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Salt Lake: Can the confidence of a champion carry Real Salt Lake to a better start than in past years? The MLS Cup winners may have won it all last season, but they didn't emerge victorious over the San Jose Earthquakes even once. Yet RSL comes in with good preseason form, having defeated Toronto FC at the Carolina Cup.
San Jose: Ike Opara looks poised to step in right away and help the club out. The speedy defender has all the makings of a rookie of the year candidate. Arturo Alvarez has had a bright preseason and looks ready to step right back intot he full swing of things, and the Quakes should also be happy with the preseason form of Cornell Glen.
Off Target
Salt Lake: The problem with mostly holding pat with the roster because a title win was earned is that the same staff may not suffice once every team in the league starts looking to take down the champions. RSL arguably did not do enough to fill in the gaps left by key midfield contributor Clint Mathis or important sparkplug forward Yura Movsisyan. Also, though RSL won games on the road in the playoffs when it mattered last season, they were in general a horrible road team last year and must prove they have changed that bad habit. There are still questions on the front line. Glen is a solid option as is Ryan Johnson, but if Alvarez has to carry the scoring load it could be a major issue. The backline will also have to come together quickly and prove that they are ready to handle RSL's potent attack. Bobby Convey is still a question mark as well. At one point he was one of the best players in the USA but his form with San Jose has never come close to matching his 2006 form.
Tactics
Salt Lake: Nick Rimando was the hero in multiple penalty shootouts on the road to the championship this past season, and he is also a solid goalkeeper from the run of play as well. The defenders in front of him, Jamison Olave, Robbie Russell, Nat Borchers and Chris Wingert, are a tough unit that have gelled well. The midfield situation is a bit more fluid, but mostly everything revolves around the steel provided by captain Kyle Beckerman and the creativity of Javier Morales. Up front, speedy star Robbie Findley will often play alone, and still manage to terrorize defenders.
San Jose: Plenty of options and ways to go for San Jose. Look for Alvarez to be playing off of Johnson or Glenn with a solid four man midfield of Convey, Andre Luiz, Javier Robles, and either Joey Gjertsen or Omar Jessey. At the back all eyes will be on the rookie Opara to see if he'll add a new dimension to the team.
Intangibles
Salt Lake: For whatever reason, Real Salt Lake tends to start the season slowly, though with the imprimatur of being the league winners fresh in their minds, they could shoot out of the gate from the start this year. It may be an issue that San Jose seems to be a bit of a nemesis for the Utah team, however.
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