What to watch in the final leg of the preseason

With two legs of the preseason in the books, only one remains before Real Salt Lake takes the field for their season opener on March 4th against Toronto FC. Although the team put on a good showing in the Portland trip, there are still questions that are yet to be answered.

Attacking four

The front office and the coaching staff have been able to put together some great offensive weapons either being picked up or drafted. Although the Javier Morales era is over, RSL was able to acquire their new new no. 11 Albert Rusnak. The 22-year old play maker was the biggest acquisition of this offseason.

Along with Luis Silva and emergence of Jordan Allen, the attacking side of the field has shown they can produce goals. Yura Movsisyan and Joao Plata are the clear starters, but we might see a different attacking front from game to game or, if the chemistry is right, then we might just see a consistent lineup.

Backline

The biggest question mark is the backline. While we were able to produce goals, the defense was not able to stop the goals from going in. From game to game, the backline was jumbled around. With the absence of Justen Glad, the center backs were rotated quite a bit.

Although it seems like Tony Beltran, Demar Phillips and Aaron Maund are the clear startes, who starts next to Maund could be up for grabs. Glad did look remarkable last season and is currently with the U.S. U-20 national team, but Chris Schuler has improved from game to game. There could be some competitiveness in the upcoming weeks.

With the final leg of the preseason, we wait for these questions to be answered and, if you're anything like me, you’re counting down the days until you can see RSL take the field at Rio Tinto and we will be able to see what the team will be made out of.