VANCOUVER, B.C., Canada (Friday, August 7, 2015) – Real Salt Lake continues its four-city, three-competition road trip with a return to Major League Soccer’s regular season Saturday night at BC Place in Vancouver against the Whitecaps. Pre-game coverage airs live on ESPN700 AM at 7:00 p.m. MT, with regional TV coverage via KMYU and American Sports Network kicking off at 7:30 p.m. MT in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona, with David James and Brian Dunseth on the call.
RSL has won just once on the road against the Vancouver Whitecaps, capturing a 1-0 victory on a Devon Sandoval goal and a Jeff Attinella shutout back in September, 2013, just 3 days prior to that season’s U.S. Open Cup Final. RSL next heads to Kansas City for Wednesday’s 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal following this weekend’s match against the West-leading Whitecaps.
RSL arrives in British Columbia fresh off Tuesday’s 1-0 win in Guatemala City, Guatemala over CSD Municipal in the club’s 2015/16 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League opener, the first of four Group G games involving RSL, Municipal and El Salvador’s Santa Tecla FC. FW Joao Plata provided the game-winner just the second minute off a Javier Morales free kick, the 22-year old Ecuadoran becoming the fourth RSL player in the club’s 403-game history over 11 seasons to score in four consecutive matches (FW Sebastian Jaime, July 2015; Alvaro Saborio, July 2013; Jeff Cunningham, May 2006).
RSL’s Central American win snapped the club’s six-game losing streak on the road, matching a similar run in 2008, the second-longest away drought in club history (15 games, 2005). With Tuesday’s clean sheet, RSL GK Nick Rimando and the RSL defense extended their active CONCACAF Champions League shutout streak to 436 minutes, the club not conceding in the tourney since a 14’ goal in late July, 2012, at Costa Rican power Herediano.
How to Follow Real Salt Lake at Vancouver Whitecaps
• Coverage Begins: 7:30 p.m. MT
• TV: KMYU – David James & Brian Dunseth (2.2 air, 12 satellite, 22/643 Comcast HD)
• English Radio: ESPN700 AM (7:00 p.m. MT) – Bill Riley & Trevor Allen
• Spanish Radio: 102.3 La Gran D FM / 1600 AM – Nelson Moran & Fernando Hortal
• Online: The @RealSaltLake Twitter feed provides updates
Game Guide for Saturday’s RSL at Vancouver Matchup Now Available Online
Following is the link to the Adobe PDF version of the MLS Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Vancouver Whitecaps.
Click here to download the PDF version of the MLS Game Guide for Saturday’s RSL @ Vancouver matchup
RSL’s 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on July 24 vaulted RSL into 7th place in the West, just three points out of playoff contention behind Seattle and four points behind Portland, each of whom visit Utah the next two Saturdays: August 15 (Timbers) and August 22 (Sounders). At its Rio Tinto Stadium home this season, RSL is now 8-1-6 across all competitions, including a trio of home wins in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a pair of 2-1 wins over KC, Sporting’s lone losses since mid-April.
Since the beginning of 2008, RSL boasts a 94-19-39 mark in its last 152 home games (all comps) in that span, during which it has outscored opponents by 164 goals (275/111), with a 75-14-36 regular-season mark (223/90), 6-1-1 CCL record (17/5), 5-2-2 in playoffs (11/4) and an 8-2-0 ledger in the Open Cup (21/10).
RSL GK Jeff Attinella earned this week’s MLS Save of the Week honors for a second consecutive week, while DF Justen Glad’s return to BC Place is the first since he made his MLS debut there, at right back in RSL’s 1-2 loss at Vancouver on May 30.
