2016 MLS Season Preview: Real Salt Lake

With the MLS season set to begin on Sunday, theScore runs down everything you need to know about each team heading into the 2016 campaign. Here, we take a look at Real Salt Lake.

The spirit of Real Salt Lake was once forged in one philosophy: take a group of hungry young talent, groom them together for a few years, and reap the fruits of that labour.

Nowadays, RSL is banking on the nostalgia of its previous generation; case in point, the team's core ranks - Nick Rimando, Jamison Olave, Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales - are all over the age of 30. Those rose-tinted glasses of the past saw the return of former players like Chris Wingert and Yura Movsisyan over this offseason, too.

Conversely, young talents like Luis Gil have opted to jump ship after RSL finished poorly in 2015. The spirit of success has faded in Utah.

How RSL performs this season comes down to how head coach Jeff Cassar uses his veteran core and just how much he is willing to sacrifice now for a better tomorrow; Beckerman and co. cannot be the future of this club, after all. There is enough quality here to raise eyebrows but not enough, perhaps, to challenge for the title.

2015 season

Regular season: 9th in Western Conference

Playoffs: Did not qualify.

Nuts and Bolts

• Head coach: Jeff Cassar
• Stadium: Rio Tinto Stadium
• Season opener: Sunday, March 6: Orlando City vs. Real Salt Lake (Citrus Bowl) - 2 PM ET.

Key Arrivals

• Yura Movsisyan (on loan from Spartak Moscow)
• Chris Wingert (acquired on waivers)

Key Departures

• Luis Gil (out of contract)
• Luis Silva (out of contract)
• Chris Schuler (out of contract)
• Sebastian Jaime (contract mutually terminated)
• Abdoulie Mansally (traded to Houston Dynamo)

Player to Watch

Few midfielders in MLS have been as consistent in their raw numerical output as Javier Morales has been with Real Salt Lake and despite reaching the latter stage of his career, this diminutive Argentine remains an ever-present threat in the middle of the park.

He has yet to repeat his successes from six years prior but Morales has continued to slice through opposition defenders with his signature through passes and chipped efforts, constantly searching for a forward to latch onto and complete his vision.

This year, he'll be pulling the strings behind a revamped front three, with Joao Plata, Movsisyan and Juan Manuel Martinez providing him with all the options he needs to thrive in the RSL maestro role.

Keep an eye on: Yura Movsisyan

Projected Starting XI

Season in a Sentence

This Real Salt Lake team is a shadow of the team that won the 2009 MLS Cup, not just symbolically but in profiles; much of the team's more important positions are occupied by the same players, doubly so now that Movsisyan and Wingert have returned to the fold; they alone won't be enough to change the club's fortunes, though.