a few years ago those teams didn't have stars they became stars because their teams were having success."

With a solid "team" effort in Sunday's final, Real Salt Lake hopes to duplicate the success of past winners. It would serve as further validation to Kreis' coaching philosophy.

MLS Cup

Real Salt Lake vs.

Los Angeles Galaxy

Sunday, 6:30 p.m.

Quest Field, Seattle

TV: ESPN Radio: 700 AM

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com