By Charles Boehm – KANSAS CITY, KS (Dec 6, 2012) US Soccer Players – Like most showcase championship games, perceptions – and coverage – of Saturday’s MLS Cup final tend to center around personalities and matchups. Which players will step up and seize the spotlight? Will one of the coaches come up with a tactical masterstroke that tips the balance?

This week’s speculation over Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis’ hazy future and the perceived clash of styles between RSL and Sporting Kansas City have dominated most of the media coverage. To hear this year’s protagonists talk, however, this match is as much a tribute to these two clubs’ systems as the people that work within them.

“I think when you look at the state of the league and where it’s at with the different clubs, it seems like there’s more pressure on winning than ever before,” said Salt Lake midfielder Ned Grabavoy in a media conference call on Monday. “You see more coaches out after a year if they don’t make the playoffs. You see changes all over, whether it be coaching staffs or front offices, or a lot of turnover on teams with player personnel. So I think have a core group of leaders here, having a coaching staff that’s familiar with the players, knows the system, all those things make things more comfortable on and off the field.”

Sporting and Real have clashed bitterly in their single regular-season meeting in each of the past three years. Yet a tone of recognition and respect has prevailed – so far – in the lead up to the title bout, epitomized by Kreis’ tribute to Saturday’s opponents, whose tactical approach varies from RSL but have built a support system in very similar fashion.

“It takes a long time to develop who you are: philosophy of playing, philosophy of system, for your club. An identity for your club,” said the former MLS scoring champion, strongly rumored to be a target of 2015 MLS expansion club NYCFC, in RSL’s press conference shortly after their arrival in KC on Thursday.

“If I were to think about the entire league, I think that Kansas City and Real Salt Lake have two very distinct styles that have been implemented, and they don’t go away from those styles very often. So I think it says something about leadership and management sticking with coaches, and also trying to identify a style and a system and staying with that.”

Both these clubs have pulled off something of a resurrection simply to attain relevance. Kreis and Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey stepped in to help the Claret-and-Cobalt overcome an atrocious start to life in MLS, and Sporting rebranded in drastic fashion under new ownership after an uneven decade-and-a-half as the Kansas City Wizards.

“We’ve made a significant turnaround in all aspects of the club, so from that point of view, it’s been a great experience, no doubt,” said SKC coach Peter Vermes on Monday. “So much of it has to do with the ownership group and vision and their commitment. It’s not just commitment in the financial aspect, but it’s also their influence and their participation within the community of Kansas City. That’s been a major impact into our team.”

Interestingly enough, the importance of a collective identity is part of the response to prominent departures over the past year or two. Success on both individual and group levels brought with them a range of consequences.

Or as RSL and US National Team midfielder Kyle Beckerman put it, “Everything we bought into was starting to come true.”

But salary cap concerns forced RSL to trade away starters Will Johnson, Jamison Olave and Fabian Espindola last winter, while Sporting had to bid farewell to Kei Kamara and Roger Espinoza as the duo pursued opportunities in the English leagues.

In both cases, trust in the system trumped even the most valuable members of the collective.

“It was not something we hope to do every day, trading away three All-Stars at the end of the season,” admitted Lagerwey, “but we went five games last year at the end of the season without scoring, and we felt like we had a [CONCACAF] Champions League group that we should have advanced out of, but we didn’t. So we thought we had to change some things up. The nature of MLS is that there’s always going to be salary cap pressure to try to bring in younger players and to move out more veteran players.”

Said Vermes on Monday: “We’ve lost quite a few guys from a year ago, realistically, in Roger Espinoza, [Brazilian midfielder] Júlio César, and also Kei, but there’s a strong belief from our staff that we have a group of guys that are very committed to the philosophy of the team. When there’s one man’s absence, there’s another man’s opportunity. A lot of guys have stepped up this year.”

Kreis has steadfastly insisted that he’s RSL’s coach now and hasn’t made a decision about next season. Given what we’ve seen from Salt Lake, it’s not hard to imagine both him and the club feeling confident that he, too, could be replaced with little letdown in the system’s overall effectiveness.

“I believe that we’ve set a real philosophy for ourselves, we’ve set a real identity for ourselves, and that’s all about the team. For us, we always say that the name on the front of the jersey is much more important than any name on the back,” he said. “As I’ve seen the history of the league since 1996, for me the best teams have always been the ones that have stayed together for the longest.

“Now, some of that is borne about by success, because if you’re not good enough then you won’t be staying together very long. I think it’s a circle. But for me it always comes down to teamwork and consistency, and leadership.”

Charles Boehm is a Washington, DC-based writer and the editor of The Soccer Wire. Contact him at: cboehm@thesoccerwire.com. Follow him on Twitter at:http://twitter.com/cboehm.

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