The End, and a New Beginning Eric Salsbery

The End...

This blog was started 18 months ago as a way to share our fun and antics on a road trip to our first MLS Cup in 2005.
It was just four soccer fans that thought we had something to say and thought people would want to read about it.

Scott Black, Scott Stucki, Steve McAfee and myself, all began this adventure for the sheer fun of it. We intended to play a few pranks, leave a few RSL stickers around Texas and generally have a hell of a good time. Then write about it.
Well we did all that and kept right on having fun right up until today.

When we started I never dreamed that we would still be updating it 18 months, and 89,000 actual hits later.
It has been a great experience being part of the blogger community. I have met and interacted with many great people and unfortunately a few not so great. But we have kept plugging away through many an educational experience. We have retained our original four contributors and have also added new friends that have all contributed in their own way to the success of Are You Loyal?

In the grand scheme of things we were just a small voice on the soccer scene in Utah. Our small voice has been straining under the limitations of Blogger for quite some time now. So we as a group decided that it was time to move on... To try to create a larger stage for our small voice.

A new beginning...

After months of preparation, a few setbacks and trials aplenty, today we are happy to announce we have that larger stage. A place where we can focus on the important things in the Utah soccer scene... you know... the soccer.

We don't want to be the biggest, the coolest, or have the highest hit count. What we want to do is continue what we have been doing all along. That is to provide the best possible original Real Salt Lake content on the internet.

we are not closing down, we are opening up... just in a different place with a different name.

We are now AYL Soccer and we can be found at www.aylsoccer.com. so please update your bookmarks.

What we want from you is to have you keep coming back for that original content and even some RSL news.

We hope you visit AYL Soccer and see some pretty cool pictures and videos or hear some awesome podcasts and read some interesting articles. You can even leave some comments for our writers.
Thanks for everything so far. As this new season starts, we look forward to having many more seasons providing original content for our loyal readers.

www.aylsoccer.com

RSL to Practice Tuesday at Rice-Eccles Eric Salsbery

Release from RSL Communications

SALT LAKE CITY (Monday, March 26, 2007) – Real Salt Lake has announced the club will conduct its training session for Tuesday, March 27, at Rice-Eccles Stadium beginning at 10:00 a.m. MT. All players and coaches will be made available to the media for interviews following the training session at approximately 11:45 a.m. In the case of inclement weather, RSL will move practice to Spence Eccles Field House, also located on the U of U campus. Media are advised to contact John Koluder in the RSL Communications Department at 801-924-8584 (office) or 773-726-0985 (cell) to confirm the location of the session on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday will mark Real Salt Lake’s lone practice session in Salt Lake City until Tuesday, April 3. RSL will leave Salt Lake City on Wednesday morning for three days of training and a reserve squad contest against the USL PDL’s BYU Cougars in St. George, UT, before departing for Las Vegas on Friday. RSL will round out the match portion of its 2007 preseason this Saturday, March 31, with an exhibition contest against the Colorado Rapids at Peter Johann Memorial Field on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Real Salt Lake Team Schedule: March 27 – April 1
Tuesday, March 27: Practice at Rice-Eccles Stadium from 10:00-11:45 a.m. MT
*** In case of inclement weather, practice will move to Spence Eccles Field House
Wednesday, March 28: Depart for St. George, UT; Training at Dixie H.S. at 3:00 p.m. MT
Thursday, March 29: Training at Hanson Stadium at 10:00 a.m. MT; Reserve Game vs. BYU Cougars (USL PDL) at Hanson Stadium at 7:30 p.m. MT
Friday, March 30: Training at Hanson Stadium at 10:00 a.m. MT; Depart for Las Vegas
Saturday, March 31: Exhibition vs. Colorado Rapids at UNLV’s Peter Johann Memorial Field at 7:30 p.m. PT
Sunday, April 1: Return to Salt Lake City; Off Day

