Herriman • In the last few seasons, Real Salt Lake earned various reputations: a team that doesn’t spend, a team that plays inconsistently, a team built primarily out of academy players.
In the last two years in particular, coinciding with the arrival of coach Mike Petke in March 2017, RSL added to that list. When the back half of the season arrives, the club tends to pick up its play. Petke’s noticed, too.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that — it doesn’t have to the last game, it could be the last month or two — that as we’re getting closer to, for lack of a better word, either a consequence or a reward, the level just raises,” Petke said earlier this week.