Sandy, Utah – Today Real Salt Lake traded defender Lovel Palmer to the Chicago Fire for allocation money. The trade was announced on the Real Salt Lake website today in addition to the MLS soccer website. The amount of allocation money exchanged between RSL and Chicago was not disclosed per league policy.
Palmer was only with the club for a year appearing in 21 games and making 16 starts including the 10th and final shot for RSL in the MLS Cup championship gam.e Lovel is 29 years old and from Jamaca who was used when defender Chris Wingert was hurt or unavailable. Palmer’s shot in the MLS Cup game against Sporting Kansas City hit the top of the crossbar and missed.
In other news Real Salt Lake announced on Friday that the club will not participate in the 2014-2015 CONCACAF Champions League. The CONCACAF executive committee voted today to adopt U.S. Soccer’s and Major League Soccer’s proposal to alter the USA’s qualification rules and that the changes will be implemented in the 2014-2015 round of the tournament. The proposed change to the USA’s qualification rules that was officially submitted by the U.S. Soccer Federation for CONCACAF that the berth given to the MLS Cup runner-up be given instead to the MLS team that has the best regular season finish in the conference opposite of the Supporters’ Shield winner. The league believes that this change would make finishing first in each conference more significant. If one team were to qualify with multiple berths or a Canadian MLS team were to qualify, the berth would then go to the U.S. MLS team with the next best regular season record. Real Salt Lake would have qualified under the old rules as 2013 MLS Cup runner-ups but that berth will now be awarded to Portland Timbers who finished the regular season first in the Western Conference – opposite of Supporters’ Shield winners New York Red Bulls.
Real Salt Lake also announced on Friday that RSL forward Robbie Findley and defender Chris Schuler both underwent surgery on Thursday.
Findley underwent surgery to repair a torn right patella tendon caused by general wear-and-tear after being in season continuously since July 2012. Schuler had an operation to remove bone spurs from his left ankle that had been plaguing him for the better part of 18 months. Both procedures were performed by RSL Team Physician Dr. Andrew Cooper at Salt Lake Regional Hospital.
Findley returned to RSL in January after spending 2011 and 2012 with English Championship side Nottingham Forest, scoring eight goals and adding three assists in MLS regular season and MLS Cup Playoff action.
Schuler appeared in 21 regular season and playoff games in 2013, all of which were starts. The 26-year-old center back began the year by playing every minute of RSL’s first 12 games, then went on the shelf for several months due to a stress response injury in his foot before returning in late September to play a big role in RSL’s run to appearing in MLS Cup 2013.
Schuler and Findley were RSL’s co-leading scorers in the MLS Cup Playoffs, both registering two goals to help RSL to its appearance in MLS Cup 2013.