HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, July 15, 2022) – Real Salt Lake (8-6-6, 30 pts, t-3rd West) continues a crowded July slate with rare Sunday home match, hosting rival Sporting Kansas City (5-11-5, 21 pts, 14th West) at Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL boss Pablo Mastroeni’s club – while unbeaten in six of its last nine overall – has not won since June 18, posting two losses and two draws while dropping points at home in recent weeks on either side of a 3-2 loss at Minnesota on July 3.
Sunday’s match will be broadcast locally via KMYU (12 over the air, 22 satellite and 643 HD on cable), with streaming on the KSL Sports App, as well as ESPN700 AM radio. Spanish-speaking fans can tune in on KBMG Latino 106.3 FM, La Gran D 102.3 FM and KTUB 1600 AM for the local radio broadcast.
Tickets are still available at www.RSL.com/tickets for Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. MT kickoff. Real Salt Lake’s nine-game home unbeaten streak, as well as its historic nine-game sellout streak, are both on the line against SKC, which defeated RSL in MLS Cup 2013 and ended the Claret-and-Cobalt’s 2018 playoff run, while also knocking RSL out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in both 2015 and 2018. Last year, RSL notched a pair of dramatic wins at Kansas City, with the Decision Day “Damiracle” sending Mastroeni & Co. to the postseason, RSL later knocking off Sporting on goals from Anderson Julio & Bobby Wood in a come-from-behind 2-1 road win in the Western Conference Semifinal.
Real Salt Lake v Sporting Kansas City
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT
Sunday, July 17 at 7:30 p.m. MT
Game Notes for Sunday’s RSL v KC Match Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2022 MLS Game Guide in advance of Sunday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Kansas City can be found here. Media members looking to receive the document as an attachment or have further questions are asked to please contact Meg Van Dyk in RSL Communications via email at meg.vandyk@rsl.com
2022 Records: Real Salt Lake (8-5-6, 30 pts, 3rd West); Sporting Kansas City (5-11-5, 20 pts, 14th West)
OTHER 2022 RSL NOTES:
Last Saturday at home, RSL conceded a 2-0 lead and was forced to settle for a 2-2 home draw to decide the 2022 Rocky Mountain Cup against Colorado, the draw allowing RSL to hoist the fan-created hardware for the 13th time in the last 17 occasions, not including the disputed / incomplete / Covid-19 affected 2020 competition. RSL and Colorado drew 1-1 in suburban Denver back on April 2, a Pablo Ruiz penalty kick cancelled out by a Mark Anthony Kaye goal. Saturday, goals from Jefferson Savarino and Justin Meram on either side of halftime put RSL in control, but a 67’ Diego Rubio penalty kick and an 89’ Lalas Abubakar equalizer forced RSL to drop home points for a second consecutive occasion.
Since assuming the Club’s head coaching reins last August, RSL has earned impressive “bounce-back” results in 11 of its 12 games following losses under Mastroeni, posting an 8-1-3 (W-L-T) mark.
The Claret-and-Cobalt are undefeated in its nine matches on Utah soil this year, posting a League-best 6-0-3 (W-L-T) home mark. Each of the Club’s nine Rio Tinto Stadium matches have exceeded the venue’s 20,000-seat capacity, a Club-record sellout streak from the beginning of the season. Please visit www.RSL.com/tickets to secure a seat for RSL’s glut of upcoming home rivalry games, as RSL hosts Sporting Kansas City on Sunday and FC Dallas on Sat., July 23 as the Club looks to extend the most dominant home-field advantage in MLS since the Sandy, Utah venue opened in October, 2008.
Sunday against Kansas City, RSL looks to extend its unbeaten 6-0-3 mark at home this season, capturing 21 of a possible 27 RioT points to vault the Claret-and-Cobalt to fifth overall in the MLS Supporters Shield race. Since former U.S. World Cup star Mastroeni assumed the RSL helm, the Club is 10-2-3 at Rio Tinto Stadium, suffering back-to-back losses just once.
