HERRIMAN, Utah (Mon., Oct. 28, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (16-7-11, 59 points, 3rd West MLS) kicks off its 2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoff at home against the visiting Minnesota United FC (15-12-7, 52 points, 6th West) tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29, with a 7:00p MT kickoff at America First Field, where RSL posted a dominant 12-3-3 / 39-point mark across all competitions this season.
Tickets to RSL’s 35th playoff match in 20 seasons are NOW AVAILABLE at www.RSL.com/tickets. Entering Tuesday, just one of RSL’s last eight postseason matches have occurred on Utah soil, along with just four of its last 16 and six of its last 20 playoff games since 2013. RSL’s last home playoff loss occurred back in Oct. 2019, a 1-0 loss to Seattle, with the Club’s last regulation postseason win coming in 2019, a come-from-behind, 2-1 win over Portland. Last year, RSL drew 1-1 with Houston before emerging via shootout for the critical victory.
Real Salt Lake and Minnesota last met on Oct. 2 in Utah, the 0-0 scoreless draw part of RSL’s current six-game unbeaten run. The two sides have drawn in each of the last four meetings in 2023 and 2024, both teams earning points as visitors, with each winning at home in 2022. All-time, RSL is unbeaten at home in seven visits by Minnesota, with two wins and five draws.
RSL’s 7:00p MT kickoff on Tues., Oct. 29 against Minnesota is available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Max Bretos & Brian Dunseth (ENG) providing the call, as will Raul Guzman & Carlos Ruiz (SPN); the match is also available via linear TV on Fox Sports 1 (FS1), with Joe Malfa & Devon Kerr in the booth.
AUDI 2024 MLS CUP PLAYOFFS – WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND
REAL SALT LAKE (3) v. MINNESOTA (6)
Game One – Tuesday, October 29 – 7:00p MT @ America First Field – Sandy, UT
Game Two – Saturday, November 2 – 7:00p MT @ Allianz Field – St. Paul, MN
Game Three (if necessary) – Friday, November 8 – 7:00p MT @ America First Field – Sandy, UT
With its 2-1 win at home last Saturday, Oct. 19, RSL Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team established a new Club all-time single-season points record (59), its best in 20 seasons, while also clinching a return to the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup with the come-from-behind victory over Vancouver. RSL’s All-Star MF Diego Luna scored his eighth goal of the season – to go with 12 assists – on a 73rd-minute equalizer, just 10 minutes before Luna set up left-sided RSL DF Alex Katranis for what ended up being an 83rd-minute game-winner on the Vancouver goalkeeper’s own goal.
That victory – RSL’s 16th of the year – enabled RSL to enter the 2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs on an active six-game unbeaten streak, RSL finishing with back-to-back wins. The Oct. 5 victory at San Jose – with a Luna game-winner and the Club’s ninth clean sheet of the season – improved RSL’s 2024 road record to 5-4-8 / 23 points, allowing RSL to accrue its second-highest road point total in 20 MLS seasons, trailing only last year’s 28-point mark.
In addition to this season’s 59-point total eclipsing the 57 points accrued in the 2012 season, the 16th win in 34 games matches the Club’s second-highest win total in its 20 MLS campaigns (2013, 2019), trailing only the 17 won in 2012.
This is also the highest-scoring season in Real Salt Lake’s 20 MLS years, with 65 goals through 34 matches, eclipsing the 57 scored in 2013. RSL’s pair of goals scored on Oct. 19 against Vancouver enabled the 2024 side to equal the all-time Club mark of 38 goals on home soil, matching the 2018 season’s production in Sandy.
RSL now enters the MLS Cup Playoffs for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons, and for the fourth consecutive year under the guidance of Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, who has improved the point totals and seeding in each of his four seasons. The 2024 campaign represents RSL’s eighth 50-point season in Club history – and its first since 2019 – with the 2024 edition of the Claret-and-Cobalt looking to return to the West Final for the first time since 2021.
FINAL STRETCH OF SEASON / PLAYOFF PUSH FOR PABLO ::
During the Pablo Mastroeni era – qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs in each of four seasons – RSL has endured a rollercoaster ride in the final 10 games of each season. The 2024 season saw RSL finish with a 4W-3L-3T record from July 20 – Oct. 19 in MLS contests, securing its first plus-.500 mark in Pablo’s four seasons. The six-game unbeaten run to conclude the 2024 reg. season was accomplished while integrating new faces following the most volatile summer transfer window in Club history, one which included the $13 million sale of Colombian winger Andrés Gómez (13 goals, 9 assists) to French Ligue 1 side Rennes.
