FOR REAL: Kenny Deuchar pt2

(continued from pt1)

8. When it became more obvious that you wanted out of that situation were there other teams that were interested? The difference between MLS and the rest of the clubs was obviously the transfer windows. At the time the transfer windows were over back in the UK. I could come over here because I had been doing well in the Premier League. I was in good form. Actually, after I had scored the two goals against Rangers that Garth was there watching there started to be an awful lot more interest over the next two or three days, but I had heard good things about Garth prior to that game. He was pretty keen obviously after seeing that and wanted to get it done. I was more than happy to try something different even though there were maybe other teams around that maybe would have been able to pay me more money back in Europe. I had already played in the SPL. I felt I needed a fresh challenge. This was an unbelievable opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands.

9. What were your thoughts at that point about coming to the US and playing in MLS? What did you know about MLS? What were your thoughts about it? I had been to the United States quite a few times before. My friend is from Houston. They got the new team and they signed Paul Dalglish. Then they won the MLS Cup and then they won it the second year. That was mostly what I knew was from her and from following what Houston were doing. I hadn’t seen much on the TV. I had seen Houston play New England. I hadn’t seen much of the soccer on the TV back home, but obviously with David Beckham coming over and Blanco signing with the league it seemed like an exciting place to play. The league is getting better and I wanted to challenge myself. Although I’ve been a bit disappointed with how I’ve played personally this season we’ve been doing well as a team and that’s what it’s all about. I’ve played in every league game so far this season and if we have a successful season then it’s been good for the team. So I’ll be delighted with that.

10. What do you see as the major differences between this league and playing in the Scottish Premier League? The style probably doesn’t suit me as well here. The weather is different. You need to keep the ball more. There’s not so many long balls. We don’t cross it as much. Back home I would be a focal point on the team. I would see a lot more of the ball there fighting for things, crosses and things like that. But it’s good for me to play this type of football. I know I have things to improve on. You’ve always got things to improve on and this is good. I’ve just got to try and work hard and bring what qualities I’ve got to try and bring them to this team. Hopefully that bit of variation can be beneficial to what we’re trying to do in the long term.

11. I think you’ve scored two goals this season. Three. I would say four, but they disallowed the one against the Galaxy. Which, while I got an apology it wasn’t really much consolation.
12. Do you think that’s mainly just a style issue and probably fitting in together with the team? I’ve missed chances. My goal scoring form hasn’t been up to what I would expect of myself. But strikers go through that. Luckily Yura Movsisyan’s come in the last few weeks and he’s done incredible for the team and I think has really given us a lift. You know as a striker you’re always going to be reluctant to come off and miss games. The managers like to freshen things up up top. At the same time you’re not that far away from getting another shot. It’s all about the team here. We just have to try and work hard and do our best individually so that we have a collective success.

13. You mentioned Yura and his recent success. Is there another striker that you like to pair with or that you think you’re pretty effective with? I haven’t played with Yura much, but when we played at LA, when Yura came in for Fabian, we obviously had a couple of goals and I laid one on for Yura and that worked well. In the start of the season, unfortunately, Fabian was injured. He’s been injured for quite a bit of the season. When we have played together it’s worked pretty well, albeit he’s scored most of the goals. I think as a team we’ve been quite successful with that partnership up front. As I say, it’s all about keeping things fresh up top. Strikers will go through patches where they’re doing well. Maybe somebody else isn’t doing well. We’ve got a lot of good strikers with different qualities. I’m completely different from Fabian, Yura and Robbie. They’ve got differences between each other as well. That’s the sort of thing you need to mix and depending on what type of opposition you come up against you can change things.

14. You mentioned laying off a ball to Yura in that game. What other things can you do as a target man? I try to get stuck in. Maybe what you see from me isn’t very pretty at times, but it’s really about making it difficult for the defenders. If I’ve got time then, yeah, I mean I’d like to be able to like look good and lay the ball off. Really for me I need to try to make it difficult for defenders. Put defenders under pressure. It’s amazing the number of goals you get in games from defensive mistakes. If you’re causing defenders problems then you might not even be close to them and they might make a mistake. Most games I’ve won on mistakes. It’s really a grind for me. I feel as if I play better second half maybe when I’ve ground down the defense and maybe the spaces start to open up. Hopefully the guys get close to win second balls when I’m battling. I’m not gonna kid myself on that you see pretty football from me. My touch could be better and my finishing could be better. I do different things. It’s really for me it’s about getting stuck in and try to cause as many problems as I can from that point of view.

