HERRIMAN, Utah (Fri., March 21, 2025) – Real Salt Lake (2-2-0, 6 points, 9th West / 17th Shield) returns home Saturday night looking for consecutive wins for the first time in 2025, hosting long-time West rival FC Dallas (1-2-1, 4 points, 11th West / 22nd Shield) in a 7:30p MT kickoff at America First Field in Sandy. Saturday’s match will be available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Josh Eastern and Jamie Watson (ENG) on the call, as are Jose Baez & Eduardo Biscayart (SPN). Tickets for the expected sellout in Sandy are available via www.RSL.com/tickets.
Saturday, RSL welcomes former teammate Anderson Julio back to Utah, the Ecuadoran attacker traded in December for current Claret-and-Cobalt DF Sam Junqua and several hundred thousand dollars in General Allocation Money. Dallas has won in two of its last four visits to America First Field, seizing the 2022 and 2023 meetings on Utah soil. No Major League Soccer visitor has won more games on Utah soil than FC Dallas in the 20 previous seasons, with RSL posting only a 13W-9L-6T mark against Dallas in the Beehive State.
Last week, RSL snapped a nine-game road winless run against the Dynamo in Houston (dating back to 2018), posting a 2-1 victory that saw both of the Club’s premier playmakers, Diogo Gonçalves and Diego Luna, score first-half goals on either side of the Houston equalizer. Just 43 seconds into the match, Diogo found the back of the net with the fourth-fastest goal in RSL history, assisted by Emeka Eneli and Luna on a play started at midfield by striker Ariath Piol.
Following a 17th-minute equalizer by Houston on a set piece, it was Luna scoring just before halftime in the 50+ minute, using his maskless head to redirect a far-post shot from winger Dominik Marczuk, seizing momentum and shocking the Dynamo faithful. A resolute RSL defense stood firm for the final 45-plus, with GK Rafael Cabral and several others demonstrating grit, guile and fortitude to see out the win, just the fourth-ever in RSL’s nearly two-decades worth of trips to South Texas since 2007.
As announced last week, RSL playmaker Diego Luna joined the U.S. Men’s National Team last Sunday in preparation for yesterday’s Concacaf Nations League Semifinal against Panama in Los Angeles, an 0-1 USA loss in which Luna did not participate. RSL Winger Dominik Marczuk will also miss Saturday’s match due to international duty, as the 21-year-old has been called by his native Poland for its World Cup qualifers against Lithuania and Malta. Two young RSL stars – FW Zavier Gozo (USA U-20) and MF Aiden Hezarkhani (USA U-18) – are also absent due to international duties this FIFA window.
Last week’s win improved RSL’s 2025 road mark across all competitions to 1-1-1 under the guidance of fifth-year Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, with each of the last two seasons marking the Claret-and-Cobalt’s best road campaigns in team history. The 2023 side posted an 11W-8L-5T away mark across all competitions, a record which includes both that year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal loss to Houston, and its road loss and elimination draw in the first and third games of the teams’ 2023 Audi MLS Cup Playoff series on the Shell Energy Stadium turf.
A year ago, Mastroeni’s men registered the second-most road points in RSL history, with a 5W-4L-8T MLS reg. season mark, one which does NOT includes its heartbreaking, multi-goal Leagues Cup elimination loss to the Dynamo following a home win over Atlas FC.
For the third time in the first six games across all competitions in 2025, RSL took advantage of the opportunity to improve upon one of the hallmarks of RSL under Mastroeni’s guidance, specifically its ability to bounce back from losses, dropping just 11 back-to-back scenarios across all competitions in Pablo’s 145 overall games managed since August, 2021.
Despite falling already this year against both Herediano and San Diego with early first-half scores, during the Pablo Mastroeni era, RSL still boasts a 36W-6L-12T mark when scoring first.
During each of Pablo’s previous three full seasons at the RSL helm, the Club has increased its annual point total (47 in 2022, 50 in 2023 and 59 last year), while increasing its Western Conference table position as well (7th in 2022, 5th in 2023 and 3rd last year). The 2025 campaign features RSL’s pursuit of a Conference-best fifth consecutive postseason berth, a seventh in the last eight seasons and its 15th in the last 18 years.
Mastroeni earned his 50th win across all competitions with RSL in a 4-3 decision last June at Kansas City, with his 3rd reg. season win this season marking his 50th with RSL. During his entire MLS coaching career – which includes the 2014-17 years at Colorado – former U.S. World Cup stalwart Mastroeni has amassed 98 wins, 107 losses and 74 draws across all competitions for the Rocky Mountain clubs.
This season, Real Salt Lake returns nearly 21,000 collective minutes played from last year’s roster, as the Club looks to build upon a record-setting 2024 campaign, as last year saw RSL advance to the MLS Cup Playoffs for a fourth consecutive occasion, the sixth time in seven seasons (2020 the lone exception), and for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons since first qualifying in 2008 (2015, 2017 the other outliers). The 2024 MLS regular season reached an all-time high of 59 points for RSL, which finished third in the Western Conference and sixth overall in the 29-team MLS shield race, while also establishing a new all-time scoring high of 65 goals.
