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SANDY — Freddy Juarez has spent a lot of sleepless nights getting ready for the Real Monarchs’ first game in franchise history.
The wait is almost over.
The Monarchs, the third-division USL affiliate of MLS outfit Real Salt Lake, will open their inaugural season against L.A. Galaxy II at 7 p.m. MDT Sunday at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Though the Monarchs would love to enter USL play on a hot streak and instantly roll to cup titles and championships, the first-year head coach and veteran of RSL’s Arizona academy knows that may not be realistic.
“I don’t think we’ll come off firing on all cylinders right away, but it’s going to be a process. I think sooner rather than later, we’ll be a good, exciting team,” said Juarez, a Las Cruces, New Mexico native. “I’m super excited for this program. What we want to have is very similar to the first team and our academy, play the RSL way, and make sure we are creating a lot of opportunities throughout the game.
“We want fans to be very excited coming to the game, and leave the game thinking ‘that was fun, and we want to come back.’ ”
The Real Monarchs finished their inaugural preseason with a 1-0 win at USL rival Colorado Springs, as well as a 3-0 win over Weber State and a 1-0 win over Utah Valley University. Juarez admitted the play wasn’t always to his liking, but that’s to be expected for a brand-new team in a brand-new organization — and three shutouts in three wins is nothing to sniff at.
“Getting onto the field is the fun part,” Juarez said at Monday's media day for the Monarchs. “When we finally went out for the first session until now is the best part. We’ve got three games for preseason; we’ve had some good results, but not always the best soccer. That’s expected; it’s early.”
The Monarchs have blended together the organization’s upper-level academy teams with members of their first team, including goalkeeper Lalo Fernandez and 2014 MLS SuperDraft selections Lucas Baldin and Jordan Murrell.
Shortly after signing his first professional contract after four years at Syracuse University, Murrell watched RSL’s equipment managers slab his last name on the back of his jersey.
The moment gave him chills.
“I’ve been working for this my whole lifetime, and now after signing my first professional contract, it’s only going to go up from here,” said Murrell, a Toronto FC academy product who is originally from London. “I’m very excited. The boys are great, and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Murrell was a four-year starter at left back for the Orange, and he helped lead the team to its first-ever No. 1 national ranking in school history as a senior.
But expectations are even higher in his rookie season.
“We looked to win a championship in school, but this is the job, the livelihood, what you do to pay the bills at the end of the week,” Murrell said. “It puts that much more pressure on you, and you embrace that pressure as an athlete. That’s when we perform the best.
“School definitely prepared me for this. I appreciate everything I learned at Syracuse, and now I’m looking to better myself here and hopefully move on to the first team.”
Baldin, a native of Brazil who played college soccer at South Florida, spent the preseason with RSL’s first team in Tucson, Arizona, and Irvine, California. That experience, even as a preseason training camp, helped the central midfielder adapt to a new system and style of play.
“As soon as we stepped foot with the first team, hopefully we were already used to the system and the culture. Jeff Cassar has been a great mentor for all the young guys, and I feel like toward myself as well,” Baldin said. “Now it’s time to use all the experiences I’ve had in my career and in college, and use it toward helping the Monarchs win. That’s why we’re here: we want to reach our goals as professional soccer players, but also to win games and to win championships.”
Balancing player development with a push to win championships and trophies will require delicate maneuvers, as Juarez has already seen with players who are regularly shuffling back-and-forth from RSL to the Monarchs.
But that balance is ever-present in practice, and at any level of pro soccer in America, the players’ competitive instincts still take over, Murrell said.
“Every day at training, the coaches are pushing us to do things better and improve our technique and our tactics,” he added. “Training is just like a regular game; the way you train is the way you play. If we go out and learn during training, we’ll learn during the game, and that’s how we win championships. We’ve got to keep that mentality.”
With the season-opener less than three days away, Baldin admitted the process has been a whirlwind, as he’s gone from college graduation to the draft to preseason and Monarchs practices.
But when the opening whistle blows Sunday evening in Los Angeles, he’s excited to accomplish one of his lifelong goals: being a professional soccer player.
“It’s a little bit surreal, to be honest,” Baldin said. “We’re still getting to know each other. But at the same time, we’ve known each other for several months, and I played against some guys in college.
“L.A. is a great team, they’ve done really well in the past, and for us it will be a really good test to see where we are.”