Real Salt Lake & Freddy Adu to Make “The Hotlist” Tuesday Afternoon on ESPNEWS
The 2007 Major League Soccer season is fast approaching, and ESPN “MLS Primetime Thursday” sideline analyst Allen Hopkins will tackle some of the League’s hot topics when he debuts his weekly segment on ESPNEWS’ “The Hotlist” on Tuesday, March 27, at approximately 3:10 p.m. MT. Among the burning questions Hopkins will discuss with host Josh Elliott is the impact the off-season acquisition of MF Freddy Adu will have on Real Salt Lake’s upcoming 2007 campaign.

www.realsaltlake.com

An RSL Information Item

London Calling! Eric Salsbery

Some of you already know that I was away in London last week to shoot the world premiere of the Ford Films feature, Piccadilly Cowboy which opened at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) in London's Piccadilly Circus on Saturday, March 17th.

Leading up to the premiere, KSL 1160 and 101.9 The End ran simultanious contests to promote the movie premiere. Each station gave away an all expense paid trip for two to London for 5 days to attend the premiere.

I was hired by Ford Films to travel with the Grand Prize winners and document their trip.
I flew along with the two couples and photographed them doing touristy stuff and had plenty of personal time to go out and shoot my own stuff as well. I will be sharing the photos at Deuce Photo in the coming weeks.

The London side of the trip kicked off after checking in to the Thistle Victoria Hotel which is about 500 yards from Buckingham Palace, after check in to drop off our gear and quick showers we went down to a tour of Parliament where we sat in on a debate in the House of Lords. Then to an open top bus for a whirlwind tour of London.
I dressed in what I thought to be appropriate gear but was quick to learn that I was under-dressed for the top of the bus. My hands were too cold to take a lot of pictures.

Dinner the first night was at the original Hard Rock Cafe, where I bought a cool pilsner glass, which I promptly left on Tower Hill prior to the guided walking tour of the Jack the Ripper murder sites. Our group was met at Tower Hill by KSL's Doug Wright who joined us for the walking tour.
I was starting to get a little cranky after a 12 hour flight, freezing on the bus and losing my pilsner glass on Tower Hill. So I was very pleased when the tour ended and we jumped on the tube at Waterloo station and went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Ahhhhh! Sleep!

Friday morning I got to sleep in a bit because the itinerary was changed. We were supposed to be taking a trip to Warwick Castle but were given personal time instead. I joined one of the couples for a tour of the Tower of London. Actually they toured it while I spent an hour and a half walking around taking pictures on and around Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. I spent the day just walking around.
Friday evening we were whisked off to Her Majesty's Theatre for a West End performance of The Phantom of the Opera. In the grand scheme of things this was my first broadway style show and at the risk of my cultural well being I have to admit it was a pretty cool experience. I was not allowed to take my camera for this so no pics on this bit.

We wandered around Trafalgar Square after the theatre before we had dinner at a proper Indian Restaurant. The Rogan Josh was pretty good, however, the Producer of the Film, Daniel Shanthakumar, owns the Bombay House on Parleys Way in Salt Lake and has promised me an authentic Rogan Josh, which I intend to have very soon.

Saturday morning early to rise to catch a southwest train to Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle was the replacement for the Warwick Castle trip that was postponed the previous day. The Queen was at Windsor Castle. We did not see her but she was there. The castle was breathtaking, a picture right out of a fairie tale. Way Cool! Lots of pictures.

Then it was time for the Film Premiere. The big night, the reason we came all this way.
The premiere was on a busy London street so there were tons of people walking by. I stood outside BAFTA in a suit with my camera and waited for the limos to drop off the cast and the Grand Prize winners.

Each time a Limo would stop a small crowd would gather to see who was getting out. No one seemed disappointed when they did not recognise anyone. They just gathered around, smiled, ooh'd, ahh'd and wandered off when it was over. It was all pretty bizarre really.

