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Real Salt Lake: Rejuvenated Williams playing lead role for RSL
By Michael C. Lewis
The Salt Lake Tribune
The season has been a tumultuous one for Real Salt Lake's Andy Williams.
But it's headed toward a happy ending.
Having spent the whole season juggling grave family responsibilities amid his wife's treatment for leukemia, the veteran midfielder has blossomed once again over the last few weeks -- just in time to help RSL reach the Major League Soccer playoffs, where the team will play the defending champion Columbus Crew in the first round starting Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Not that he's taking any credit for it.
"As a team we've been playing better down the stretch," he said, practically shrugging. "We did the same thing last year, we sort of picked it up toward the end, and we found ourselves in a good position. ... Fortunately, we're in the same kind of boat now."
Williams has been arguably RSL's best player during its past three games, in particular, scoring only his second goal of the season in an important victory over New York and then assisting twice in the make-or-break win over Colorado last weekend that allowed RSL to return to the postseason.
The renaissance seems to have coincided with his wife's return home a month ago, her illness in remission after months of treatment and a cord-blood transplant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. At one point during the summer, Marcia Williams had been rushed into intensive care and connected to a ventilator to help her breathe, while doctors feared a potentially fatal infection.
But Williams downplayed the notion that he somehow has been freed from an emotional burden, while coach Jason Kreis said his former teammate actually had started shining on the field in the weeks before his wife came home.
"Once the game's over ... it's back to reality," Williams said. "Yeah, she's back home and she's feeling a little bit better, but we still have a long way to go from here. We just take it day-by-day, right now."
And that's plenty encouraging to a lot of people.
For a while Marcia Williams spent much of the season receiving treatment, her battle against a rare form of leukemia galvanized the team and the league.
Teams all over Major League Soccer held donor drives in the search for someone who could donate cells for a transplant, and teammate Clint Mathis wore No. 77 in honor of Williams -- midfielder Javier Morales did that, too, at the MLS All-Star Game -- when Williams missed games to be with his wife during her time in intensive care. Green wristbands meant to show support for the Williams family became ubiquitous in the soccer community, while former teammates and even local high school teams organized fund-raisers to help pay for medical expenses.
Through it all, though, Williams played little.
Until coming on as a substitute for the injured Morales in a loss at New England on Aug. 23 -- the point at which Kreis said Williams "really came to life" -- the 32-year-old Jamaican international had played just 277 minutes in 14 games with only two starts.
Since then, however, he has appeared in all eight games, playing 426 minutes with five starts during a 4-3-1 stretch. It has been enough to remind fans how valuable Williams can be, and perhaps prove to management that the only player who has been with RSL since its inaugural season deserves to stick around even longer.
The team must decide whether to pick a contract option to keep Williams next season, and could lose him anyway if it does not protect him in the expansion draft that will stock the new Philadelphia Union team that will enter the league next season.
"Anything's possible," Williams said.
Coach Kreis has never doubted Williams' sublime touch on the ball, he said, but that Williams has stood out just as much recently for his commitment to defense. And Kreis gets the sense that having a shot at a championship means a little more to Williams, who not only has battled through his family turmoil but also those first miserable seasons with RSL.
"I think it does mean more to guys like Andy," Kreis said, "because we've been through all the bad times. The saying goes that you have to go through difficult times to appreciate the good ones, and so if that is the case, both Andy and I are very, very appreciative of these last two years, for sure."
By Michael C. Lewis
The Salt Lake Tribune
The season has been a tumultuous one for Real Salt Lake's Andy Williams.
But it's headed toward a happy ending.
Having spent the whole season juggling grave family responsibilities amid his wife's treatment for leukemia, the veteran midfielder has blossomed once again over the last few weeks -- just in time to help RSL reach the Major League Soccer playoffs, where the team will play the defending champion Columbus Crew in the first round starting Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Not that he's taking any credit for it.
"As a team we've been playing better down the stretch," he said, practically shrugging. "We did the same thing last year, we sort of picked it up toward the end, and we found ourselves in a good position. ... Fortunately, we're in the same kind of boat now."
Williams has been arguably RSL's best player during its past three games, in particular, scoring only his second goal of the season in an important victory over New York and then assisting twice in the make-or-break win over Colorado last weekend that allowed RSL to return to the postseason.
The renaissance seems to have coincided with his wife's return home a month ago, her illness in remission after months of treatment and a cord-blood transplant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. At one point during the summer, Marcia Williams had been rushed into intensive care and connected to a ventilator to help her breathe, while doctors feared a potentially fatal infection.
But Williams downplayed the notion that he somehow has been freed from an emotional burden, while coach Jason Kreis said his former teammate actually had started shining on the field in the weeks before his wife came home.
"Once the game's over ... it's back to reality," Williams said. "Yeah, she's back home and she's feeling a little bit better, but we still have a long way to go from here. We just take it day-by-day, right now."
And that's plenty encouraging to a lot of people.
For a while Marcia Williams spent much of the season receiving treatment, her battle against a rare form of leukemia galvanized the team and the league.
Teams all over Major League Soccer held donor drives in the search for someone who could donate cells for a transplant, and teammate Clint Mathis wore No. 77 in honor of Williams -- midfielder Javier Morales did that, too, at the MLS All-Star Game -- when Williams missed games to be with his wife during her time in intensive care. Green wristbands meant to show support for the Williams family became ubiquitous in the soccer community, while former teammates and even local high school teams organized fund-raisers to help pay for medical expenses.
Through it all, though, Williams played little.
Until coming on as a substitute for the injured Morales in a loss at New England on Aug. 23 -- the point at which Kreis said Williams "really came to life" -- the 32-year-old Jamaican international had played just 277 minutes in 14 games with only two starts.
Since then, however, he has appeared in all eight games, playing 426 minutes with five starts during a 4-3-1 stretch. It has been enough to remind fans how valuable Williams can be, and perhaps prove to management that the only player who has been with RSL since its inaugural season deserves to stick around even longer.
The team must decide whether to pick a contract option to keep Williams next season, and could lose him anyway if it does not protect him in the expansion draft that will stock the new Philadelphia Union team that will enter the league next season.
"Anything's possible," Williams said.
Coach Kreis has never doubted Williams' sublime touch on the ball, he said, but that Williams has stood out just as much recently for his commitment to defense. And Kreis gets the sense that having a shot at a championship means a little more to Williams, who not only has battled through his family turmoil but also those first miserable seasons with RSL.
"I think it does mean more to guys like Andy," Kreis said, "because we've been through all the bad times. The saying goes that you have to go through difficult times to appreciate the good ones, and so if that is the case, both Andy and I are very, very appreciative of these last two years, for sure."
