Chris Wingert is a native of Babylon, NY and played his LIJSL travel soccer as a member of the Commack Soccer Club. He went on to star at St. John the Baptist HS, and then at St. John’s University where he won the 2003 Hermann Trophy as the best collegiate soccer player in the nation. He was the 12th player selected in the 2004 MLS draft, and is now in his 7th season in the league, winning the MLS Cup as a member of Real Salt Lake in 2009.

Chris will be checking in weekly with LIJSoccer.com to update us on his MLS season and RSL’s play in Champions League games.

We were able to grab a few minutes with Chris Wingert on Tuesday before he headed to Rio Tinto Stadium for Real Salt Lake’s US Open Cup 3rd Round game against the Wilmington Hammerheads. Unfortunately, a hamstring injury will keep him out of action (more on that later), but he was able to give us a recap of the past few weeks now that the MLS season is in full swing.

“We went on the road to play in Columbus and Philadelphia,” Wingert explained. “We gave up a couple unlucky goals, but we didn’t play well and lost that game. Then we played the Union in Philly and played what was maybe our worst half of soccer all season. But we came back and scored a goal in the second half to tie, which was a good result considering the way we played.”

The team came home to Utah a little unsatisfied, but still firmly in the thick of things in the western conference. Then things got really interesting.

“We played DC United at home in our next game,” Wingert continued. “We were up 1-0 all game. Then in the 83rd minute, Charlie Davies was coming down into the box with the ball and I slid to stop him. He took a pretty blatant dive, and the video showed there was no contact between the two of us, but the ref gave him a PK, which he converted for a score.

“The story has actually been in the media in the past few days because the league fined him $1000 for the dive, but it still ended up being a tie game,” Wingert continued. “What made it worse is that I pulled my hamstring on the play as well, and I’ve been out of the lineup ever since. That’s a tough play!”

A tie in Chicago left the team winless in their last four games, but they righted the ship with a 3-1 home victory over Toronto. After tonight’s Cup game, RSL gets back to league action on July 4th against the struggling New England Revolution. Wingert is hoping to be back for that game, and hoping the team can maintain their winning ways.

“Hopefully we can get another win at home against New England and stay in the hunt for first place,” he said. “Los Angeles is in first place, and Dallas and Seattle are right there as well, but if we can take care of the rest of our games, we have a couple in hand and can actually end up in first place. That’s a big if, but it all starts with us taking care of our games.

“I feel good as far as the injury goes,” Wingert added. “I’ve been running and training, and I have to feel comfortable with the stop and go and change of direction stuff, but I should be ready for the 4th.”