September 10, 2025 • 12 mins
Catch “The Drive with Spence Checketts” from 2 pm to 6 pm weekdays on ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM. Produced by Porter Larsen. The latest on the Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, Utes, BYU + more sports storylines.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Halfway through your work week.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
One day closer to the weekend, our local soccer team
is actually playing a game. It's been a while, but
Sporting Kansas City rolls into America First Field on Saturday
for a seven thirty kick. Our next guest knows the
thing or two about Sporting k C's now with RSL.
Please to welcome in Johnny Russell on a Wednesday afternoon. Johnny,
Happy Wednesday, sir.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you for having me? I'm good man, I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm well.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I really really appreciate the time. First of all, do
you guys remember how to play? This is such a
weird thing that late summer, early fall you've had this
much time off.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
On a serious no, My question is what did you get?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What have you guys tried to utilize this time to
get accomplished before you get back at it on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I mean, it's it's a bit of a strange one
having this kind of break at that's pd of the season.
But I think there was a few things needed addressing
from a part, few things that we had probably from
and we had let slept on as given as a
time to work on that, you know, a lot of
(01:07):
guys said at the stage of the season, you're struggling
with a couple of things, so it gave them a
little bit of time as well. So the training sessions
over the last three weeks have been really intense and
very competitive, and I think that will set us up nicely.
We'd manted this game and then we'd manted the rest
of the season as well.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Johnny, since this is the first time I've had an
opportunity to interview you. You and I actually met in
San Diego. It was just a passing in the night thing.
I was able to say hello, I was up in
the suite with john but I've not had a chance
to interview interview you in the space.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So I wanted to go back to the.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Origin story on how you landed here because you were
kind of without a club after playing for Casey for
quite some time, and we heard some rumors maybe Kurt
was speaking with you and your reps. But tell us
about the process the landed you here in Salt Lake
and how your experience has been so far.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, it was about of It was a bit of
a weird one, to be honest. I don't think anyone
would have expected that move, especially if you've watched the
MLS and the two teams playing over the last few years.
I don't think anyone would have expected it. I think
it was actually there was a little bit of early
contact over the sort of Christmas period, but at that
(02:21):
time obviously RSEL were set, they didn't need anyone, and
then obviously after that lost a few players, and then
I flew in, probably two or three weeks before I
actually signed. I came in to do just like a
little tour of the facility, just a little medical checkup
(02:42):
type thing and just a meeting with and Bablo, just
to sort of address everything, what their expectations were, what
the goals were, and then similar from my point of
view as well, and I think that went. That went
really well. We have a Zoom call as well with
Jason on that as well, and I just felt it
(03:06):
felt right. Obviously I wanted to continue playing. I think
there was maybe a within the league there was a
little bit of a misconception that I was I was
finished after leaving Sporting, but that was that was not
the not the case. I still wanted to continue playing.
I still feel although I'm obviously close at the end
(03:29):
of my career in the start, still feel that I've
got so much left and me to give on the
field and off the field. So after speaking to those guys,
it was it was a fairly easy, easy decision. And yeah,
I could say at the start of that there, I
think it caught everyone by surprise and no one kind
of expected it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
How your experience been, and also what did you know
about our market? What did you know about our city
prior to coming here, and how's it been for you
so far?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A huge deal about the city. It's obviously somewhere that
I've came and played a lot, but sort of my
knowledge and recollection of the city would be literally staying
at the hotel downtown and driving at the stadium. That's
all we got to see. So I was on the drive.
(04:22):
You can see the mountains, and you can see obviously
how beautiful that is. But I think, like Salt Lake
in general is probably one of those one of those
cities where it maybe gets underappreciated by by traveling teams
and getting to come here and see it firsthand. I've
been up and the canyon's a few times, being about
(04:43):
to part the cities, so I know how how beautiful
the place is so before before moving here, honestly, it's
just that drive down the highway was really the only
the only thing that I had seen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And and have you enjoyed yourself? Are you enjoying the experience?
And what's it like playing for Pablo? What sort of
coach is has he been for you?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So far?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I've loved it. I've loved it. Like I said, they
are getting on the on the off days that we
do get, getting to go up and explore up into
the mountains and playing some golf as well. The golf
courses here are beautiful, a lot of amazing backdrop when
you've got the mountains behind you as well. And Pablo's
has been great. I think I knew that was going
(05:30):
to be the case after we spoke in the zoom,
we spoke face to face. I'm just a you know,
real sort of players, players manager having you know, he's
he's not long out the game playing himself, so I
think that that definitely helps. But he's been he's been
great with me. He I told him how important it
(05:52):
was for me to obviously continue playing, and you know,
he's he's given me the opportunity to come and do that.
So No, I'm here really grateful to him, and you know,
oh a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
All right, Johnny, you just opened you just opened the door.