Now for the Film. The Piccadilly Cowboy was a super small budget independent film written by Tyler Ford when he was in Film School in London. It is a romantic comedy about a Montana Cowboy living in London and dating his boss' grand daughter. He wants to get married but the grandfather has a couple of conditions.
I will leave it there and tell you to go see the film. The film opened in Utah on Friday. Check out the website for show times and locations. Doug Wright gave it 2.5 stars.
I am not a big fan of romantic comedy but I have to say this was a pretty good film. It had every appearance of a Hollywood production costing many millions of dollars. It was well written and the production was first class. I recommend this film as a "can't miss, feel good date movie".
This film's advertising is purely word of mouth so go see it... and then tell your friends.

On the morning after while the two couples went to church, I walked down to Buckingham Palace and Westminster for some more photos. In the afternoon we took the tube to the Valley to attend the Newcastle United at Charlton Athletic match. Too cool for words!
That was it. We came home on Monday and I was back at work on Tuesday. I caught a nasty cold on the plane. Still fighting to get rid of that.

Pictures coming soon.

Match Report: RSL at Fresno Fuego Eric Salsbery

Press Release from RSL Communications

Real Salt Lakeshut down Fuego 3-0
Chris Brown Strikes Again; Kreis, Tejada Convert Ballouchy Helpers

FRESNO, CA (Saturday, March 24, 2007) – Real Salt Lake rode an early Chris Brown goal and added scores by captain Jason Kreis and Panamanian forward Luis Tejada in the second half to defeat the USL PDL Fresno Fuego 3-0 Saturday night at Chukchansi Park in downtown Fresno.

"I'm very pleased with the week's work here in Fresno," said RSL Head Coach John Ellinger. "We now have two weeks to fine-tune ourselves for April 7 against Dallas."

Veteran Chris Brown, who scored twice in Wednesday's 4-1 reserve win, opened the RSL account in the 12th minute, taking a looping cross from the right side by Jeff Cunningham off his chest and slamming a low line drive into the corner of the net. DF Jack Stewart started the play on the RSL side of midfield, winning the ball and playing long to Cunningham, who took one touch and sent a 40-yard cross onto Brown on the left side of the box.

Major League Soccer's all-time leading scorer, Jason Kreis, put RSL up 2-0 in the 53rd minute, heading home a ball sent in by playmaker Mehdi Ballouchy. The second-year player, who assisted on all three goals in last Saturday's 3-1 over Chivas USA, curled a left-footed ball into the box from the right side, finding Kreis at the spot.

RSL tripled the margin in the 84th minute, when former CONCACAF Gold Cup MVP Luis Tejada settled a Ballouchy corner kick at the top of the six-yard box and slotted a right-footed blast into the goal. Tejada, who reported to RSL camp on Wednesday night following visa delays, exhibited several quality displays in the box, combining nicely with Andy Williams and Ballouchy.

RSL started the game in its now-familiar 4-5-1 formation, with Nick Rimando starting in goal, behind the first-choice backline of Stewart, Eddie Pope, Danny Torres and Willis Forko lining up right-to-left. MF Carey Talley and Kreis shared space behind Ballouchy in the center, while Chris Klein lined up at right mid, with Chris Brown on the left wing and Cunningham as the lone striker up top.

Talley was removed just 20 minutes into the game due to a slight hip flexor strain, being replaced by third-year RSL veteran Kenny Cutler. At halftime, Williams came in for Cunningham, pushing Chris Brown up top. In the 66th minute, Ivorian Coast trialist Jean-Martial Kipre entered for Forko, while draft-day acquisition Kyle Brown came on for Kreis, pushing Williams into the middle. In the 72nd minute, former Maryland standout Chris Lancos came on for Klein, while Luis Tejada entered for Stewart, pushing Brown to right mid and Lancos to right back.

RSL GK Chris Seitz and MF Freddy Adu remain in Frisco, Tex., for U.S. U-20 camp, rejoining RSL on Friday in St. George. RSL returns to Utah on Sunday and has Monday off before training at Rice-Eccles (weather permitting) Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. MT. On Wednesday, RSL travels to St. George, UT, for a 3:00 MT training session at Dixie High school, in advance of next Saturday's final preseason tuneup against the Colorado Rapids in Las Vegas.


