'We're tired of being the underdogs:' RSL celebrates identity, but wants to take next step
'We're tired of being the underdogs:' RSL celebrates identity, but wants to take next step
A week after being eliminated via penalty shootout at No. 2-seeded Austin FC, RSL players and coaches met with club officials to plot out the offseason and the next steps.
Real Salt Lake players and coaches are holding end-of-season interviews and meetings this weekend at the RSL Academy in Herriman before scattering for the offseason and re-convening next preseason.
For some, it will be the last time they meet as members of the club. For others, it’s a chance to gather further instructions for the offseason to come back next year happy, healthy and eager for another shot at greatness.
Either way, it’s a valuable time for players, coaches and media to understand where each player is at, and what needs to be done to take the next step in development, both club and individuals.
RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni and general manager Elliot Fall will meet with the media Friday morning, and we’ll have coverage from there.
But before them, RSL leader Justin Meram and several other key players joined the media Thursday following their own end-of-season interviews with Mastroeni and the club’s front office to look back on the season that was. For Meram, that included a playoff run cut short, and his first-ever hole-in-one on the links that followed a slightly (sarcasm font) bigger highlight in the birth of his second child on Utah soil.
But overall, RSL has “a lot to be proud of,” even with the disappointment of a penalty shootout elimination at Austin FC in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.
“Pablo’s first year as full-time coach; sometimes when you’re an interim, you’re playing with house money, and he did really well,” Meram said. “But being here, as the head coach, I’m sure there was pressure. And he delivered.
“It’s never easy to make the playoffs. Out of the seven teams that made it this year, only two made it last year. That shows our consistency of our group. Now we need to build off it, add players, and in my opinion, keep the core group together … I really think that the club with these owners, everything is looking up. There’s a lot to be excited for.”
Listen to Meram’s complete interview below.
Still, there is plenty to improve. After starting the year among the hottest teams in Major League Soccer, RSL fizzled in the middle of the year and only rebounded to clinch a postseason berth on the final day of the regular season by ousting Portland at home.
Still viewed as the plucky underdog that occasionally punches above its weight, it’s time to take the next step in the club’s progression and become a true contender for Supporters Shields and MLS Cups.
The talent is there, defender Aaron Herrera said.
“I think based on all the early season predictions, we exceeded expectations as far as the team goes,” Herrera said. “We’ve talked about raising the standards in training, raising the standards on the field every weekend. We’re tired of being the underdogs, of just making the playoffs and being the Cinderella team to the likes of LAFC or Austin. We want to be a team, like Austin, that goes into the playoffs and they’re expecting us to win. We’re never expected to win, and I think the guys that have been here for a long time are so sick of that.
“We’re sick of having the pressure not on us, that it’s on the other team because they’re expected to win and we want to be the team that’s expected to win. Having a home game in the playoffs would be our chance, and that’s the team that we want to be.”
So how do you go from being a good team, or even a very good team (at times) to one of the greats in Major League Soccer — even for just one year?
“More good players and more competition at every position,” Herrera said. “The teams that are the best in the league have competition at every position, form multiple players.
“We’ve got to score more goals, obviously, and we’ve got to be better defensively. There are a lot of goals we allowed that we’re just us shooting ourselves in the foot. We’ve got to be better on both sides of the ball.”
You can watch and listen to interviews with several RSL players, both in English and Spanish, in the playlist below. Just click on the video you want to watch, and go from there.
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