February 12, 2007

I've been trying to get Scott Palguta on Kick This! for weeks. Unfortunately, his Saturday mornings have been busy lately. But, Scott took a few minutes to write this blog on how his first week with Real Salt Lake went:

Greetings Rhinos fans,

I thought I’d take a few minutes and fill you in on what I’ve been doing out here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Let me start by telling you what a beautiful place Salt Lake is. To say it’s aesthetically pleasing would be an understatement. The downtown area, where I’ve been staying, is quaint and clean with plenty to do. The city is surrounded on all sides by stunning, snowcapped mountains. The capital building is located on a hill to the north, the Great Salt Lake is to the west, and The University of Utah is situated on a hill just east of the city. Rice Eccles Stadium, where Real Salt Lake plays their home games, is visible from downtown. Salt Lake is definitely a place, like Rochester, that you shouldn’t judge until you’ve experienced it.

It’s been a very hectic yet exciting week with the start of preseason camp, the arrival of Freddy Adu, and of course the ongoing stadium saga. Needless to say the team is getting a lot of media exposure for this time of year.

We all gathered last Monday for our first training session of the preseason……and we didn’t get to touch a soccer ball. It was strictly a testing day, where players went through a series of drills to see where they stood physically, including a vertical leap test, a 40 yard dash, a shuttle/agility test, and of course, the dreaded beep test (an endurance test).

Everyone was delighted to get Monday out of the way so we could get down to business and start playing soccer. The rest of the weeks training sessions usually consisted of a lengthy warm-up (because a lot of guys were pretty sore), some possession games in tight spaces, and playing 9 v 9 on a 70 yard field. The staff also placed a huge emphasis on fitness throughout the week, so most sessions were concluded with some sort of interval running, with the intensity being increased and rest shortened each day. We also went to a local gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon for some pretty intense strength sessions.

Saturday afternoon we traveled down to Provo to train at BYU’s indoor facility. We went through a proper warm-up, did some finishing drills to get the goalkeepers some work, and finished with a full-sided 11 v 11 game. It was a great feeling to just be playing again. It’s been a long time since the USL final.

That session at BYU concluded the first week of camp. The next leg of preseason will take place in Orlando, FL, where we’ll be joined by all the Supplemental draft picks and a couple late arriving roster players, which will round out the preseason roster at about 35. We’ll be training and playing a handful of game at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex over the next twelve days, so I’ll send another update in another week or so. Until then, stay warm (I know I will), and just be thankful you don’t live in Oswego!