SANDY, Utah (Friday, September 18, 2015) – Real Salt Lake returns home Saturday night against rival Los Angeles Galaxy seeking to close the current six-point gap in pursuit of a Western Conference playoff berth, hosting its nearly-perennial postseason rival at Rio Tinto Stadium for the third time this year with a 7:30 p.m. MT kickoff. Pre-game coverage airs live on ESPN700 AM at 6:30 p.m. MT, with regional TV coverage via KMYU and American Sports Network kicking off at 7:00 p.m. MT in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona, with David James and Brian Dunseth on the call.
RSL returns home – where it could set a new Rio Tinto Stadium attendance record, surpassing the 20,956 set on July 4 this year against Kaka and Orlando City – after capturing four road points in 72 hours earlier this week. RSL delivered its most comprehensive performance of the season at Houston in MLS action last Saturday, the club’s 3-1 victory seeing 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 (Dunseth, Findley, Mantilla, Deuchar, Campos, 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.
At Rio Tinto Stadium this season, RSL is now 9-2-6 across all competitions, including a trio of home wins in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Since the beginning of 2008, RSL boasts a 95-20-39 mark in its last 154 home games (all comps) in that span, during which it has outscored opponents by 165 goals (277/112), with a 76-15-36 regular-season mark (227/92), 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).
How to Follow Real Salt Lake v. LA Galaxy
• Coverage Begins: 7:00 p.m. MT
• TV: KMYU – David James & Brian Dunseth
• English Radio: 100.7 FM (6:30 p.m. MT) – Jeremy Horton & Brian Kamler
• 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 v. LA Galaxy 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 Los Angeles.
Click here to download the PDF version of the MLS Game Guide for Saturday’s RSL v. LA Galaxy matchup
RSL meets LA Galaxy for the fourth time overall this season Saturday, the clubs’ boasting a storied history that has seen them meet in the postseason four times in the last six years, RSL eliminating LA in 2009 and 2013, with the Galaxy emerging in both 2011 and 2014. Earlier this season, the teams drew 0-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium before a Galaxy 1-0 win in Southern California in May, while RSL rode a late Aaron Maund header at home with a clean sheet from GK Jeff Attinella to defeat Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and company 1-0 in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal match in mid-July. That win improved RSL’s Utah mark against the Galaxy to 6-3-6 across all competitions, outscoring LA 26-19 in the Beehive State all-time.
Tuesday, RSL introduced 10 new starters in its trip to Central America to face Salvadoran power Santa Tecla FC, as six starters – GK Jeff Attinella, DF Abdoulie Mansally, DF Justen Glad, MF John Stertzer, FW Sebastian “Bofo” Saucedo and FW Devon Sandoval – made their CONCACAF Champions League debuts, earning a difficult road point with a 0-0 draw that allowed RSL to seize control of Group G. RSL hosts Santa Tecla this Thursday, Sept. 24 at Rio Tinto Stadium (CONCACAF Game A in your 2015 RSL Season Ticket package), while Guatemalan side Municipal arrives for the finale to determine the quarterfinalist on Thursday, Oct. 20 (CONCACAF Game B).
RSL will welcome the return of FW Sebastian Jaime, who missed the recent trip to Houston and San Salvador due to the birth of a son last Thursday. MF Luis Silva, who left the Houston game after 27 minutes due to a left calf strain, is questionable for Saturday, while DF Chris Schuler is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his ankle/foot last week.
