You'd think that after 11 seasons, a newspaper as renowned as the New York Times would have someone on the sports desk sufficiently versed in Major League Soccer to catch a glaring error involving the local team.

The tweaking of lineups and formations by Real Salt Lake coach John Ellinger landed Freddy Adu a new position on opening day, a sort of pseudo-forward, left-sided attacker who can link up with forward partner Jeff Cunningham as well as midfield catalyst Mehdi Ballouchy. Ellinger tried Adu in the attacking playmaker role during preseason, but soon terminated that experiment. With the move of Jason Kreis to holding midfielder and the agonizingly slow process by which Luis Tejada is getting into shape, RSL is a bit thin up front. Starting wide left, Adu cut into the middle often enough …