When you’ve been in the league 15 years, played on a team that went defunct, won a championship and watched your sport rise to unprecedented heights, there isn’t a lot that’s new.
But 2015 is somewhat of a new era for Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman. The captain of the claret and cobalt is getting to know a lot of new faces in camp and familiarizing himself with a new formation. Beckerman and his teammates will face the Colorado Rapids in the Desert Diamond Cup final Saturday night as Major League Soccer wraps up its fifth season of preseason training in Tucson.
The title match will kick off at 7 p.m. at Kino North Stadium. In Saturday’s other matches, FC Tucson will take on the New England Revolution in the 4:30 opener at North Stadium and Seattle Sounders FC will go up against Sporting Kansas City in the 5 p.m. match at Kino North Grandstand.
With Real Salt Lake’s regular-season opener in Portland just a week away, the man famous for his dreadlocks and uncompromising work rate both on the field and as an ambassador for the game discussed the changes.
For starters, it’s time to make new friends. Midfielder Ned Grabavoy and defenders Chris Wingert and Nat Borchers, who all started at least 30 matches last season, are no longer on the team and general manager Garth Lagerwey left for Seattle after seven years with RSL. The team suffered the added blow of losing top goal-scorer Joao Plata for three to four months after suffering a broken foot in the first practice of preseason.
Beckerman, a six-time all-star, sees the pluses and minuses of new claret blood.
“I’m missing some really good friends that I usually see all the time and enjoyed playing with for so long, but the new guys that have come in have been really good and are trying to jell with the team,” the 32-year-old Beckerman said. “All in all, just good people. It’s been fun getting to know them. That’s the newest part.”
Where they’ll be playing is different, too. The diamond formation in the midfield — one player up front, two more in the middle playing wider roles and a fourth at the back — has been a staple at RSL for many years.
Beckerman is likely to remain linked to the back row in Real Salt Lake’s new formation, a 4-3-3. But now, he’ll be partnering more with another midfielder.
“We’ve got to get used to it,” Beckerman said. “It’s a different way of playing. … At times, it’ll be similar to last year where I’ll be the lone guy and other times there’ll be a guy next to me. This should give us, hopefully, a chance to maybe defend a little bit easier. Not that it’s easy, but it helps us spread across the field a little bit more. Rather, in the diamond, were a little bit narrow.”
