CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The temperature in Salt Lake City Friday morning was listed at a balmy 31 degrees.
Not exactly prime training weather for a Major League Soccer team.
That's why no one was happier than Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis to be in sunny Charleston. S.C., this weekend where spring has arrived early and temperatures are expected to be near 80 degrees the rest of the week.
Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and D.C. United are all in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, taking part in the sixth annual Carolina Challenge Cup. The week-long event, which concludes on March 14, features a round-robin format for the MLS teams, plus the host Charleston Battery, a member of the USL First Division.
"This is our third trip of the preseason," Kreis said. "We've been to Florida, we've been to California and now we're in Charleston and couldn't be happier about it. We've probably been in Salt Lake for a total of about 10 days since we got together. It's not always the easiest place to train during the preseason."
Kreis spent most of the first two trips away from Salt Lake concentrating specifically on either the team's attack or defense. While in Charleston, he's hoping to combine the two elements as a final tune-up before the regular-season starts.
"We're looking to try and put everything together on this trip," Kreis said. "We spent a lot of time defending on our first trip. Then we focused a lot on our attack in the second trip, so this trip we're just trying to put it all together. We really want to get a good test of where we're at because when we leave (Charleston) we'll actually start a week behind everyone else in the MLS because we have that bye the first week of the season.
"We'll have two weeks to clean everything up from these three matches, which I think will be a great test for us going into the regular season."
Kreis said he'll spend the next seven days refining his lineup.
"We're still searching for those top guys," Kreis said. "I'm not the kind of coach that says I have a first 11. I've got a group of 23 players that are competing for the first 11 spots every day."
This is Salt Lake's first trip to Charleston and the Carolina Challenge Cup. The San Jose Earthquakes won the tournament a year ago.
"I've heard nothing but good things about this tournament from everyone that has been involved with it in the past," Kreis said. "I think it's a great format. We get to look at a couple of MLS teams and see where we are with our development."
Kreis said he's been especially pleased with a couple of rookies -- Raphael Cox and Jean Alexandre.
"We've been very pleased with several of our college signees," Kreis said. "I think Raphael and Jean have incredible potential in front of them. We're extremely happy with the group that we've got returning from last year.
"We really felt like with the additions we made at the end of last season that we were a very strong team at the end of the summer. We trying to build on what we did at the end of last year."
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