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Friday, November 30th, 2007 @ 11:03AM

Friday Morning Blogging

A good friend of mine wrote to tell me yesterday that since the return of my blog, Soccer and Real Salt Lake have been noticably absent. Well with heartfelt apologies to my friend and the many soccer fans out there, how about I dedicate this entry to the “Beautiful Game”!

Where to start...How about with my wrap up thoughts on the RSL season, which ended for a 3rd straight season with a trip to the postseason. I said back in late April when the coaching change was made and Jason Kreis was installed as the team’s 2nd Head Coach, that the season was instantly becoming an experiment. Leaving the field and learning to be an Head Coach “on the fly” had not and still has not ever been successfully done in Major League Soccer or any American Sports League for that matter. It was funny to me how so many fans loved the move and wanted change, but then when Kreis and his staff began to make changes (see Cunningham and Klein) people lost their minds. As I said at the time, you can’t have it both ways. There were plenty of mistakes made along the way (see the numerous fines for various and assorted missteps), but I think by the end of the season there emerged a core of talent to build around for RSL. I think that there are 4 core players that should be an outstanding foundation moving forward for RSL: Nick Rimando, Nathan Sturgis, Kyle Beckerman and Robbie Findley. There are other quality players on the squad (Seitz, Movsisyan, Espindola), but I believe those 4 provide a great foundation. That said the organization still has a ton of offseason work to do. Here are the 3 biggest issues facing RSL this offseason:

1. Finding a replacement in the Central Defense for Eddie Pope. I’m not convinced there is anyone on the roster today that can fill the role, much less Eddie’s huge boots.
2. Is Morales really the #10 for RSL. It was hard for me to get a read on the “Argie” due to injuries and inconsistent play in the latter half of 2007.
3. Who are the wide players that will provide service for Findley and Movsisyan? The leagues best teams (Houston, DC, New England) all have great wide midfielders to provide service, name me just one on RSL?

RSL made some personel moves on Thursday (at least offically Thursday) to free up some roster room. Christian Jimenez, Jack Stewart (gone for a long time), Chris Brown ( a real surprise to me), Steve Curfman, and Jean Kipre all were waived. Jamie Watson sent me a text last week to let me know he wasn’t going to return to RSL next season. That wasn’t really news, considering Jason Kreis didn’t put him on the 18 for the last 2 months of the season. Watson is currently training with FC Dallas in his hometown.

The RSL Coaching staff is out and on the road scouting right now. Head Coach Kreis in Argentina and assistant Coaches Fraser, Cassar and Johnson have been scouting college talent for the upcoming SuperDraft. Speaking of drafts, how telling was it last week when not a single RSL player was selected in the San Jose expansion draft....

Finally a quick thought on MLS and the rapid expansion of the League. San Jose rejoins the league next season and Seattle has been introduced as the 15th team beginning in 2009. There is talk of the league growing to 18 within the next 5 years. This in my mind would be a HUGE mistake by Don Garber and Major League Soccer. The talent pool in this country simply isn’t deep enough to sustain QUALITY if the league expands too quickly. Just simply look around at what has happened to both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, with expansion. The level of play has dropped markedly in both those leagues, which have a deep national and international talent pool, and play at the highest level in the World. Rapid expansion will absolutely kill the level of play in MLS.

There you go, a little soccer chat in late November…