15. Speaking of pretty football I think you’ve tried at least one bicycle kick at Rice-Eccles. That wasn’t even too far away. I got good contact on it. I’ve scored them in the past. I actually scored one for St. Johnstone last year in one of the cup games that was an overhead kick. Whatever way it comes. Sometimes is goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you hit something that normally you would never hit and it flies in the net. Other times you’ll miss chances that you really should score. You’ve got to try to forget about the ones you miss because the next chance is the most important one.

16. Is it maybe a mistake trying a bicycle kick on the turf? I didn’t even notice it at the time. Maybe that’s because of the adrenaline. You get burns on grass as well. You just don’t want to think about it. I’ve played on worse surfaces in the past. Back home in Scotland when I was younger we didn’t have the turfs. We played on like a red blazed pitch which is worse on the skin that turf. It’s like a clay, but it’s got small stones as well. It’s easy to keep up for the local authorities. They don’t have to cut the grass every week. There was a lot of them when I was growing up. When they did bring in the astro turf they were hard and sand based. They were horrible on the legs and hard. The turfs have definitely got better but I would always prefer to play on grass. And I prefer when it’s wet as well to be honest because the defenders make more mistakes.

17. Someone wanted to know which console you play Fifa on? No, no. No Fifa man. Pro Evolution Soccer. There’s always been a competition between Fifa and Pro Evolution but I always thought that Fifa was too easy. I’m not like a big gamer but Pro Evolution Soccer is definitely head and shoulders above Fifa as far as me and my mates back home are concerned.

18. Who would you rather play for Celtic or Rangers? If either of them was willing to pay me enough money then I would play for either. I wouldn’t prefer to play for either of them if I had that choice and everything was equal then I would take Dundee and Falkirk over Celtic or Rangers any day.

19. If you don’t limit yourself to the SPL what team in the world would you most like to play for besides Real Salt Lake ofcourse? Maybe Real Madrid seeing as we have a partnership with them. I just want to play as high of a level as possible and try and win things and be good for my team, whatever team I play on. Hopefully my teammates know I work hard and the manager appreciates me and the fans as well. You’ve got to know your own limits. You’ve just got to try and work on the things your not good at, but also focus on your strengths.

20. How do you like it here in Salt Lake? What are your thoughts since you’ve been here? Oh, it’s brilliant. Obviously when I first arrived I saw the mountains. It’s a beautiful place. There’s a lot of stuff to do outdoors. Play a bit of golf, fishing. The weather so far has been great. It’s obviously going to get a bit colder now, but we’re coming into the end of the season and that will actually suit me when I’m on the pitch. Hopefully we get a bit of weather that’s cold and wet and I can come into my own.

21. Speaking of golf, I think you got credit from Bill Manning for closing the Rio Tinto deal because of a golf conversation you had. What was that conversation about? We had an appearance down here to meet the guy for Rio Tinto, Bret Clayton. We were up here in the morning. There was four of us. Beckerman, Borchers, Rimando and myself. Mr. Checketts introduced us and said that I was from Scotland. He said I like to play golf in Scotland. I was there for a week playing just last year in St. Andrews. Luckily I had played a few of the courses in St. Andrews and obviously I knew a few places in Scotland. He actually lives in London as well. So I had a bit of conversation with him. It was really just common ground. Something that we could both relate to. It’s always good to have something to be able to talk about. I was just lucky that we had something in common.

22. You seem to be an avid golfer. What kind of score would you shoot on an average course here in Salt Lake? It really depends. I can be terrible. If it’s a course I’ve never played before then who know what it could be. I’m disappointed if I don’t break 90. I played that course at Glendale a few times and I was out with a couple of the boys and I managed to shoot a 73, which was 1 over par. But I think that was a one off. I think I was just holing every putt that was available. I was really feeling good about myself. I thought I had conquered the game, but then the next time I go out I shoot nearly 90 and I’m back to square one again.

23. What other things do you do outside of golf and soccer? Well obviously I’ve got my medicine. I’ve got to keep up with that. Over the past three years I’ve done a post-graduate diploma in sports medicine back home and I’m due to graduate in November. I’m going to do a few courses in that when I go back home as well in medicine just to keep my hand in it. I was working one day a week when I was back home as well. Over here I’ve had a lot of people visiting so we’ve been doing the tours things. We’ve been to Moab, we’ve been floating in the Salt Lake a couple of times with different people. Been up to Park City. Obviously the fishing, the golf. I’ve just enrolled in a Spanish class for the next five or six weeks. That starts next week. It’s a good opportunity to learn something different. I feel a bit ignorant that I haven’t managed to learn much Spanish and they’re trying really hard to speak English. Hopefully I can learn a bit of Spanish and be able to communicate better with the Spanish speaking guys on the team. Maybe they can teach me some more Spanish and I can teach them some English.

