LOS ANGELES — Six years later, Kenny Cutler is set to make his professional soccer debut.
The Real Salt Lake rookie gets his first Major League Soccer start tonight when RSL visits the Los Angeles Galaxy at 8 MDT, a game televised on FSN.
Cutler's debut at holding midfielder is just another attempt by coach John Ellinger to help Salt Lake snap its three-game losing streak and 321-minute scoreless streak.
"He's played very well in the reserves games, and he plays very well in training," said Ellinger. "He's paid his dues."
He's been paying his dues for a long time now.
As a 16-year-old soccer prodigy back in 1999, Cutler was offered a pro contract by Major League Soccer straight out of the U.S. Soccer Under-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. Instead of following in the footsteps of U-17 teammates like Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley by turning pro, Cutler decided the college route was in his best interest.
Despite a very productive four-year career at Clemson University, upon graduation, MLS teams weren't nearly as keen on Cutler as they were when he was 16.
Amazingly, the all-ACC soccer player went undrafted in the 2004 SuperDraft, which in hindsight was perhaps the best thing that could've happened to him. A year later, his former U-17 coach John Ellinger snatched him right up after being hired to guide expansion Real Salt Lake.
"No one drafted him last year, and that's their mistake," said Ellinger.
Like virtually all rookies in MLS, Cutler hasn't exactly been on a fast track to the starting 11 — despite playing for a coach who's believed in him since he was a teenager.
"Every young player has to wait for a chance," said Cutler.
Cutler knew his chance would eventually come; it always does in MLS with injuries and national team call-ups. So he's arrived to practice each day with a good attitude, a willingness to work, and as a result he's gotten better and better.
It hasn't gone unnoticed, either. Increasingly, throughout the past month, Ellinger has made a subtle point of reminding people during interviews that "Kenny Cutler continues to get better."
Nonetheless, Ellinger opted to start 16-year-old first-round draft pick Nikolas Besagno over Cutler in last Saturday's game against FC Dallas. Ellinger was hoping that Besagno's youthful exuberance would've helped Real shake its two-game losing streak, but instead Besagno's timidness handicapped RSL even more.
Ellinger wanted to give the teenager — whom he also coached with the U-17s before joining Salt Lake — another shot in Wednesday's exhibition game with Chilean side Universidad Catolica.
Besagno along with the other 10 starters played an abysmal first half, which promoted Ellinger to make five halftime substitutions with his team trailing 2-0. One of those included Cutler replacing Besagno for his first appearance with the senior squad.
Cutler made an immediate impact by scoring a goal and contributing to the 3-2 come-from-behind victory.
"The things about Kenny, and I said it when he was with me as the captain of the U-17s, there's really never any peaks and valleys with Kenny," said Ellinger. "It's just a steady stream with him. He gives you the same things game in and game out."
One of those things is nerves. Cutler said he was extremely nervous entering the second half of Wednesday's game and admitted he's going to be even more nervous marching onto the Home Depot Center field tonight to face the Galaxy.
"You've just got to use your nerves as adrenaline, that's what I did last night because I was nervous (against Catolica) too," said Cutler.
One thing he won't be intimidated about is facing Donovan.
In fact, if anything, playing against Donovan might put him at ease. The former U-17 teammates are four days apart in age, made their first U-17 international appearances in the same game and both played every game of the 1999 U-17 World Youth Championships in New Zealand.
Cutler knows Donovan's instinctive tendencies perhaps better than anyone else, knowledge that he'll need when Donovan is dribbling toward him in the midfield with his sights set on goal.
"He reads the game well; he knows his position," said Ellinger. "As a holding midfielder he knows to sit and hold, that's his job."
He's also a terrific passer, one of Real's biggest weakness this year.
For Real, this is the first of a five-game stretch in which four of those games are on the road. Salt Lake is 0-4-1 on the road this year while Los Angeles is 5-0-2 at home.
ENDLINES: Eddie Pope is slated to start for Real despite starting and playing most of Wednesday's World Cup qualifier with the U.S. . . . Back on April 9, RSL dropped a 2-1 decision to the Galaxy in Donovan's debut with his new MLS club. Real hasn't scored a regular-season goal on grass since that game.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com