SANDY, Utah (ABC 4 Sports) - After playing just one MLS match in the last five weeks, and none in the last three weeks, Real Salt Lake finally returns to action Saturday night at Chivas USA.
Much to their relief, the players don't have to answer any more questions about how this long layoff will affect them.
"I honestly don't want to answer any more questions about it," said defender Nat Borchers. "I'm done."
"I think I've heard every version on the question on how the last couple weeks have been," added defender Chris Wingert. "But, we're excited to get back after it."
RSL returns to action at full strength. Four players had been gone from the team for about a month to play for their respective national teams. But Will Johnson (Canada), Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica), Kyle Beckerman (USA) and Nick Rimando (USA) are all thrilled to be back in Utah.
"It feels good to be back here on this field and amongst the guys in the lockeroom," said Rimando. "EVen the ugly guys on our team look good."
"It's been great," said Beckerman. "Just to get around the guys again and seeing the old faces, it was fun this morning. I'm really just looking forward to getting back on track and get back to our winning ways."
"I'm very pleased to have everybody back," said head coach Jason Kreis. "All the guys came back from international duty healthy, and I think we're all very hungry to get this MLS season started again."
This layoff has allowed the entire team to get healthy, especially RSL's best playmaker Javier Morales, who expects to play against Chivas.
"I'm feeling great," said Morales, who has recovered from a hamstring injury he suffered back in April. "I have been training for a few weeks, so I told the coach that I feel good so I'm ready to play."
"He looks good and he'll be in the mix," said Kreis.
Even though RSL has played just one MLS match in the last five weeks, they still sit atop the Western Conference Standings with 29 points as they head into a stretch of the season where they'll play three games in one week.
"It feels great," said Beckerman. "We let some teams catch up in games and we're still where we are, but we have a lot of work ahead of us."
"It obviously can be a little bit of a confidence boost that we're at the top of the league," said Kreis. "But, it still doesn't mean anything. At the end of the year, they're not going to remember who was at the top on June 15th."
Real Salt Lake will kickoff against Chivas USA Saturday night at 8:30 on ABC-4.
