Movsisyan hoping for faster, more dynamic RSL in 2017

Yura Movsisyan, our key forward and one of the keys to success in 2017 for Real Salt Lake, outlined some of his hopes for the club moving forward in an interview with ESPN FC.

He also had some interesting comments on club legend Javier Morales, whose departure showed fissures in the club. Some thoughts follow his comments.

On Javier Morales

Obviously, in a soccer team as a professional, you expect difficult moves. It’s very difficult to have a guy like Javi not be with the team. As a club, you have to bring in new players and responsibility. That’s what you play for; that’s what they brought me in here for, to be a leader and to take responsibility. It’s not just me. We need everybody on the team to be leaders to get something, to win something.

Going through transition is always difficult. It’s always difficult when you have the core group of players, and when they get older, everyone gets surprised — why did they move on? Why did they leave?

Movsisyan’s talking here about an issue that everyone in MLS knows too well. Club legends just... well, get traded, leave, end their contracts — all sorts of things.

On what he hopes to see in 2017

I’m hoping this year with the younger players and more players coming in that are younger, we’re just going to be a lot more dynamic, a lot faster, playing the way we did back in ‘09. When we won the championship, it was a lot of fast playing, ball movement, scoring a lot of goals. As simple as that.

Music to our ears. While 2009 wasn’t our best year, there were some great moments — especially that last kick of the year. That one was really, really, really... good.