Real Salt Lake to visit campus

Players from the Real Salt Lake Soccer Team will visit campus today as part of their MLS Cup tour.

The team will be at the SUU Bookstore from noon to 12:30 p.m., Cedar City Events Coordinator Byron Linford said.

Students will be able to meet RSL team members, get autographs, and take photos with the players in the SUU Bookstore, Linford said.

The team will bring its mascot Leo the Lion, as well as the Philip F. Anschutz trophy.

He said the team did not originally schedule to come to Cedar City, but when the city officials found out the team planned to go to Parowan and St. George, he contacted the team and arranged for them to visit Cedar City.

The team won the Major League Soccer Cup after a rocky season — the team was close to not even making the playoffs.

The team won the championship this past December by edging the LA Galaxy 5-4 in penalty shots after a 1-1 draw.

According to an RSL press release, the team wants to head into the next season even stronger.

“We’re just starting to scratch the surface of this team,” RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman said.

“This is a big moment for our team and I think this is going to help us a lot to move forward and really get better and really make Salt Lake a team that is always consistently good.”

Beckerman, as well as RSL forward Robbie Findley and goalkeeper Nick Rimando, will start a second round of training camp Wednesday for the U.S. Men’s National Team.