Jason Kreis admits waking up the day after the Chris Klein trade with a big knot in his stomach.
He couldn't help but wonder if he made a mistake trading away the fan favorite for a pair of unproven youngsters — Robbie Findley and Nathan Sturgis.
"There's always going to be risk and reward involved, and it's the same in any aspect of life," said Kreis, whose anxiety was put to rest Saturday when Findley scored twice to help RSL lock up its first win of the year.
It was Kreis' second major trade since taking over as Real Salt Lake head coach in early May, and he's quickly learning that second-guessing is a dangerous business.
"You have to make up your mind and stick to your guns," said Kreis. "If I don't do that, I'll continue to second-guess myself and not make decisions because of it, and then we're going nowhere."
So far, he's had no reason to second-guess his trades. Kreis is extremely pleased with the contributions of Alecko Eskandarian since acquiring him from Toronto FC in exchange for Jeff Cunningham. As for his other transaction, Findley made Kreis look like a genius with his two tallies against D.C. United over the weekend.
Despite the preliminary success of both trades, the entire Real Salt Lake organization knows they're by no means an exact science. Successful trades are often balanced by horrible trades, i.e. Paul Broome.
RSL traded the Los Angeles Galaxy a second-round draft pick midway through the 2005 season to acquire Broome, figuring his ankle injury wasn't too serious.
Oops.
That injury limited Broome to 11 games during RSL's expansion season and forced him into early retirement in 2006. The Galaxy didn't exactly capitalize on the trade by selecting midfielder Josh Tudela, who has yet to make an appearance for the Los Angeles club.
Nonetheless, as poor as the Broome trade was, it made the RSL brass look like geniuses in comparison to a separate trade in December 2004.
At the suggestion of former Real Salt Lake general manager Steve Pastorino, who was previously with the Chicago Fire, RSL traded a pair of SuperDraft picks to Chicago for Dipsy Selolwane and Evan Whitfield.
Major Oops.
The team released Whitfield two months into its inagural season and Selolwane was sent packing a few months later as well. RSL would've definitely been better off hanging onto its 2005 third-round pick and its 2006 second-round pick.
Real Salt Lake has made 22 trades in its short 2 1/2-year history, with 11 of the team's 27 players being acquired via trades.
When you pull the trigger that often, trades are bound to backfire. Many others haven't, though. Getting Jeff Cunningham in exchange for Clint Mathis was brilliant. So was picking up players like Chris Klein and Carey Talley.
Talley has played for four teams during his 10-year career, and he knows trades are inevitable even though they at times seem excessive.
"I think coaches are just looking for the right chemistry," he said. "We made a trade and we looked like a completely different team, and I think that's what coaches are trying to do because there's so much parity in the league."
When he was a player, Kreis always viewed trades with trepidation.
"It raises the anxiety level a little bit, but it can also motivate a bit as well, because you know everything isn't as secure as you might want it or like it to be," he said.
Don't be surprised if he has another trade up his sleeve — he's adamant that no player is untradeable. Kreis said Klein was as close to being untradeable as anyone on Real Salt Lake, and look what happened — he's now in Los Angeles.
"It's been made very incredibly clear from the owner that it is a results-oriented business," said Kreis.
ENDLINES: Today's reserves match against the Ogden Outlaws has been postponed.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com