I did not know you played golf. I could talk
to you about golf for hours.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But you you're.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You're you're from the home of golf. Yeah, I mean,
did you play? Did you Did you play as a
child or is this a new hobby of yours?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No? I played a little bit as a child. My
dad was actually a really good scratch golfer, but I
didn't play too much with him. Uh, And it was
just kind of something I played with my friends on
and off, and then throughout my time in Scotland and
England it was kind of on and off. And then
(06:41):
really the most golf I've played is when I moved
to the US. I think the weather helps as well.
So it's no, it's it's definitely something i'd say over
the last It's always been a huge interest and love
of mine, but became more of a more of a
hobby the last few years, where I've got to play
(07:01):
a lot more than I had done previously.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
May I ask your handicap? Do you have a Do
you have an index?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I haven't updated it for a while on the off season,
I was playing. I was playing a lot of golf
when I was without a team, and I actually helped
my golf game hugely and I got it down to
just under ten.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So nice.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But but it'll be, it would definitely be. It would
definitely be back up from them. I've played a few
times since for a few of the guys here, and
it's definitely not at the level it was.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It's a hard game, Johnny, as you know, Hey, let
me let me move over here again. It's been such
a weird time for you guys to have so much
time off during this uh this portion of the calendar.
But we had problem on last week, so it does
allow you to get Victor Olatunja and Rwan Cruz kind
of ingratiated into the group. Also, DeAndre Yedlin was brought
(07:57):
in in addition to that. So tell me your impression
of the three late summer editions you guys made and
has it been in training this week watching them?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It's been great and with any new new edition, you know,
I know it from being one myself earlier in the season,
how welcome and the guys are here. And then even
my time in Casey, especially the words that end being
the captain. How important it is to get those guys
(08:27):
feel uncomfortable in the environment as quickly as possible if
you don't want, you know, guys to feel out of
place and you know what affects our game because I'm
not confident, they don't want to express themselves, and because
they don't want to make any mistakes or put a
foot wrong, and just to just to ingrain them very
quickly that in a way, we're all going to make
(08:48):
We're all going to make mistakes. But I think getting
to know them and getting them involved in a in
a social and in a personal way definitely helps to
to bring out the best of them on the field
as well. So it's been good from that sense where
we've had a lot of time where you know, we
(09:09):
can get to know these guys and better, and I
think I think you'll see the best of the mouth
that they've had a little bit more time, a little
bit more time to work on getting used to the
way that we play. The fitness levels are getting up
there as well, so I think you'll definitely start to
see the best of those guys, and you know that's
(09:30):
only going to be good for us going forward.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I wanted to ask you about Diego.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know, you've played with a lot of really special
players over the years, and you know Diego's spent some
time with US men's national team.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I believe he'll be with you guys on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
But how good you think he can be once it's
fully beggd And what's it been like to kind of
witness the type of player he is so far since
you landed and saw Lake.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I think he's got everything to be be a top player.
I think you've seen how important he was for us,
especially in the earlier part of the season. I feel like
we were relying on him heavily and and just him
that was a'm ratha that I've kind of kept us
in a lot of games. And he's still he's still young,
(10:16):
he's still got so much to learn, He's still got
he's still got so much growth in his game. But
I think you can see the just the raw talent
that he's got, and you know, not only that, but
his desire to work off the ball, his desire see
every day to get better, and he's he's such a
great guy as well. He's maybe one of those figures
(10:38):
where from the outside you can maybe draw your your
own assumptions of them, but honestly, such a such a
great guy, and he was one of the one of
the main things I was really looking forward to coming
here for is to play with him. I'd played against
him the last couple of years and he could see
(10:59):
the progression for the outside for me. But now to
get to see it every day, it's it's it's not luck.
I see how much that he puts in his game
is constantly working on what you would what you would
put him and it has game driving at people, taking
people on, creating stuff that's not by accident. He works
on that every single day and that's great to see.
(11:21):
Especially it can be easy, you know, someone with that
talent to not put the work in, but watching them
put the work in is is even more pleasant to
see that when he gets a credit that I fairly
fully deserves.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, Johnny, I appreciate the time, man. It's been fun
to get to know you. Welcome to our market, even
though it's been a few months. And best of luck
on Saturday against your old club.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Okay, find you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Johnny Russell ourself back at Action after a long break.
They're going to take on sporting case coming up at
seven thirty on Saturday at America First Field. I want
to tell you about my friends in advanced window products
where you can get twenty five hundred dollars off when
you buy ten windows or more. The local company operated
by our guyn Jake Weber. They were in studio last week.
