What had a 22.5 percent chance of being a fantastic day for Real Salt Lake on Friday turned out to be just another ordinary day for the last-place team in Major League Soccer.
Despite having the best chance (22.5 percent) of landing 16-year-old forward Israel Sesay in Friday's weighted lottery against 10 other MLS teams, RSL failed to win the teenager's services as he's instead headed to the L.A. Galaxy — which had the second-best chance at 18.8 percent.
The midseason lottery became necessary when Sesay, the Sierra Leone-born player who has lived in Washington, D.C., for the past seven years, signed a contract with the league last week. A member of the U.S. under-17 residency program, Sesay wasn't asked to participate in the Under-17 World Cup currently taking place in South Korea even though he doesn't turn 17 for another month.
The lottery was designed to give the league's worst teams the best shot at winning.
When asked about the lottery following Friday's practice, and an hour before he learned the fate of Sesay, Real coach Jason Kreis seemed upbeat about the prospects of landing the teenager.
"He'll be a Generation adidas developmental player, who won't count toward your full roster, won't count toward your salary cap. For us it's a no-brainer, it's a risk worth taking," said Kreis. "He's a young player, and you hear the same things you hear about a lot of young players, he's got a lot of potential, but who knows?"
It's no longer his worry, however. It's the Galaxy's task to groom him — assuming they don't trade him by week's end.
UNWELCOME BREAK: Nate Sturgis picked a heck of a time to get dinged. The Real midfielder will miss this Sunday's game at Chivas USA with a strained left calf, and he's questionable for next week's two games as well.
The timing stinks. Prior to being traded to RSL this summer, Sturgis spent all of last season with the L.A. Galaxy and then played in nine games this year. With Sunday's game against Chivas and next Saturday's against the Galaxy both being played at the Home Depot Center, these next two weeks were supposed to be a homecoming of sorts for Sturgis.
Instead, he might be watching both games from a television in Utah.
NEWCOMER UPDATE: Argentine midfielder Javier Morales received his final documentation earlier this week, making him eligible to play for Real Salt lake this weekend. The odds of that happening don't seem all that good.
Morales has a left shoulder injury that's limiting him in training. Until he's near 100 percent, it doesn't seem likely that RSL would risk its new highest-paid player.
As for defender Matias Mantilla and forward Fabian Espindola, both could see time against Chivas USA. Espindola is a good candidate to start with Alecko Eskandarian suspended because of yellow card accumulation. Mantilla has looked good in training recently, and Kreis may decide to start him over Ritchie Kotschau who's started at center back the past few games.
SECOND FIDDLE: When Jason Kreis retired earlier this season to become RSL's head coach, he knew it was only a matter of time before his all-time MLS record of 108 career goals was broken.
That moment came Wednesday as D.C. United's Jaime Moreno scored on a penalty kick, his 109th career MLS goal.
"He's probably the player more so than any other that deserves the title, cause in my opinion he's been the best player over the span of the league," said Kreis.
Moreno won't stay the record holder for long either, according to Kreis. Players like Ante Razov and Jeff Cunningham are closing in with a few years left in their respective tanks, and even then everyone knows they'll just be keeping the title warm for Taylor Twellman, who has 85 career goals and he's still only 27 years old.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com