RSL sounds a lot like their city brother, the Utah Jazz of the NBA. Not flashy and defensive minded. They play the team instead of individual style basketball. The Jazz are good year in and year out, but have never tasted the prize.

Also, I wouldn’t put Jeff Parke as depth, as you know he still has to sit out three more games from his suspension.

Coug, you are right, he doesn’t count yet. I hate rushing, but this working full time while trying to blog thing sometimes forces it.

It’s NOT pronounced Ree-All, it’s pronounced RAY-ALL. There’s a slight stress on the second syllable. The first syllable rhymes with day or way.
Sorry, but “ree-all” is a pet peeve of mine.

Pronunciation-wise, you’re correct, but lacking the royal patronage of Real Madrid, Salt Lake has the most ridiculous, affected nomenclature in MLS. I call ’em Fake Salt Lake.

Excellent site you have here. Really enjoy reading it. Would you be able to email me when you get the chance? I have something I would like to run by you.

Thanks a lot,

Thomas

It’s hilarious when teams with an ‘FC’ attached to their names criticize us for borrowing our name from europe. Idiots!

I agree, it’s RAY awl Salt Lake, not ree all. Sorry Dave. I personally think that we have too many offensive options for any defense to consider double teaming Montero. The strike (I don’t mean striker) trio of FM, FJ, and NJ will force defenses to think about a zone type defense like Man U does in the EPL. Tougher to play than man up because of the discipline and quality of player it requires. Needless to say, I think SSFC will score a lot of goals this year. Hands down.

I have never heard an MLS announcer say Ray-awl. Always Ree-al.

While Ray-awl may be proper Spanish, it isn’t what the majority of the league uses.

Real Salt Lake is just simply the worst team name in the league. It’s both Eurosnob poserish and inaccurate all in one step. And who do they think they’re fooling, anyway? No one will else confuse RSL for Real Madrid.

But it’s pronounced ‘ray-ALL’, and there is a partnership between RSL and Real Madrid. The partnership agreement between the two clubs was introduced in 2006, and is centered around a youth-development academy in SLC, financed by both clubs, as well as biennial friendlies and RSL training in Madrid in the MLS preseason.

Of course it is RAY-al which is the Spanish word for Royal. Since there are no royals is Utah or the rest of the country, it is a ridiculous name. FC on the other hand stands for football club. There are lots of football clubs in the US including the Seahawks and the Sounders. Not too hilarious, just accurate.

Sounderatheart – A widespread mistake is still a mistake. Those who say reee-all are wrong. That’s a linguistic fact, not an opinion. It doesn’t matter how many of them there are. A herd of ignorant people don’t become correct simply by their numbers.

Moreover, no MLS announcer or commentator with Spanish language skills says “Ree-all” Salt Lake. So it’s hardly some kind of consensus. (And if you’ve NEVER heard an MLS announcer pronounce it correctly, you haven’t been paying attention – Bretos and Sullivan immediately come to mind, and they’re 2 of the most prominant)

I’ve always thought they should have called the team Royal Salt Lake, if they were going to go that direction.

Of course, that’s a pretty silly name.

So I just listened to all of the RSL goals that won Goal of the Week. Within those highlights 6 did not mention the team name, 5 only sadi RSL, 2 said Ree-al, 1 said Ray-al and 1 could be interpretted either way.

I have no doubts that others know Spanish beter than I, but I also know what I have heard over the past four years. And, in linguistics what is proper IS what is popular, that’s how languages develop, intermingle and change. That is a fact, not ignorance.

But a tiny handful of ignorant sports announcers do not a popular consensus make. Espcially when it’s a word that they are trying to pronounce from another language. If they mispronounce it, they are mispronouncing it. In this case a tiny collection of individuals (some, maybe many, of the population of MLS announcers – I can hardly think of a less significant population in terms of quantity) and are not changing the pronunciation.

I realize you have a linguistic background. I have a bit of one myself. And you must surely realize that the notion that “popular = proper” is not accepted by all in the field.

In any case, that’s not relevant here as we’re just talking about yet another case of American sports announcers mispronouncing foreign words.

And by the way I just watched on the most recent Extra Time and Messing and G. Lalas are also in the "ray-all" camp.

Wendell, you watched all of Extra Time?

You are dedicated!

What are your thoughts on the match?

My thoughts are that the powers that be at RSL, CUSA, Toronto, and SJ2 must be questioning the “free pass to fail” they gave their teams during their first years since they were expansion teams, and sucking was the only option.

That and I think personally I’m as excited by Alonso as I am by Fredy.

And I was stuck watching the RSL broadcast over MLSnet.com, and the whole RSL broadcast team said ray-all! :)

I’m a huge Real fan, and this is the first time I came across your site. Really enjoyed reading what you had to see. I hope Real can make another playoff run this year. I haven’t been to Rio Tinto yet, but I will be there for a few games this summer. I will be coming back to your blog often.