Real Salt Lake tops the MLS Western Conference for the first time in its short history after beating Columbus, 2-0, on Saturday. Sulaiman Folarin believes credit is due to Coach Jason Kreis, and to the team for the gamble it took by appointing a virgin coach last year when “there was a lack of focus and it was a club struggling for identity.”
“In the offseason,” writes Folarin, “Kreis chose to reform the club to resemble his team-oriented style. He has also instilled a philosophy of winning, a mentality of starting fresh and it has echoed throughout the new group.” Kreis himself said that the players “know to expect hard work every day in training and I expect the sessions to be [as] competitive as the game on the weekend.”
A new cohesive group with a positive mentality has benefited from the addition of key players such as Argentine playmaker Javier Morales, central defender Nat Borchers and midfielder Kyle Beckerman. “When I played in Colorado, we used to come into Rice-Eccles Stadium and beat up on these guys,” said Borchers. Kreis, however, was guarded in his assessment of the year so far: “I think we’ve had a good first half of the season, but certainly not great and not 100 per cent successful. We can do more as a team that will make us better for the second half of the season.””