24. How does this stadium compare to a stadium in the SPL or in Scotland in general? Well, in Scotland outside of Rangers, Celtic and the national stadium this would be the next best stadium. There’s only one other stadium in Scotland that would top this and that’s the national Rugby stadium. Even the one’s that I played at in England. I played at a couple new stadiums. The weather back in the UK dictates that there’s more cover. It’s difficult to tell until we get the people in here but the atmosphere can be better because the covers really keep the noise in. So some of the new stadiums there are nice but you can’t beat this place for setting and obviously the facilities are excellent as well. I mean it’s up there with some of the best stadiums back home.

25. Finally, how is your fantasy football team doing? I’m 2-2 in the team league. I’m claiming the greatest comeback in the NFL fantasy football history for Monday night. I was playing against Tino Nunez. Going into the Monday night game he had 109 points and I had 80 points. My quarterback hadn’t played. I was 29 points behind. Somehow I managed to come back and win 120 to 116. I think that’s got to be one of the best comebacks.
26. Had you followed American football before coming here? Yeah, I really liked it. We got a lot of it on Sunday. That was basically my Sunday night. Obviously with the time difference the games start at like 7:00 so you get one game. If you wanted to watch the end of the second game your talking like 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. We normally had training. Sometimes you’d even have a third game that would start at like 1:00 in the morning and run through. I followed it ever since the Bills vs. the Giants Superbowl that was like ‘90 or ‘91. Really when it started to get bigger and it was covered on Sky Sports back home. I would watch it every weekend. Every Sunday night that was where I would be sitting in front of my TV watching the NFL. I wasn’t really up to speed with many of the players and things so maybe I suffered a wee bit during the draft. I mean you only get certain games back home. You don’t see how each players doing every week. You don’t really have the fantasy thing. It’s not as big back home. They run it where it’s just total points over the course of the season. So you pick your team and then you’re just competing against everybody in the country. It’s much better when you get like twelve of your mates and you get to play every week and you’ve got a chance to make the playoffs and that. I’m clinging on to the last playoff spot at the moment. I’ve had a couple of bad breaks over the last few weeks. I probably should be 3-1. I had that disappointment where some weren’t playing because of the hurricane and they weren’t giving me any points. I really like that and it’s good for competition. Tino hasn’t speaken to me this week yet.

(audio)

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FOR REAL: Kenny Deuchar

FOR REAL: KENNY DEUCHAR

Prior to the stadium opener I was able to catch up with Kenny Deuchar at Rio Tinto. I'm finally getting caught up and here is the first portion of the interview:

1. You were born in Stirling, Scotland is that right? Stirling, yes.

2. Is that where you grew up too? A small town close to Stirling called Denny. I’ve lived there my whole life. Save for a few months when I went to Northampton, and since I’ve come here to play.

3. So this is a big jump for you to leave your hometown? Yeah, when I was at University I spent some time from home at Dundee University, but it was only an hour away from home so I was home every weekend. Even at Northampton although it was 5 ½ hours in the car it was still reachable to drive home. So it’s been different, but I’ve had a lot of visitors over the past season with a lot of people coming to visit from back home. And also I’ve got a few friends over here as well.

4. So how did you get your start in professional soccer? Well actually started off playing, at University. At the time I was playing semi-professional. And I was doing well at that level. But I was still really young – I was 17, 18, and I hadn’t thought about professional soccer as a profession. But then when I went to University, Falkirk, who play in the SPL now they offered to take me and play me in their youth team, and allow me to stay with my cup team as well. And also pay me a little money that helped obviously to pay for University as well. I played part time then so I was training in the evenings. Sometimes in the morning before University. But I was really doing it all on my own, and then playing on Saturday. So I was there for 4 years, and unfortunately had a couple of bad injuries – I broke my leg twice. That was quite hard, but at the same time it allowed me to concentrate on my studies. So I didn’t have to make that decision earlier as to whether to put the studies on hold and take on full time professional soccer. So I managed to finish my degree and work for a year in the hospital before I went to play soccer full time. So I was 24 before I started to play soccer full time. So I still think I’m learnin’. You’re always learnin’. I enjoy it and there is nothing else I’d rather be doin’.

