Justin Meram Responds To Recent Real Salt Lake 2022 Predictions
Feb 22, 2022, 5:26 PM
Real Salt Lake forward Justin Meram (9) tries to outrun Austin FC midfielder Alexander Ring (8) down the pitch with the ball as Real Salt Lake and Austin FC play at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. RSL won 1-0. (Courtesy of Deseret News)
(Courtesy of Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – Veteran winger Justin Meram has fired back following the publication of a story on MLSSoccer.com predicting Real Salt Lake to once again finish towards the bottom of the Western Conference and miss out on a playoff birth.
On Monday, February 21, MLS Insider Tom Bogert released a story titled “Real Salt Lake 2022 Season Preview” and at the bottom of the article he, along with other “MLS experts” shared their predictions for Real Salt Lake in 2022.
whatevs 🥱 pic.twitter.com/kdI00XmFb0
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) February 22, 2022
The news caught the attention of the Real Salt Lake social media team who shared the post above but did not make it to the Real Salt Lake dressing room, or at least, not near where Justin Meram sits anyway.
Francisco Vazquez from Univision in Salt Lake City asked Meram what he thought of the recent predictions. Meram responded admitting that he was unaware of what was written, which then led to a back and forth between Vasquez and Meram where Vasquez explained that “MLS experts” predicted that Real Salt Lake would not make the postseason again in 2022.
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Meram’s response was eye-opening.
“MLS Experts”,once again predicted that @realsaltlake would finish towards the bottom of the West and subsequently miss out on the postseason in 2022.@JustinMeram’s response is worth a listen 👇
🗣:@franvamo credited with the question #RSL #DaleRSL pic.twitter.com/FgSCkX12Gm
— Tom Hackett (@TomCantHackett) February 23, 2022
“Experts, huh. I would like to see what they’ve done, have they played the game? Because surely enough they were experts last year and we smashed their face into the table so I do not really care to be honest. I’m actually fired up because those guys aren’t experts, they’re far from it so let them write what they want to write,” Meram said.
In 2021, a similar story unfolded when multiple MLS insiders and experts predicted that Real Salt Lake would finish towards the bottom of the conference and miss out on the playoffs. So, naturally, when Real Salt Lake qualified for the postseason with the final kick of the regular season on the road against Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake’s social media team uploaded a video exposing all of the preseason takes from media members that doubted the club’s ability.
Real Salt Lake opens its 2022 campaign this Sunday, February 27, on the road against Houston Dynamo. Kickoff is slated for 5 p.m. and will be available to stream for free via the KSL Sports and KSL 5 TV apps or on KSL Sports dot com.
