SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (Monday, Sept. 14, 2015) – Tuesday night, Real Salt Lake continues its Fall 2015/16 CONCACAF Champions League slate, facing Salvadoran power Santa Tecla FC in Central America at 8:00 p.m. MT (TV: Fox Soccer Plus; RADIO: ESPN700 AM) at the CCL debutant’s home stadium, Estadio Las Delicias. Tomorrow night’s game – completing the Utah side’s road pair of matches during its third foray in the continental championship since 2010 – is the second of four Group G matches involving RSL, Santa Tecla and Guatemalan champion Municipal, who RSL defeated 1-0 back on August 4 in Guatemala City.
RSL arrived in El Salvador midday Sunday following Saturday night’s 3-1 win at Houston Dynamo, a game which saw MF Javier Morales score his 7th goal of the season to give RSL a 1-0 halftime lead. FW Devon Sandoval put RSL up 2-0 shortly after halftime with the eventual game-winner, while the club’s newest player – FW Juan Manuel Martinez, known as “El Burrito” – became the seventh RSL player (Brian Dunseth, Robbie Findley, Matias Mantilla, Kenny Deuchar, Pablo Campos, Luke Mulholland) to score in his first-ever MLS start for the club, icing the game in the 67th minute. Morales’ assist on the Martinez goal was the 75th of his illustrious MLS career, surpassing Jason Kreis on the all-time list for the No. 14 all-time rank.
RSL controls its destiny in order to advance to next February’s Quarterfinal stage, as two wins in its final three games would clinch the group title. RSL owns three points after one game in the Group G standings, as leaders Municipal have four points from three games, which include a win and a draw against Santa Tecla, which has one point after two matches. RSL returns home to host Santa Tecla next Thursday, Sept. 24 (CONCACAF Game A in the 2015 Season Ticket Package) in the return match against the Salvadoran club, while the Oct. 20 group finale against Municipal (CONCACAF Game B) rounds out RSL’s home campaign. SCCL Quarterfinal round seedings – a home-and-away, aggregate goal series, starting in February, 2016 – will be determined by total points among the group winners.
How to Follow Real Salt Lake at Santa Tecla FC – Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League
• Coverage Begins: 8:00 p.m. MT
• TV: Fox Soccer Plus – Joe Tolleson & Brian Dunseth
• English Radio: ESPN700 AM (7:00 p.m. MT) – Bill Riley & Brian Kamler, w/ Jeremy Horton
• Spanish Radio: 102.3 La Gran D FM / 1600 AM – Nelson Moran & Fernando Hortal
• Online: The @RealSaltLake Twitter feed will provide updates
Game Guide for Tuesday’s RSL at Santa Tecla FC Matchup Now Available Online
Following is the link to the Adobe PDF version of the MLS Game Guide in advance of Tuesday’s 2015/16 CONCACAF Champions League contest between Real Salt Lake and Santa Tecla FC (SLV).
Click here to download the PDF version of the Game Guide for Tuesday’s RSL @ Santa Tecla FC matchup
OTHER RSL 2015/16 SCOTIABANK CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE NOTES:
RIMANDO RISES TO CCL CALL:
RSL GK Nick Rimando – Major League Soccer’s all-time leader in shutouts, with 122 in his 16 seasons with RSL, DCU and Miami - backstopped another clean sheet Aug. 4 in Guatemala, extending his personal shutout streak to 436 minutes in CONCACAF Champions League play, covering 4 straight games with a zero (dating back to a 14’ goal in the first 2012 group game at Herediano) ... Rimando now has 6 shutouts in 16 CCL matches for RSL, playing all but 90 of RSL’s all-time tourney minutes (Reynish v Cruz Azul, Oct. 2010) ...
COMPETITIVE ON CCL ROAD:
The Aug. 4 win at Municipal (GUA) improved RSL to an all-time 3-3-3 road record (13/13 GF/GA) in CCL play, and marked the club’s first-ever win outside of Panama ... Previous victories came in 2010 at Arabe Unido (3-2) and 2012 at Tauro FC (2-0) ... RSL lost 0-1 at Herediano (Costa Rica) in 2012 after a 55’ Nat Borchers red card, 4-5 at Cruz Azul in 2010, yet advanced with a goal in a 1-2 loss at another Tico power, Saprissa (2011 semifinals) ... RSL road draws came at Toronto (2010 group), at Columbus (2011 quarterfinals) and at Monterrey (MEX) in Leg One of the 2011 Final ... RSL has suffered just 2 road shutouts in 9 CCL matches entering Tuesday night’s match at Santa Tecla ...
OVERALL CCL HISTORY:
RSL now boasts an all-time 9-4-4 mark in CCL action, including a 6-1-1 record at its Rio Tinto Stadium home, where Santa Tecla FC (SLV) visits next Thursday, Sept. 24 and Municipal (GUA) closes out the 4-game group stage on Oct. 20, also the final week of the MLS reg. season ... RSL has never allowed more than one goal in any of its 8 CCL home games, with 3 home clean sheets ...
Seven current players – GK Nick Rimando, Capt. Kyle Beckerman, DF Tony Beltran & MF Javier Morales, along with DF Chris Schuler, DF Jamison Olave and MF Luis Gil – have participated in both of RSL’s previous CCL tournaments ... All but Gil participated in the club’s historic 2011 Final series with Monterrey, with Beckerman notably missing Leg Two due to yellow card accumulation ...
Morales, with 4 goals, leads RSL’s active players in all-time CCL goals scored for the club (Saborio led with 10), while both Beckerman and Olave have 3 each in RSL’s 17-game history in the tourney ...
VIRTUALLY NO MARGIN FOR ERROR:
Three-team groups became the rule of the road during RSL’s second CCL iteration in 2012/13, the Utah side learning the hard way that an early stumble – such as the road loss at Herediano in the first game, along with a scoreless draw in the final match, also against Herediano – in a 4-game slate leaves very little margin for error, as goal differential could determine tiebreakers, while quarterfinal seeding in Feb/March will reflect level of group dominance ...
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Real Salt Lake earned its way into the 2015-2016 Champions League tournament with its 2014 regular-season finish, posting a 15-8-11 record (56 points) to earn the third seed in the Western Conference … The two teams that finished ahead of Real Salt Lake in the standings – the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC – both qualified by winning MLS Cup and the Supporters’ Shield, respectively, RSL next in line for the cascading berth …
This is Real Salt Lake’s third entry into the tournament … In 2010-2011, RSL became the lone American team to reach the tournament final, losing 2-3 on aggregate to Mexican power Monterrey, the first time an MLS club had reached the final under the tournament’s current format … Canadian side Montreal Impact matched that feat this year, but also lost in the final to Mexico’s Club America … In the 2012-2013 tournament, RSL failed to get out of the Group Stage, needing only a goal in the final match against Costa Rican side Herediano, forced to settle for a 0-0 draw that eliminated the club from knockout contention …