5. Did you get to a point where you had to make a decision –do I stick with soccer, do I continue in the medical profession? Yeah, to be honest it was very, very difficult working full time in the hospital and playing soccer part time. Training, to get to games – there were times that I missed training with my team during the week. They trained in the evenings, but there were times that I would miss it. There were times when maybe I was on the nightshift and I would come off of the nightshift at 9 o’clock in the morning and go straight to the game. Play in the afternoon. And then I’d be working at night. So it was difficult. At that time I was averaging over 56 hours a week, and sometimes up to 84 hours a week. At that time I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I thought I’ve got to keep working hard this year, and maybe if I do well enough I’d find a team will take me full time at the end of it. I would have had my full registration with the general medical council in the UK as well. That gave me options really. Luckily I got a team to take a chance on me. And I did well after that when I could concentrate harder on it.

6. So eventually you ended up at Gretna which was in the 3rd division, right? What was that like and how did Gretna progress to the EPL? Well to be honest they chased me for a few months, because at first I wasn’t interested in the third division because I had already done that. I wanted to play in the first division or the premier league. I would have been willing to go on trials and things, but I spoke to the boss and the manager and they had a vision for the club. Then I thought well – I’m just starting out in professional soccer, although I’m 24. This is my first crack at it, so why not start at the bottom and allow my development. It was the best decision for me.

7. At some point you wanted out of that situation, what was the background behind that? Well I’ve never really talked about it before, but basically the manager fell out with me. Although I had done really well in the previous two years, he just didn’t like me for some reason and the relationship suffered. The best thing for me was to get away from the club. So that’s why I asked to leave and luckily the guy, Mick Wadsworth, who was the director of football for Gretna at the time, put in a word for me at Northampton Town in England – they play in League 1. And I got the chance to go there for 3 months. And I learned a lot there from the manager, Stuart Gray, who played with Nottingham Forest when Brian Clough was there- he coached at Aston Villa and Southampton – so he had a pedigree in coaching as well. I feel I learned more in that 3 months than I learned while I was at Gretna. I mean the standard down in England was better than the standard we’d been playing at Gretna for the 1st string in the 3rd division. And I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and I wanted to stay there to be honest. Gretna were being difficult again with transfer fees. They were wanting money that teams weren’t able to afford. Because back home they used to play transfer fees, but now it’s getting rarer or rarer. Now with the money situation most of the money goes to wages. Gretna were adamant. They were adamant that they wanted me for the Premier League – they wanted their target man. I ended up having to go out on loan because they weren’t playing me. I was disappointed because I really wanted to go to Northampton, and I felt wanted there. So I went on loan and I scored 10 goals in 14 games. I won a cup with the team that I was playing with. And then obviously Gretna wanted me back again. I think it was more a case of them not wanting to let me go because they were afraid that I would do well someplace else and then people would say why did you let him go? But luckily come January, I had a pretty good relationship with the owner and he agreed with me that I had been treated pretty terrible, and that if a good offer came in he wouldn’t stand in my way. And that’s what happened with RSL coming in and both Brooks Mileson and Mick Wadsworth were true to their word and let me come here and I’m grateful for it.

(continued pt2)

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FOR REAL: Will Johnson - Pt 2

(continued from Pt.1)

