a gentleman and a psychic

"I hope I have an advantage - in most cases, the generic email you sent is likely to sit on some intern's cubicle until at least Wednesday. RSL - where the fan comes first - we respond to emails on Saturdays."

Those were the words of Real Salt Lake GM Steve Pastorino in an email reply he sent Saturday. And now it's Tuesday, and the rest of MLS seems to be responding in just the way he foresaw. My email box has remained empty, except for two replies from Steve to answer a few questions I had.

Hi Mike,

I hope, by season’s end, you feel like you get your $69 worth of MLS soccer… it’s a great deal even if some games are unwatchable. Players like Landon, Dempsey, Guevara, Armas and Gomez make it worth it. Hopefully, Pope/Klein/Kreis/Sequeira and company as well at some point.

Rough day around here… we had really high expectations for yesterday for the team. Now we need to right the ship and get on track all over again! Anyway, here are answers to your questions:

"Real" Salt Lake? Why? (and what does Real mean anyway?)
--- Dave Checketts has a long-standing relationship with Real Madrid due to his dealings with them when he chaired NBA International expansion committee. His first introduction to world class soccer was at bernabeu. We only considered names that were true soccer names (Real, United, FC, etc) because this market has a long history of Buzz, Stingers, Blaze, Bees, Trappers and various other typical American nicknames. He wanted no confusion that we were a soccer team first and foremost. “Real” means “regal” – and stands for the aspirations we have – to be a global club, not just another Columbus Crew. People here love the name, the logo and the colors. Now we just need to play to back it up.

Does it bother you to watch soccer played on a field that still has the lines painted on it from football?
--- Absolutely. I hated when the Galaxy playoff games would run through the UCLA script in the Rose Bowl. I hated the Bears’ C at Soldier Field. I hate the way that the Patriots make the Revs shorten their field to 106 yards once football starts… It’s disrespectful to our game. That’s why we will build a stadium that doesn’t have a big red U sewn into the field turf at midfield (and we will have grass, by the way).

Who's your favorite player?
--- Current… DaMarcus Beasley. When he is at his “most explosive”, I think he is more exciting that Donovan. Landon, though, is more consistent. I love Beas’ speed and moves. I have always cheered for both the US and Italian national team, and guys like Paolo Rossi, Causio, Bergomi, Zoff were favorites of mine… along with Balboa, Armas, Dooley, Reyna…

What happened yesterday?
--- Still trying to figure that one out. Who knew that Pope/Talley/Sequeira would yield three goals right though the heart of the defense. Brian Kamler (huge Blues fan – our 10-year-MLS-vet-turned-director-of-soccer) said today that the team looked nothing like the team he saw all preseason. The players didn’t show up to play, frankly… and we have to fix it for Saturday. It looked a lot like last year, unfortunately. I hope you don’t judge us by just one game!

Cheers,

Steve

Steve Pastorino
General Manager
Real Salt Lake

Well, I'm not going to judge RSL based on one game, but I'm also not going to just root for them because their GM is in the lead for Coolest GM Ever. If the other teams decide not to respond to my email, I think I'll start sending them taunting emails about how bad their GMs suck.

Hopefully Steve is right and Wednesday is going to be "response day". Stay tuned...