RSL 3:0 Valley United

Scoring SummaryRSL: Brown (Cunningham, Stewart) – 12’RSL: Kreis (Ballouchy) – 53’
RSL: Tejada (Ballouchy) – 84’

RSL Information Item

Show Me the Money 2 UtahGamer

Today Los Angeles and Toronto announced front of the jersey sponsorship deals. They are only the 3rd and 4th clubs to announce such sponsorship. The first, arguably, was Red Bull New York. Real Salt Lake was the first true sponsorship in that Xango has no ownership interest in the team.

Toronto picked up the sponsorship of Canadian banking firm, BMO Financial. Los Angeles extended its relationship with Herbalife.

What's the deal with MLS clubs and complementary medicine companies? Half of the jersey sponsorship deals are with companies that make some claims about health benefits of their products, not that they have had these claims tested by the FDA. Red Bull is noted for 'giving you wings,' an energy drink (like anything else with more than zero calories to it).

The new kids on the block, Toronto, is the only MLS team looking like the old fogies of the league.

Also mentioned in the article was that front of jersey sponsorship was considered part of the grand tradition of soccer. Seems to me that when such sponsorship first came into use in England in the 1970s, there was a lot of discussion about its appropriateness, So, we aren't talking about tradition in the traditional sense, but more in the sense of "we've done it this way for long enough that only old fogies remember times when we didn't do it).

Visited Team Gear in the Fort Union area on Friday evening and saw a Xango fronted jersey for the first time in person. It wasn't as ugly as I imagined.

Show me the money! Scott

There was a collective gasp from Real Salt Lake fans when Goldman Sachs informed everyone that they were pulling their name from the group funding the stadium. A lot of people were saying that this would be the death of the stadium because no one would want to invest money in this project. RSL gave us reassurances that they had another investor lined up, but because they were unwilling to reveal who that was, some questioned whether the investor actually existed. They called this a stall tactic to allow RSL to figure out a way to recover from this blow.

I guess they were telling the truth all along. iStar Financial has been revealed as the new investor for the stadium. iStar Financial is a publically traded company (NYSE: SFI). According to Yahoo! Finance, iStar Financial's "Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ®) as of 1-Mar-07 is better than 91.8% of Russell 3000 companies and 88.6% of Real Estate companies." It sounds like Uncle Dave has found himself another winner to partner with.

Hopefully, this will dispel some of those doubts out there about this stadium and RSL being a bad investment. It is rather interesting that one of the top real estate companies in the country is willing to invest in RSL and the stadium, yet Mayor Corroon and his "experts" didn't think that they could make it. If I were going to get advice from someone on which real estate deals to invest in, I know which group I'm going to pick. Too bad Mayor Corroon was more interested in politics and his polictical career than doing what was right for Salt Lake County residents.

Freddy Adu and Chris Seitz Kick off U.S. Under-20 MNT Camp Today Eric Salsbery

RSL Press Release:

RSL Duo Part of 16-man Roster Taking Part in Weeklong Camp in Frisco, TX

SALT LAKE CITY (Thursday, March 22, 2007) – Real Salt Lake MF Freddy Adu and GK Chris Seitz are among the 16 players taking part in the U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team training camp that kicks off today at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX. Adu and Seitz are two of Major League Soccer’s nine representatives at the camp, which will run through next Wednesday, March 28 and include at least a pair of exhibition contests, details of which will be released as the week progresses.

The weeklong camp marks the first time the U.S. U-20s have convened since winning Group A of the CONCACAF Final Round Qualifying Tournament in Panama this past January. Along with the nine MLS players, U.S. U-20 Head Coach Thomas Rongen has also invited two European-based professionals and four players from the collegiate ranks to the camp. This will mark one of the final opportunities for the U-20’s to meet prior to the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, taking place across Canada from June 30-July 22. The USA has already learned its draw for the tournament and will face Korea Republic (June 30), Poland (July 3) and four time U-20 World Cup champion Brazil (July 6) in Group D play.