11. Were you shocked or surprised to be in the starting lineup once you got here? Yeah, a little bit. I’d done a full preseason in Holland and kept myself fit, so I knew fitness-wise it was going to be okay. It worked out well where they had a little bit of an injury to a few guys here and there, and maybe some not-so positive results on the road. I think you are never guaranteed anything, and I think I got my opportunity a little earlier than expected, but I think so far I’ve done okay with it, and the team’s been doing well. I’m happy.
12. How do you think you can help the club? A lot of ways. You know I think I’m a young guy that can help going in the future, but I am also a young guy that’s played a lot of games and has a lot of experience, so I don’t really consider myself a young guy anymore. I just want to do whatever’s asked of me by the coaching staff.
13. You were initially described, at least in the media, as a striker who can play a little bit of midfield, but so far you’ve been playing in the midfield and look pretty comfortable there. Where do you feel most comfortable? I guess when I played for Chicago I played a little more forward than midfielder, but in Holland we played a lot of 4-3-3, not the same as here, but similar. So I sort of converted into not an attacking midfielder, but a midfielder with attacking qualities and the way that we play in this formation in Salt Lake it lets me use all of my qualities where I can get up and down the field. I can help defensively, and hopefully I can support the attacking guys and get a few goals for us.
14. So what do you think are your key strengths? I think I always work hard. I’m good with the ball. I take a lot of pride in not giving away the ball cheaply. I do whatever it takes to help the team win, and when I get in the final 3rd I’ve shown over the years that I can get a few goals to help out the teams that I’ve played for. So those are the 4 or 5 things that are my main qualities.
15. You’ve had some success with the Canadian Youth National Team, what have you taken from those experiences? Yeah a lot. You know I played a ton of games when I was younger for the under-20’s, and under 23’s and a few times for the first team. Where a lot of guys in the MLS don’t get to play that many games, I got to play that many games – I think 30 - 40 games. Those were 90 minute games against good oppositions. And when you play for Canada most of the time you’re not the better team so you get to play against some good players. I got to play in two World Cups, both of which didn’t go too well. But sometimes you learn the lessons a little easier when you get beat. So I learned a lot playing with those guys.
16. You also played a few times with the senior national team in Canada, which means that you are cap-tied obviously, was that a conscious choice or just a matter of opportunity? More the opportunity opened up and I did not have US citizenship, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get it playing abroad so I took the opportunity to go play for the Canadians. So obviously I cap-tied myself.
17. How do you feel that the quality of the MLS is compared to other leagues? I tell you what it’s a lot better than when I played for Chicago. I think the league’s getting good. It’s getting a lot more attention in Europe which I’ve seen being over there. I think it’s just exciting the way things are moving forward in the league and in this country playing soccer, and I’m excited to be part of it.
18. How do the training sessions here compare to the training sessions in Europe? They are similar. I think the game side of things is similar. I think in Holland they do a lot of ball work. They do a lot of warming up with skill work. They take a lot of pride in passing drills, and sort of the beautiful football game that they like to play. Whereas here we like to do more games 4 v 4, 5 v 5. I think it’s similar to the English style. I think the Dutch are pretty unique in the way that they train on the technical side.
19. What’s your view of this team, how it’s constructed and how they are playing? Yeah I think it’s a good team and a great organization. It’s got a lot of good support pillars. It’s got a lot of good veterans in the locker room. Obviously having Jason, Robin, BJ, and Jeff – all these guys who have played in the league, they understand what this league is about and that’s an important part of it. Like I said before, I think the future is bright for this organization.
20. Had you played with any of these guys before? Andy Williams was at Chicago when I was there for the first couple of months. I played against the US U-20 guys quite a bit – Nate, Tony and Chris.
21. Are there any teammates since you’ve been here that you’ve bonded with? Yeah, all these guys. To be honest I just came in and fit right in. So it’s been good.
22. What do you like to do outside of soccer? Well a lot of things. Over the last couple of years I really haven’t had a lot of spare time. I like to see, my brother plays for Western in college, so I like to go see him when possible. My little sister plays as well. The last two years I haven’t had any time to do anything except hang out with my family and friends.
23. What about travel, is there anywhere you like to go either in the US or in Europe? Last year at the end of the season I got to Florence to see some friends that were studying abroad, so that was quite an awesome vacation. And then over the summer I got to go see Michael when the US played Barbados in World Cup qualifying so me and my girlfriend flew from Chicago to Los Angeles and caught that game. Basically even in my down time everything revolves around soccer – if I’m not playing I’m watching.
24. Anything else you’d like to tell the fans? No not really. Just enjoying my time and looking forward to hopefully a successful time in Salt Lake.

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FOR REAL: Will Johnson

FOR REAL: Will Johnson

I was able to sit down with Will Johnson for the first time, and below are the results. There is no doubt that he is a serious, focused, intense, hard-nosed individual who is also quite confident in his abilities. However, he was much more personable than I anticipated and I enjoyed the chance to chat with him.


