RSL take identity from head coach

Purposeful or not, club's core very reminiscent of man in charge

Little known fact: Kreis is the only player to bag the historic first goal for two clubs. Look it up. He struck first for Dallas and for Real Salt Lake.

This league could be around for hundreds of years, and he still might be the only player ever to do such a thing. Suffice to say, Kreis made his mark as an MLS performer, even if he could never quite break through the national team glass ceiling.

Oh, he got a couple of chances in matches that didn't mean much. But Kreis played out his career as the consummate blue ribbon domestic leaguer, a talented striker who, for whatever reason, never could get a toehold on the next level.

It's a description that should sound familiar around the Rio Tinto camp. It fits so many at Real Salt Lake, a team that's been built, accidentally or otherwise, in its manager's image.

Heart-and-soul midfielder Kyle Beckerman's career is tracing a very similar arc. He's an MLS All-Star and one of the organization's most valuable properties. But when it comes to international selection, he's a little further down Bob Bradley's pecking order than RSL fans would like.

Same for goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who has long hovered just beyond the national team bubble. Javier Morales has always been a fringe international guy for his country, Argentina. Nat Borchers is a highly respected MLS type who isn't near the top of the totem pole when it comes to center backs on the national team.

Bottom line: Real Salt Lake are a team full of players whose place along the soccer star continuum looks a lot like their manager's.

Kreis says he didn't necessarily construct a team that way. But we all gravitate to what we know and what we're comfortable with. So, maybe it was something subconscious. Either way, building a team full of fringe international players seems to work in MLS. Houston has always done it that way and the Dynamo's serial success speaks for itself.

"The cap dictates things like that," RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey said. "What we wanted to do, from my perspective, was spread the money all over the field, and have depth as well. So it wasn't focused on six or seven guys, but was focused on 15 or 16 guys. So, that might send you toward the fringe national team guys, because the numbers are lower for those guys and you can put together a cohesive group."

Lagerwey also believes mid-level salary types can be more easily assimilated into a cohesive group. To his way of thinking, they are more willing to sublimate to the greater good and, generally speaking, more willing to work together.

"I don't think any of this is easy," he said about building good locker room accord. "It's hard work. But the one thing we tried to do from the beginning, we tried to create a culture where we empowered the players and we solicited their views."

Which is easier to do when the players aren't segregated into some unofficial caste system.

But it's not just the bonds of brotherhood that makes Real Salt Lake go. At the end of the day, athletics will always be about, well, athletes. To that point, RSL does have talent.

Guys like Beckerman and Kreis are more than the sum of their athletic talents, in fact, because they probably play with a little chip on their shoulder.

Kreis' signature season came in 1999, when he became the first U.S.-born player to be named league MVP. He claimed the hard-earned honor after registering the league's first 15-15 season -- 15 goals and 15 assists. Was it just coincidence that his breakout campaign came in the year after he was left off the 1998 World Cup squad? Perhaps.

In the bigger picture, Kreis was certainly disappointed by his lack of national team recognition. Back then, he found it increasingly difficult to hide his displeasure over the lack of opportunities, first under U.S. boss Steve Sampson and then later under Bruce Arena once he took the national team wheel.

Lagerwey had an interesting take on the then and now of Kreis' disenchantment: "When you retire as a player, you gain some perspective," Lagerwey said. "Believe it or not, when I was playing, I even thought I was a good soccer player. Time does lend some perspective to these things."

But that's now. Kreis certainly was a player who fueled his inner fire with the desire to prove folks wrong. He has fostered the same attitude at Real Salt Lake. Kreis is one of those managers who likes to call his team the perennial underdog -- whether it's accurate or not.

Now he has a team that buys into that mentality. RSL thrives on it, in fact. Beckerman certainly does, noting how many guys on the roster were more or less rescued from less-than-ideal situations or lower-profile clubs.

"Jason was a little unfortunate to be on those type of teams his whole career," Beckerman said after training Friday at Qwest Field. "Myself, I was stuck on a team that wasn't that good for while. I got out and got to an organization that really cares about the team."

While that has helped Beckerman get to Seattle, where he'll lead the side -- underdogs to the Galaxy by most accounts, naturally -- it won't do a thing to advance him up the national team food chain. In a strange twist of fate, three of RSL's best U.S. players happen to man positions where the States is particularly deep.

Rimando has little chance of elbowing his way up the goalkeeping depth chart, not with Tim Howard and Brad Guzan in the way. Marcus Hahnemann and Troy Perkins appear to be Nos. 3 and 4 at the moment. (All four are MLS alums, by the way.)

Borchers doesn't seem likely to crack the rotation at center back, even if he's had such a steady-eddy season at Rio Tinto. And then there's Beckerman. He's probably the closest to rearranging the established order -- but he's perhaps No. 5 or 6 at holding midfielder. That's just not going to be close enough to get him to South Africa next summer in all likelihood.

Will Beckerman be OK of his career comes and goes without ever getting a longer ride on the international train? He sounds OK with it.

"I can't do anything about it," he said with an unconcerned shrug. "When it gets to that level, it just seems to be about coaches' preference. If I'm not his preference, so be it. I'm having fun in MLS, playing with Salt Lake, and hopefully we can grab a trophy this weekend and really start something here."

Sounds a lot like something his manager might have said a few years ago.

Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve writes for www.DailySoccerFix.com and can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.

• Facebook
• Supporter Comments
• Email
• Print

MLSnet.com Comments

• 

  Number of Originals dwindles to one

• 

  Davis: Kreis still has answers for RSL

• 

  Olsen adjusts to 'a whole new animal'

• 

  MLS supports UNICEF's efforts in Haiti