Real Salt Lake Return To Pitch As A Team For First Time Since Pre-Pandemic

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake has finished their first full-team practice in over three months following the coronavirus lockdown, a milestone worth celebrating. On Monday, June 15, RSL trained for an hour and a half as a team.

“It was a great step in the right direction. You could see how everyone was excited after three months to jump into team training. We are so, so happy,” Kreilach said on the return of full-team training.

While assistant coach Tyrone Marshall echoed similar statements regarding the excitement levels of the team.

“The boys are buzzing to be back on the field, you can see the excitement, they do not want to leave the pitch. We had to usher them off the field and say hey guys get out of here, there is another day, come back tomorrow and get after it again.”

The message from Kyle Beckerman was, to nobody’s surprise, no different.

“It was just a lot of fun, I think everybody had a ton of fun out there just competing. Being able to play more of a soccer-style game with 8v8 and do some possession just like a normal practice.”

"We play with a chip on our shoulder." pic.twitter.com/i2B0gqjXAR

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) June 15, 2020

Furthermore, the club understands the importance of monitoring the workload of the players. If Real Salt Lake is going to make a deep run in the MLS Is Back Tournament, they will need to rely on healthy legs and a deep roster.

The first session back went for about an hour and a half, the players ran roughly six and a half to seven kilometers despite the session being considered a “light” one.

As the days and weeks roll by, the workload will slowly increase and by the start of the tournament, the players will be back to 100 percent fitness.

Real Salt Lake will play their first three group stage matches against Sporting Kansas City, Colorado Rapids and Minnesota United. The top two teams from the group will qualify for the knockout rounds, during the group stage, however, regular-season points will be on the line and if RSL is able to win the tournament they would qualify for the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League.

Tom Hackett is a Utah and Real Salt Lake Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the It’s Utah’s World Podcast (Utah Football themed) and The Lion’s Den Podcast (Real Salt Lake themed). Follow him on Twitter: @TomCantHackett.