1. Can you walk us through where you have been and where you have played soccer? I was born in Canada, Toronto. My parents were living abroad for a couple of years and I happened to be born there. So before I could walk I was already back to England, to Liverpool. I grew up just outside of Liverpool until I was 10 and then that’s when I moved to Chicago. I stayed there until all my friends were going into residency and I didn’t have US citizenship at the time and I wanted to take the next step as a youth player. So I got a trial at Blackburn and went to play with their academy for a year. I ended up staying there for about a year and a half. Then came back and that’s when I signed with the Fire, and ended up staying there for about a year and a half. After things went bad there I went over to Holland and stayed there about 2 ½ years. Now I’m in Salt Lake.
2. You mentioned things going bad in Chicago, were you disappointed that you weren’t offered a senior contract or was it just the pitiful MLS developmental contracts? Yeah, I was disappointed that I was offered a senior developmental spot based on my status as a young guy from Chicago where I was basically told I was good enough to be in the 18, but you know they tried to make a business decision and tried to screw me over a little bit and that didn’t sit well with me. And I didn’t want to be part of an organization that did those kind of things. So I left.
3. With all that travel, is there a city that you consider home? Yeah, Chicago is home. You know my friends are there. We have a house, but my parents aren’t living there. But when we all come home for the holidays, my brothers and sisters, we always go back to Chicago. That’s definitely what I call home.
4. Were you interested in other sports growing up, or was it just soccer? I was interested. Growing up in England I played a bit of cricket and rugby. But I got injured when I was playing rugby, I lost a bit of my tongue so I said this isn’t for me. They always got angry at the little guy running fast. But I enjoyed playing cricket and rugby when I was little. But once I got to America when I was a little bit older I knew that all I wanted to do was play soccer.
5. You were in the Blackburn youth program, how was that? It was good. It was a great experience. The facilities were fantastic! As the English academies have a reputation and I can attest, the chances of players getting from the academy to the youth team is next to zero. There’s one guy maybe every couple of years. It was good to go over and get my feet wet and learn what it’s like to be in a pro environment. I learned lots of those things, but you know as far as taking the next step where you are playing games in the first team Blackburn wasn’t for me and a lot of young kids – not the place. And that’s why after Chicago I ended up going to Holland where they give young guys a chance.
6. How did you end up at Herenveen? It’s a funny story actually. After the Chicago Fire thing went down I went with the Canadian National team, we had a game in Austria. I think it was March the 6th. So there is no transfer window open, so I had basically 3 months to find a club. So I had a bunch of trials lined up after Austria but I wanted to go over, get used to the time difference, get my feet on the ground, get a weeks training in. So one of my good, good buddies is Michael Bradley and he just made the move to Herenveen. So through him I arranged to go there for a week, to spend some time with Michael, to get fit and sharp to go on some of these trials I was going on. They ended liking what they saw after a week, and asked me to stay another week. I was like oh yeah this could be great. Stayed another week. Played in a game, and did really well and after two weeks they ended up offering me a contract. That’s how it went down. It was pretty cool.
7. What was your experience like there? Awww…it was fantastic! I really enjoyed my time there. The first year I was there we won the Cup and the league reserve team. I scored a ton of goals. So it was a lot of fun, and I broke into the first team for the first time, getting some games with a team that was in the UEFA Cup, so it was a great experience. But after going on a loan for a year, I ended up making a decision to come back here to get more 90 minute games. I just felt like I wasn’t getting enough 90 minute games. You know I’m not getting old, but at 21 I felt I wanted to try and come back to a place where I’d have a good chance at playing some 90 minute games.
8. While you were in the Dutch league you felt like things were going well? Yeah, things were going well I wanted to be more of a guy that’s counted on a little more than just a role player or a little bit of a pitch hitter. I think I played close to 30 games last year including Cup games. For someone my age it’s quite a good accomplishment. But I wasn’t getting enough 90 minute games, and to develop a little more and to get better at the things I want to get better at – basically to get to the next level – I just felt like that would be an important step.
9. So when you came back here, were there any teams that you were interested in? Were there any teams interested in you? Yeah there were quite a few teams. I think my agent, Ron Waxman, spoke to every team in the league. I just made it clear that I didn’t want to Chicago. I heard that the two teams that were most interested from day 1, which always means a lot, were Salt Lake and DC. Two fantastic clubs who I both heard good things about. So when –nothings guaranteed –but I heard it was those two teams that got me really excited and I was like okay I’ll sign with the league and hope it goes to one of those two places. I couldn’t be happier that I ended up here things are really good.
10. So when you first found out it was Salt Lake what was your immediate reaction and how much did you know about the club? I had spoken with Jason and with Garth, the GM, and I had gotten a very good impression from them. They told me there is no guarantees with anything. You can come in and if you do well, then you’ll play. I liked the way that they approached me, and I liked the way that they were very excited. And I think it’s a very exciting time for this club, moving forward into the future and into the new stadium. You know all of those things excited me and I felt that this would be a place that I’d really fit in and so far that’s definitely proven to be the case.

(continued - part 2)

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