Great people here to help you. So if you need
(12:05):
windows right now, give them a call because you're going
to save twenty five hundred dollars when you buy ten
winnows or more. They definitely do it before the weather
gets cold, because if your house is cold during the winter,
you're jacking up that heating bill, probably because you need
new windows.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So here's the number.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Eight oh one eight five zero ninety one hundred eight
oh one eighty five zero ninety one hundred
Halfway through your work week.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
One day closer to the weekend, our local soccer team
is actually playing a game. It's been a while, but
Sporting Kansas City rolls into America First Field on Saturday
for a seven thirty kick. Our next guest knows the
thing or two about Sporting k C's now with RSL.
Please to welcome in Johnny Russell on a Wednesday afternoon. Johnny,
Happy Wednesday, sir.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you for having me? I'm good man, I'm good.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm well.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I really really appreciate the time. First of all, do
you guys remember how to play? This is such a
weird thing that late summer, early fall you've had this
much time off.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
On a serious no, My question is what did you get?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What have you guys tried to utilize this time to
get accomplished before you get back at it on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I mean, it's it's a bit of a strange one
having this kind of break at that's pd of the season.
But I think there was a few things needed addressing
from a part, few things that we had probably from
and we had let slept on as given as a
time to work on that, you know, a lot of
(01:07):
guys said at the stage of the season, you're struggling
with a couple of things, so it gave them a
little bit of time as well. So the training sessions
over the last three weeks have been really intense and
very competitive, and I think that will set us up nicely.
We'd manted this game and then we'd manted the rest
of the season as well.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Johnny, since this is the first time I've had an
opportunity to interview you. You and I actually met in
San Diego. It was just a passing in the night thing.
I was able to say hello, I was up in
the suite with john but I've not had a chance
to interview interview you in the space.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
So I wanted to go back to the.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Origin story on how you landed here because you were
kind of without a club after playing for Casey for
quite some time, and we heard some rumors maybe Kurt
was speaking with you and your reps. But tell us
about the process the landed you here in Salt Lake
and how your experience has been so far.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, it was about of It was a bit of
a weird one, to be honest. I don't think anyone
would have expected that move, especially if you've watched the
MLS and the two teams playing over the last few years.
I don't think anyone would have expected it. I think
it was actually there was a little bit of early
contact over the sort of Christmas period, but at that
(02:21):
time obviously RSEL were set, they didn't need anyone, and
then obviously after that lost a few players, and then
I flew in, probably two or three weeks before I
actually signed. I came in to do just like a
little tour of the facility, just a little medical checkup
(02:42):
type thing and just a meeting with and Bablo, just
to sort of address everything, what their expectations were, what
the goals were, and then similar from my point of
view as well, and I think that went. That went
really well. We have a Zoom call as well with
Jason on that as well, and I just felt it
(03:06):
felt right. Obviously I wanted to continue playing. I think
there was maybe a within the league there was a
little bit of a misconception that I was I was
finished after leaving Sporting, but that was that was not
the not the case. I still wanted to continue playing.
I still feel although I'm obviously close at the end
(03:29):
of my career in the start, still feel that I've
got so much left and me to give on the
field and off the field. So after speaking to those guys,
it was it was a fairly easy, easy decision. And yeah,
I could say at the start of that there, I
think it caught everyone by surprise and no one kind
of expected it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
How your experience been, and also what did you know
about our market? What did you know about our city
prior to coming here, and how's it been for you
so far?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A huge deal about the city. It's obviously somewhere that
I've came and played a lot, but sort of my
knowledge and recollection of the city would be literally staying
at the hotel downtown and driving at the stadium. That's
all we got to see. So I was on the drive.
(04:22):
You can see the mountains, and you can see obviously
how beautiful that is. But I think, like Salt Lake
in general is probably one of those one of those
cities where it maybe gets underappreciated by by traveling teams
and getting to come here and see it firsthand. I've
been up and the canyon's a few times, being about
(04:43):
to part the cities, so I know how how beautiful
the place is so before before moving here, honestly, it's
just that drive down the highway was really the only
the only thing that I had seen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
And and have you enjoyed yourself? Are you enjoying the experience?
And what's it like playing for Pablo? What sort of
coach is has he been for you?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So far?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I've loved it. I've loved it. Like I said, they
are getting on the on the off days that we
do get, getting to go up and explore up into
the mountains and playing some golf as well. The golf
courses here are beautiful, a lot of amazing backdrop when
you've got the mountains behind you as well. And Pablo's
has been great. I think I knew that was going
(05:30):
to be the case after we spoke in the zoom,
we spoke face to face. I'm just a you know,
real sort of players, players manager having you know, he's
he's not long out the game playing himself, so I
think that that definitely helps. But he's been he's been
great with me. He I told him how important it
(05:52):
was for me to obviously continue playing, and you know,
he's he's given me the opportunity to come and do that.
So No, I'm here really grateful to him, and you know,
oh a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
All right, Johnny, you just opened you just opened the door.