Adu and Seitz featured prominently in the USA’s success during the January qualifying tournament, as both started all three games in helping the Stars-and-Stripes to a 2-0-1 record and first-place finish in Group A. Despite being the youngest member on the squad, Adu captained the U.S. in all three matches and figured in three of the USA’s goals in a 5-0 trouncing of host Panama on Jan. 21, scoring twice and adding an assist in the group’s decisive contest. The 17-year-old Adu is a lock to make his third appearance in a FIFA U-20 World Cup this summer, having already played in both the 2005 and 2003 tournaments in the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates, respectively. Like Adu, Seitz went the full 90 minutes in all three games in Panama and gave up only one goal in 270 minutes of play on his way to registering a pair of clean sheets during the qualifying tournament.

U.S. Under-20 National Team Training Camp Roster – Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX – March 22-28
GOALKEEPERS (2): Diego Restrepo (University of South Florida), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (5): Kyle Davies (Southampton FC), Amaechi Igwe (New England Revolution), Quavas Kirk (L.A. Galaxy), Ofori Sarkodie (Indiana University), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Freddy Adu (Real Salt Lake), Jalil Anibaba (Davis, Calif.), Tony Beltran (UCLA), Danny Szetela (Columbus Crew), Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas)
FORWARDS (4): Josmer Altidore (N.Y. Red Bulls), Gabriel Ferrari (Sampdoria), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Sal Zizzo (UCLA)

Real Salt Lake Communications

Be Careful Chris Nicoll

A while back Eric complained about stupid drivers. Well I wanted to show everyone what I saw as I was driving home. While I didn't see the accident and I do not know who is at fault, someone wasn't paying attention today. Please keep your eyes on the road and pay attention.









Be Careful

Chris

AYL Audio: The RSL Show, Episode 1 Adam Merkley

Well, it took longer than we'd hoped, and it's still a work in progress, but we're happy to announce that we have a new podcast for your listening pleasure: The RSL Show. Chris and Scott will be back with a new episode every week, packed with RSL news, information, interviews and other fun stuff. Enjoy!

Click here to listen, right-click to download

Jones Deserves Fond Farewell Jacob Hart

Newer fans of Major League Soccer questioned why Cobi Jones felt important enough to hold a press conference Monday announcing that this would be his final year as a professional soccer player. After all, Jones has become something of an average player in the league, nagged by injuries and at 36 sometimes a step slower than his counterparts.

But long-time observers of the league and US Soccer know why Jones is important enough for a year-long farewell tour. He is, simply put, an American soccer legend.

Cobi Jones was one of the country's top stars in the 90s, playing in England and Brazil before answering the call to join the brand new MLS. He has played for Los Angeles since 1996, the only original MLS player left who is still with the same club.

He has scored 66 goals for LA (the club record), and has played in 281 games, adding up to 23,478 minutes played in Major League Soccer. He has won both MLS Cup and the US Open Cup twice. He has played in three World Cups for the United States, and holds the record for caps with USA, at 164.

He remains one of the few American soccer players known overseas. When my Italian friends found out I cheered for the US Men, they always asked whether Cobi Jones still played.

He does still play, for one more year - and he deserves his fond farewell as a legend of American soccer.

New RSL Stadium Site Eric Salsbery

I just got back from London about an hour ago and found a message from RSL Communications in my inbox with a link to a new Real Salt Lake website dedicated to the "truth" about the Real Salt Lake stadium in Sandy.

"The site is very basic as of now. Just a splash page and a FAQ section. Eventually it will grow into a much bigger project, but for now I am just trying to educate the public and dispel some myths."

Have a look for yourself.
www.rslstadium.com



I will be posting a report (with photos) from my trip to London in the next day or two. Whenever my jetlag gives way to more clearly formed thoughts.

Until then, brush up on your stadium facts.