RSL’s mini preseason nears its end with Burnley test

SANDY — How do you restart an artificially bifurcated season?

The FIFA World Cup brought Major League Soccer to a halt after May 24, pausing league play for nearly two months while clubs scattered players across the United States, Canada, and Mexico to participate in soccer’s biggest tournament.

Inside the Real Salt Lake locker room, nobody seems to think of it as a break.

“It’s a preseason,” midfielder Stijn Spierings said. “We had some time to discuss the things we had to do better for the second part of the season.”

“Preseason” kept coming up throughout interviews on Monday. Head coach Pablo Mastroeni has used the same phrase repeatedly. Assistant coach Anthony Pulis talks about getting players “sharp and match fit.” Defender Lukas Engel says the day-to-day routine has hardly changed.

“It hasn’t been that much different from when the season is going,” Engel said. “There’s still a lot of training, working on details and how to get better.”

Wednesday night’s international friendly against Burnley marks the final stage of that mini preseason before RSL returns to MLS play against LAFC next week.

From rust to rhythm

Real Salt Lake scheduled three tune-ups during the World Cup pause.

The first, a closed-door scrimmage against Nashville SC, looked exactly like what coaches expected after nearly a month without a meaningful match.

There was rust, little attacking rhythm, and few memorable moments.

But there was one encouraging sign.

RSL did not concede from a set piece.

That wasn’t accidental.

“We came into this part of the season with two objectives,” Mastroeni said.

“One was to improve our defensive set pieces, where we had conceded close to 40% of our goals. If we hadn’t conceded those goals, we’d probably be six points clear at the top of the West right now.”

“The other part was controlling the game,” Mastroeni said. “How can we, especially when we have a lead, have more control of the game in our opponent’s half instead of going back to Rafa (Cabral, the team’s goalkeeper), losing the ball in bad spots and finding ourselves in a low block for large portions of the game?”

The second scrimmage against Minnesota looked closer to what the RSL coaching staff wanted to see.

Victor Olatunji looked sharp, scoring once while also switching play with a pinpoint cross-field pass to Dominik Marczuk that drew audible admiration from those in attendance. Zavier Gozo finished with a goal and an assist. Alex Katranis added another goal, while Sam Junqua blasted home a long-range strike nearly identical to the one he scored early last season against San Diego.

Watch the San Diego goal here.

For Mastroeni, the scorelines weren’t the point.

“We went to Minnesota, and the one thing that was really evident was how much control of the game we had,” he said. “Not to mention we scored quite a few goals. We didn’t give up a set-piece goal, and we found control.”

Now comes Burnley FC, a club from the EFL Championship, the second tier of English professional football.

“So this Burnley game is, again, how do we get one step better than that?” Mastroeni said.

Why Burnley?

Assistant coach Anthony Pulis, who grew up in England, is glad Burnley was chosen.

“I’ve always said I feel like MLS is a good comparison to the Championship,” Pulis said.

He points to players moving between the leagues as evidence the standards are comparable.

“Matt Crooks is a good example,” he said. “He had a good, solid career in the Championship, came over here and did really well for us.”

“The Championship is a unique league because they play so many games in such a short space of time,” Pulis said. “The players are incredibly robust, generally very physical and really good athletes.”

Although Burnley were relegated from the Premier League last season, Pulis expects a team that still wants to dominate possession, press aggressively and control matches with the ball.

“Those are similar characteristics to a lot of the teams we see in MLS,” he said. “So it’s going to be a really good test.”

Burnley also arrives with a reputation for defending well and punishing opponents on set pieces, making Wednesday another opportunity to measure one of RSL’s biggest areas of emphasis.

“We’ve made some big steps and good progress on the defensive side of set pieces,” Engel said. “Hopefully that will show on Wednesday.”

A familiar challenge

Few players in RSL’s locker room know the Championship better than Engel.

The Danish defender made 53 appearances with Middlesbrough in the Championship before joining FC Cincinnati on loan last season and joining Real Salt Lake in January on a permanent deal.

“I’d probably expect a lot of high intensity and a high-tempo game,” Engel said.

“I think we also have to be prepared to suffer at moments without the ball because we’re going to meet a good team that’s good on the ball.”

Unlike many MLS matches, Engel expects RSL to spend longer stretches defending than it normally does.

“Most of our games in MLS, we’re dominating often,” he said. “I think this is going to be more of a challenge for us to control the ball.”

Burnley also provides useful preparation for the congested schedule awaiting RSL after league play resumes.

Following next week’s trip to LAFC, Real Salt Lake will play 10 matches in 38 days.

Having experienced the relentless pace of the Championship, Engel believes the physical recovery won’t be the hardest adjustment.

“As athletes, I think we’re pretty good at recovering fast,” he said. “If you do the right stuff and have good habits, that comes naturally.”

“For me, it’s more the mental side of it, being able to let go of whatever game you just played and, two or three days later, switch on for a new game.”

“One game you expect long balls and a physical match. The next game is more controlled. It’s a mental battle.”

A Utah Connection

Real Salt Lake’s founder, David W. Checketts, currently serves on the Burnley FC board, while BFC chairman Alan Pace was the RSL president from May, 2007, through April, 2008.

Burnley’s minority ownership group includes former U.S. international Kealia Watt, a Draper native whose soccer résumé includes four state championships at Alta High School, an NCAA title at North Carolina, the winning goal in the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup final and eight seasons in the NWSL for Houston and Chicago. 

Watch her tournament-winning goal here.

She and her husband, former NFL player J.J. Watt, purchased a minority stake in Burnley in 2023.

For Real Salt Lake, however, Wednesday is less about Burnley than what comes after them, when the matches start counting again.

“It’s not about any game in isolation,” Mastroeni said.

“It’s really about our growth, continuing to poke holes in our game model, continuing to find solutions and the guys executing that in real time on the field.”

Match information

Who: Real Salt Lake vs Burnley FC
When: Wednesday, July 15 | 7:30 p.m. MDT
Where: America First Field, Sandy
Tickets: Available through SeatGeek