I did not know you played golf. I could talk
to you about golf for hours.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But you you're.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You're you're from the home of golf. Yeah, I mean,
did you play? Did you Did you play as a
child or is this a new hobby of yours?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
No? I played a little bit as a child. My
dad was actually a really good scratch golfer, but I
didn't play too much with him. Uh, And it was
just kind of something I played with my friends on
and off, and then throughout my time in Scotland and
England it was kind of on and off. And then
(06:41):
really the most golf I've played is when I moved
to the US. I think the weather helps as well.
So it's no, it's it's definitely something i'd say over
the last It's always been a huge interest and love
of mine, but became more of a more of a
hobby the last few years, where I've got to play
(07:01):
a lot more than I had done previously.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
May I ask your handicap? Do you have a Do
you have an index?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I haven't updated it for a while on the off season,
I was playing. I was playing a lot of golf
when I was without a team, and I actually helped
my golf game hugely and I got it down to
just under ten.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
So nice.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But but it'll be, it would definitely be. It would
definitely be back up from them. I've played a few
times since for a few of the guys here, and
it's definitely not at the level it was.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It's a hard game, Johnny, as you know, Hey, let
me let me move over here again. It's been such
a weird time for you guys to have so much
time off during this uh this portion of the calendar.
But we had problem on last week, so it does
allow you to get Victor Olatunja and Rwan Cruz kind
of ingratiated into the group. Also, DeAndre Yedlin was brought
(07:57):
in in addition to that. So tell me your impression
of the three late summer editions you guys made and
has it been in training this week watching them?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
It's been great and with any new new edition, you know,
I know it from being one myself earlier in the season,
how welcome and the guys are here. And then even
my time in Casey, especially the words that end being
the captain. How important it is to get those guys
(08:27):
feel uncomfortable in the environment as quickly as possible if
you don't want, you know, guys to feel out of
place and you know what affects our game because I'm
not confident, they don't want to express themselves, and because
they don't want to make any mistakes or put a
foot wrong, and just to just to ingrain them very
quickly that in a way, we're all going to make
(08:48):
We're all going to make mistakes. But I think getting
to know them and getting them involved in a in
a social and in a personal way definitely helps to
to bring out the best of them on the field
as well. So it's been good from that sense where
we've had a lot of time where you know, we
(09:09):
can get to know these guys and better, and I
think I think you'll see the best of the mouth
that they've had a little bit more time, a little
bit more time to work on getting used to the
way that we play. The fitness levels are getting up
there as well, so I think you'll definitely start to
see the best of those guys, and you know that's
(09:30):
only going to be good for us going forward.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I wanted to ask you about Diego.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know, you've played with a lot of really special
players over the years, and you know Diego's spent some
time with US men's national team.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
I believe he'll be with you guys on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
But how good you think he can be once it's
fully beggd And what's it been like to kind of
witness the type of player he is so far since
you landed and saw Lake.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I think he's got everything to be be a top player.
I think you've seen how important he was for us,
especially in the earlier part of the season. I feel like
we were relying on him heavily and and just him
that was a'm ratha that I've kind of kept us
in a lot of games. And he's still he's still young,
(10:16):
he's still got so much to learn, He's still got
he's still got so much growth in his game. But
I think you can see the just the raw talent
that he's got, and you know, not only that, but
his desire to work off the ball, his desire see
every day to get better, and he's he's such a
great guy as well. He's maybe one of those figures
(10:38):
where from the outside you can maybe draw your your
own assumptions of them, but honestly, such a such a
great guy, and he was one of the one of
the main things I was really looking forward to coming
here for is to play with him. I'd played against
him the last couple of years and he could see
(10:59):
the progression for the outside for me. But now to
get to see it every day, it's it's it's not luck.
I see how much that he puts in his game
is constantly working on what you would what you would
put him and it has game driving at people, taking
people on, creating stuff that's not by accident. He works
on that every single day and that's great to see.
(11:21):
Especially it can be easy, you know, someone with that
talent to not put the work in, but watching them
put the work in is is even more pleasant to
see that when he gets a credit that I fairly
fully deserves.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, Johnny, I appreciate the time, man. It's been fun
to get to know you. Welcome to our market, even
though it's been a few months. And best of luck
on Saturday against your old club.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Okay, find you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Johnny Russell ourself back at Action after a long break.
They're going to take on sporting case coming up at
seven thirty on Saturday at America First Field. I want
to tell you about my friends in advanced window products
where you can get twenty five hundred dollars off when
you buy ten windows or more. The local company operated
by our guyn Jake Weber. They were in studio last week.
Great people here to help you. So if you need
(12:05):
windows right now, give them a call because you're going
to save twenty five hundred dollars when you buy ten
winnows or more. They definitely do it before the weather
gets cold, because if your house is cold during the winter,
you're jacking up that heating bill, probably because you need
new windows.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So here's the number.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Eight oh one eight five zero ninety one hundred eight
oh one eighty five zero ninety one hundred
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