Real Salt Lake Hosts FC Dallas for Fireworks

HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, July 22, 2022) – Real Salt Lake (9-6-6, 33 pts, 3rd West) continues a crowded July slate with Pioneer Day Fireworks on Saturday, hosting long-time Western rival FC Dallas (7-6-8, 29 pts, 6th West) at Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL boss Pablo Mastroeni’s club – while unbeaten in seven of its last 10 overall – won 3-0 over Kansas City on Sunday for the first time 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. 

Saturday’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 remain available at www.RSL.com/tickets for Saturday’s 8:00p MT kickoff. Real Salt Lake’s 10-game home unbeaten streak, as well as its historic 10-game sellout streak, are both on the line against Dallas, which defeated RSL in the 2010 MLS Cup Playoffs on the heels of RSL’s best-ever regular season and ended the Claret-and-Cobalt’s 2011 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup run. RSL is unbeaten in seven of its last eight against Dallas dating back to the 2018 MLS season, winning three and drawing four against one FCD win – which came at Rio Tinto Stadium in March, 2019.

Sunday’s 3-0 home win over true rival Sporting Kansas City snapped a four-game winless run for the Utah side, which leapfrogged past Minnesota and back into sole possession of third place in the MLS West table, also accruing a positive goal differential (+2 through 21 games) for the first time since Easter. 

Goals on Sunday night from FW Sergio Cordova, MF Pablo Ruiz and FW Jefferson Savarino bolstered GK Zac MacMath’s eighth clean sheet of the year, while Savarino, Maikel Chang, Andrew Brody and Aaron Herrera also registered assists. M/F Justin Meram became the 25th MLS player overall and the fourth active player in MLS history to join the 50/50 goal/assist club with a pair of assists, while acting Captain and DF Marcelo Silva made his 100th career MLS appearance, all with RSL. 

Since assuming the Club’s head coaching reins late last August, RSL has earned results in 12 of its 13 games following losses in Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s 35-game RSL career, posting a 9-1-3 (W-L-T) “bounceback” mark. Under Mastroeni’s leadership, RSL is now 11-2-3 (W-L-T) on Utah soil against MLS opponents. 

The Claret-and-Cobalt are undefeated in its 10 matches on Utah soil this year, posting a League-best 7-0-3 (W-L-T) home mark, as Major League Soccer’s lone home unbeaten. Each of the Club’s 10 Rio Tinto Stadium matches this season have exceeded the venue’s 20,000-seat capacity, a Club-record sellout streak both from the beginning of the season and at any point in one of its 18 Major League Soccer campaigns. Please visit www.RSL.com/tickets to secure a seat for RSL’s Pioneer Day Weekend festivities against FC Dallas next Saturday, as the Club looks to extend the most dominant home-field advantage in MLS since the Sandy, Utah venue opened in October, 2008.  

Real Salt Lake v FC Dallas

Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, UT

Saturday, July 23 at 8:00 p.m. MT

Game Notes for Saturday’s RSL v DAL Match Available Online

The Adobe PDF version of the 2022 MLS Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas 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 (9-6-6, 33 pts, 3rd West); FC Dallas (7-6-8, 29 pts, 6th West)