The first two weeks of Real Salt Lake's schedule have been set for more than a month (vs. Chicago, at Chivas USA), and when Major League Soccer releases its final draft of the 2008 schedule on Thursday the club will find out how its remaining 28 matches will shake out.
RSL will play most of this season at Rice-Eccles Stadium, but several weeks ago general manager Garth Lagerwey indicated that RSL was hoping to open its new stadium on Thursday, Oct. 9, a nationally-televised game on ESPN2. Speculation is that RSL's opponent will be the L.A. Galaxy featuring David Beckham.
What isn't speculation is that RSL kicks off the 2008 season at home on March 29 against the Chicago Fire. The following weekend RSL will hit the road for a match with Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center.
RSL is in its second week of training camp, and already it's parted way with four trialists (Brent Douglas, Lester More, Jesus Mendoza, Giuseppe Funiciello) and a supplemental draft pick (Kenny Anaba).
Four trialists remain with the club, which ends its California stint of training camp this weekend. Those four trialists are GK Matt Bredehoft, MF Salim Bullen, F Sergio Comba and MF Dusan Simic.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com