Rain, cold temps can't slow down Cup sides
Galaxy, Real Salt Lake ready to adjust to Seattle weather conditions Sunday night
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Coaches and players say they have experienced much worse, and the team that makes the quickest adjustments will have the upper hand.
The Galaxy's Chris Klein grew up in St. Louis and remembers playing a state high school playoff game with more than six inches of snow on the ground. It also was played with an orange ball.
"I've seen sleet, ice, snow -- the whole thing," Klein said. "A little rain in a nice stadium isn't going to bother me."
The Galaxy's Todd Dunivant still remembers the club's 2005 season opener in Columbus that was played in wind and snow. The Crew won that day 3-0.
"It was bad," he said, "and we got creamed. Tomorrow we're expecting anything with the turf, wind, rain ... but they have to play in it, too."
Dunivant emphasized teams have to play a little more intelligently in adverse conditions.
"Sometimes you can't take as many risks," he said. "You just have to be smarter."
Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman said rain, snow and wind are common occurences for their games. That and the use of an orange ball on occasion. He also said he didn't mind what he has seen in Seattle this week: overcast skies, occasional rain and wind and temperatures in the mid- to upper-40s.
"This is fine," he said. "I just feel for the fans who are going to have to try and stay warm."
If things do turn nasty, he said, players must be prepared to compensate.
"It will be just a little bit faster," he said. "The ball skips when it gets wet. You'll have to adjust your passing and be a little bit safer in dangerous parts of the field to where maybe on a good day you wouldn't even think twice.
"But with the field being turf and the weather you've got to watch out."
Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis said it's important the players realize things might not go as they had planned if the weather does deteriorate.
"I think the biggest thing you've got to sort out in your mind is it's not going to be a pretty game," he said. "You've got to tell yourself that. You've got to tell yourself I'm going to make a lot of mistakes and probably moreso than I typically do. I'm going to miss touches and miss passes, and we've got to move on from that very quickly.
"Oftentimes on a surface that isn't great or playing in conditions that aren't ideal, it's the team that reacts the quickest to those mistakes that succeeds."
The Galaxy's Gregg Berhalter, who joined the club this year after playing 14 seasons in Europe, has played in some nasty weather, too. He remembers one lower-division game in Germany in which even an orange ball was difficult to see in the snow.
Players also had to adjust their cleats for traction. Some of them resorted to putting screws in the bottom of their shoes and cutting off the tips to improve footing.
"That was really an old-school type of thing," he said. ``Heaven forbid you scrape somebody's leg. You'd rip it apart."
Berhalter said he doesn't think Sunday's weather would have an adverse effect on the game.
"I think it's going to be a good game despite the conditions," he said. "You just have to be aware that sometimes will happen a little quicker on turf and the ball might bounce a little faster. It might be a little more hectic with the first touches.
"You have to be aware of stuff like that, but it's the same for both teams."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com
