Real Salt Lake will meet a close friend in Vancouver, but 3 points are what both sides want most
Real Salt Lake will meet a close friend in Vancouver, but 3 points are what both sides want most
RSL will meet up with former RSL captain Damir Kreilach, who signed with the Whitecaps as a free agent this offseason.
Real Salt Lake will face the Vancouver Whitecaps for the first time in 2024 at 5:30 p.m. MDT (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV), but there will be at least a couple of all-too-familiar faces staring across at the visitors Saturday evening.
That would be former RSL captain Damir Kreilach, who signed with the Whitecaps as a free agent this offseason.
Kreilach totaled 47 goals and 24 assists in six seasons with Salt Lake, including a limited 2022 season when he underwent back surgery after just five games (three starts). The native of Vukovar, Croatia endeared himself to the team, the club and the fanbase in his time on the Wasatch Front, and even wrote a lengthy letter to the fanbase upon his departure — much more than a quote from a press release.
“Emotions are pretty high,” Kreilach told Canadian press this week. “And I think that’s completely normal. It’s part of what I love to do the most, and that’s playing football … I had an amazing six years there. I have lifelong friends. And now it’s something new. You turn a new page in my life, in my career.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s bigger than soccer and football,” he added of reuniting with his “brother for life” Marcelo Silva. “I’m so happy to see him, to see friends, his family and at the end of the day, all our friends from RSL. But for 90 minutes on the field, I will have no friends.”
Ditto for Silva.
“He’s a person that these days I call a friend,” the Uruguayan defender said this week after training. “But that doesn’t change that when we’re on the pitch, we’re very competitive. He’s going to want to win and so will I.”
Watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Real Salt Lake (1-2-1, 4 points) vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2-0-1, 7 points)
TV: Blake Price, Paul Dolan
Kickoff: 5:30 p.m. MT
Availability
RSL — OUT: Kevin Bonilla (knee-SEI), Pablo Ruiz (knee-SEI). QUESTIONABLE: Matt Crooks (calf), Justen Glad (hamstring).
VAN — QUESTIONABLE: Sam Adekugbe (knee)
Notes
With a win on Saturday, Vancouver would reach 10 points through its first four matches of the season for the first time in club history. A draw would tie the second-best start in club history at 8 points through four games.