Real Salt Lake has less than three weeks before taking on Tigres in the first leg of the Quarterfinal Round series in the CONCACAF Champions League on February 24 in Monterrey, Mexico. After the club’s first preseason trip to Oceanside, California, Head Coach Jeff Cassar saw serious progress in his team and is optimistic about the direction of the team heading into the pivotal stages of preparation, but he has emphasized to his team that the journey to get to the level they will need to reach is far from complete.
“We really wanted to lay the foundation of what we wanted to do defensively. We’ll have to continue to build from that. At times, we did an extremely good job of that, now we have to make sure we are doing that for long stretches the entire game,” Cassar said upon RSL’s brief return to Utah. “That last game in Tijuana showed that we still need to improve, but it also was really promising because when we did it right it worked out really well.”
In RSL’s California adventure, the team focused on the defensive side of the ball, ironing out shape and communication. While it hit some rockiness in a 1-0 defeat to Tijuana in the second preseason match on Tuesday, the first on Saturday against San Diego State University put on display some of the pace and pressure that the Claret-and-Cobalt intend to institute on defense this season.
That doesn’t just mean increasing the intensity among the back four or with the two midfielders sitting in front of the defenders. Cassar saw more continuity in the defensive pressure from all 11 players in stretches in California and Mexico. Getting the full commitment for 90 minutes each match will be important in the execution.
“The truth is we are just nine days into preseason after a really long off-season and it’s a credit to the players,” Cassar said. “We’re getting really good buy-in and we’re starting at a much higher fitness level than we did last year. I think this first trip was really productive.”
Now, Real Salt Lake is back in Utah with a few days off of the field before resuming camp on Sunday in Tucson, Arizona. There, RSL will meet the Portland Timbers on February 11, Seongnam FC (South Korea) on February 14, the New England Revolution on February 17 and the Columbus Crew on February 20. Those four matches will be used to get the players closer and closer to full fitness as they prepare for the big matchup with Tigres.
In addition to working on fitness, form and tactics, RSL will also look to integrate midfielder newcomer Sunday Stephen Obayan, who is scheduled to join the team for the trip, and returning defender Chris Wingert, who spent last season with New York City FC after seven seasons with RSL. That makes the tasks in Arizona all the more critical.
“We need to continue on our fitness. Four games should help us out a lot with that. We’re also going to continue to nail down the defensive side, but now really introduce what we want to do with the ball in all the phases of the attack and really start to do video in preparation for Tigres and Orlando City, which is right around the corner too,” Cassar said. “It’s going to be a busy time down there, but I know the players really want to play games as much as possible.”
