The rain, the thunder, and the lightning just kept coming, and while it did, Chris Wingert and his Real Salt Lake teammates waited. The team came away with a point from a game that ended in a scoreless tie that lasted three hours and forty-three minutes thanks to an hour and half rain delay. It was the longest game in RSL history!

“You can’t possibly keep your edge during a delay that lasts that long,” Wingert said when we caught up with him the next day while he was sitting out another weather delay, this time in the Dallas airport. “It’s tough to go back out there. You’re body has pretty much shut down, your legs have tightened up, and there’s not much you can do to prevent it. You try to stay loose, but during that down time you don’t want to be too active because you know you still have to be able to go full speed the rest of the game when you finally get back out there. I actually tried to get a little something to eat and tried to keep my energy level up.”

When the teams did finally return to the field, it was a typical RSL performance that was centered around a strong defensive effort. With their sixth shutout in eight games, the team’s goals against average dropped to .25, and their two goals allowed through eight games ties an MLS record. It’s a remarkable run that Wingert says begins with the smallest details.

“Personally, I think it’s just a result of doing everything that goes into playing good game, taking care of the little things,” said Wingert, who plays on the left side of RSL’s back line. “When you take care of those details, the results tend to speak for themselves.

“Those aren’t things we talk about as a team,” he continued. “It’s how we play that’s important. We’re not perfect. Mistakes happen. But it’s how you react to those mistakes, how you make up for them that counts. When we make mistakes we do a good job of fighting to get that ball back. Plus, we do a good job of possessing the ball, which limits the opponent’s chances. Then, we also probably have the best goalie in the league. The combination of those things is what helps us be successful. Now, we can’t get complacent. We have to keep working at it and stay consistent.”

In what was a physical game, Wingert and his defensive mates stayed on point in Dallas. He and Kyle Beckerman both received yellow cards during the contest, but Wingert says that’s part of the game at this level.

“We knew we’d have to be good in transition because they are so good on the counter attack. That sometimes will put a defender out of position, so if we have to take a professional foul to prevent a good scoring chance, then that’s what we have to do. It wasn’t anything dirty, or anything like that. They were just good, hard tackles. They are big and fast, so those things are going to happen in that kind of game.”

The game marked the first time RSL had taken a point away from Dallas in ten tries. Wingert wasn’t aware of that streak breaker, but said wasn’t a bad effort for a tough road game.

“It was not best effort, and it didn’t come under ideal conditions, but we’ll take it,” he said. “It was a decent result. They let us possess the ball more than usual, but we could have done a better job with the chances we got.”

Getting away from the game a little bit, we asked Wingert what kind of player he was growing up, and if that had changed since he began playing professionally.

“I grew up as an attacking player,” he said. “When I was really young I was a winger. Then when I was a teenager I played mostly center mid. That continued into college, but after my freshman year we lost our two center backs, so I moved back there to help the team and I had a lot of success. I was named to the U23 national team as a result, so I had no complaints because my goal was to play on the national team.”

So Wingert has made his name as a defender and that has carried through to his MLS career. But while he’s enjoying his career, he expects his position will change again once he hits the rec leagues after retirement.

“If it was my choice, I would not be playing defense,” he said with a laugh. “Our coach encourages us to get forward and attack whenever we can, and my first couple of years in the league I played midfield, but I’m happy playing and I’m helping my team, which is my top priority at this point.

“But make no mistake,” he said finally. “When I retire and move on to the old man recreational leagues, I will NOT be playing defense!”