After missing most of 2022 with injury, is Damir Kreilach 'back' for Real Salt Lake?
After missing most of 2022 with injury, is Damir Kreilach 'back' for Real Salt Lake?
The 33-year-old utility midfielder from Croatia played 30 minutes in RSL's 2-0 preseason win over LAFC. But is he fit for opening day in one month?
HERRIMAN — For Damir Kreilach, those were 30 of the most important minutes of his career.
The Real Salt Lake captain, talisman and utility midfielder played a half hour in his first match since April 17 when the club opened the preseason with a 2-0 win over LAFC last week, after being sidelined for most of the 2022 season with a back injury that required surgery.
“I was as excited as I’ve been since I was a young kid, starting to play soccer,” said Kreilach, who thanks the team’s coaching staff, roster and medical staff for aiding his return after spending most of the offseason recovering and watching his native Croatia’s run in the World Cup.
“For me, it was a big 30 minutes. Now we’re taking a step forward, and the most important thing is to not have a step back. That is how we’re going to handle it, and hopefully everything is great. I’m looking forward to being able to help the team as much as I can.”
The next steps in Kreilach’s recovery are equally important as the last few: that is, making sure he doesn’t run too fast ahead of what his rehab will allow.
“The one caveat is, as a fan of sports, you think he’s ‘back’ and he’s going to immediately be back to Dami 2021,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said when Kreilach opened preseason training camp with the group. “As we know in real life, it doesn’t work that way — especially in this sport, and when we’re training on turf for the majority of the preseason.
“With Dami, it’s going to be really important to gauge his minutes and training. The first game of the season might be Dami’s expectations, but when you’re out for a good 12 months, it’s going to take so many months to get back to form, to feeling comfortable, to not even thinking about what’s going on. You’re just constantly in your head, and not playing as free. We’re managing his minutes … but his influence when he is training, in the locker room, is also super important to what we are doing.”
Kreilach, for all the praise he’s received for doing everything right in his recovery, as well as in keeping his fitness for the 33-year-old consummate professional, is still in recovery mode, after all.
The club, after all, is still in the preseason. And the 2023 Major League Soccer season — with upwards of 50 matches across multiple competitions — will truly resemble more of a marathon than a sprint. And recovery for that season could be filled with variability, as well.
“He had an ankle sprain the week before, too, so he wasn’t able to go in our intrasquad scrimmage. We thought initially maybe he’d get 15 minutes against LAFC, but as the week progressed, he felt better and better,” Mastroeni added Monday. “To be fair, he could’ve done 45.
“As far as his actions, they looked really sharp. We’re asking Dami to also stretch his abilities, as far as what he’s comfortable doing, in running in behind. There was a play where he broke behind the defense on a really close offsides call.
“But having him be multidimensional is a big area where we felt he can make the biggest gains; that’s scoring goals, which is where Dami helped the group in 2021.”
A midfielder by trade, Kreilach — who has played in multiple spots from emergency center back to center forward — led RSL in goals scorer for three of the previous four seasons before his injury a year ago. He’s scored as many as 16 goals in a campaign, and while expecting such a mark in his return from injury may be unreasonable to some, it’s also not impossible.
The club “wants guys that are fit, and guys that are sharp,” Mastroeni opined. That extends across the roster, but especially to those working through recovery like Kreilach.
Still, last weekend represented a key step.
“It was everything good, especially the way we played,” Kreilach said. “I would say we are only two weeks in, but the chemistry, the energy and the work rate is very high. The result against LAFC, as well … We have to realize they were the champions of the MLS last year, and we took a step forward in the right direction. This is exactly why we have friendly games: to see where we are at. And I think we showed that there is still space to improve.
“Because of that, we are going to work every day, because we know how to get there.”
The coaching staff’s sights remain set on the season opener Feb. 25 in Vancouver, Mastroeni added. But other goals will naturally follow.
“You can’t win the tournament in the first part of the season, but you can definitely put yourself in a tough position,” Mastroeni said. “Last year, it was our start that really kept us in.”
RSL has goals for the 2023 campaign; multiple players said that qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs is always the goal, but Salt Lake wants to qualify high enough to host a playoff game after clinching a postseason bid in five of the last seven years.
Kreilach’s goals, though, are much simpler than any of that.
“To stay healthy,” he said quickly when asked. “That’s the first thing. This club is a special club; we are like a big family. To be able to show like so many years in the past that we can do incredible stuff — not as a single, not as 2-3 or four guys, it’s going to take the whole group.
“We want to work hard with the coaching staff and Pablo’s guys; he’s leading us, and he’s an incredible coach to play for. I think every single guy in the locker room is excited about 2023. But we have to stay humble, work hard, and go step-by-step.”