Back in 2021, RSL split its final 10 games under Pablo, winning five and dropping five, securing a dramatic Decision Day win at Kansas City – the “Damiracle” score at 94:38 to qualify for the postseason – RSL eliminating Seattle in a scoreless 120-minute shootout, then returning to KC for a 2-1 comeback win in Kansas featuring an Anderson Julio goal, and eventually progressing to the West Final and suffering elimination at Portland.
In 2022, RSL posted a 3-3-4 / 13-point finish, suffering unexpected home draws / losses but delivering yet another Decision Day win, this time a dominant 3-1 home victory over Portland. That year’s RSL side burst out to a 2-0 lead at Austin courtesy an early Sergio Cordova brace in a first-round, single-elimination MLS Cup Playoff match, but a 53rd-minute Rubio Rubin ejection ended up with RSL falling in PKs after 120 minutes.
Last season, RSL went 4-5-1 / 13 points in its final 10 matches, as it learned how to play without injured metronome Pablo Ruiz following his non-contact Leagues Cup Round of 16 injury at LAFC. RSL did win three of its final five last year, including its lone win at LAFC on a late Chicho Arango goal, and a 1-0 Decision Day victory at Colorado, one that saw Diego Luna emerge and announce his presence with authority, scoring four goals in his final five matches of 2023, including two in the three-game series with Houston. However, the postseason once again saw RSL eliminated by the narrowest of margins, as both games two and three of the first-round series with the Dynamo were decided by PKs.
2024 MLS Young Player of the Year Finalist Diego Luna (two goals in three matches) and Anderson Julio (one goal in six) are the lone active RSL players to have scored postseason goals for the Utah side. GK Zac MacMath has appeared in four recent RSL playoff matches, losing one and drawing three with a GAA of 1.38.
PENALTY-KICK PROMINENCE IN NEW FIRST-ROUND MLS FORMAT ::
While games tied after 90 minutes in the second-year Audi MLS Cup Playoffs are officially recorded as ties, teams who win a PK shootout after 90 minutes receive credit for a victory as far as the series is concerned, with the first team to two wins – either regulation or via PKs – advancing to the conference semifinals.
Last year’s RSL v Houston first-round series saw PKs decide two of the three games, with each side winning at home following 1-1 draws in legs two and three, with Houston winning 2-1 at home in regulation in the first leg.
Overall, RSL has seen three of its last four MLS Cup Playoff matches – and four of the last seven – decided by kicks from the penalty mark, dating back to that spectacular 2021 postseason run.
RSL GK Zac MacMath has been between the pipes for three of those four matches during the Mastroeni era, RSL winning two (2021 at SEA as backup to David Ochoa, 2023 v HOU) and losing two of the tiebreakers (2022 at ATX, 2023 at HOU). MacMath has saved two of the 13 tiebreaker PK attempts he has faced in those three games.
This year, opposing shooters were 1-2 against MacMath, with Vancouver’s Fafa Picault skying his attempt on Oct. 19. During his RSL career, MacMath PK opponents have converted just 11-for-17 from 12 yards out (10-15 in MLS reg. season, 1-2 in the four MLS Cup Playoff matches).
Three active RSL players – Chicho Arango,\\ Marcelo Silva,\\ Brayan Vera, each 2-2 – are perfect from the 12-yard spot on multiple tiebreaker PK attempts in RSL’s postseason play, while four others on the 2024 roster have conversions and/or attempts (Diego Luna 1-2, Justen Glad 1-1, Pablo Ruiz 1-1 and Braian Ojeda 0-1).
2025 CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP FATE TO BE DETERMINED DECEMBER 10 ::
By virtue of the 2-1 Decision Day win, RSL earned the third-place Western Conference seed, its 59 points outdistancing Seattle Sounders FC and finishing five points shy of the two LA sides. With that win, RSL finished sixth overall in the MLS Shield race, joining FC Cincinnati – also on 59 points – to earn one of several MLS berths in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
On Tuesday, December 10, just a few days after MLS Cup 2024, RSL and the other qualifiers from North America, Central America and the Caribbean will learn their tourney placements and first-round dates and opponents with the CONCACAF Champions Cup draw. RSL has not enjoyed continental competition since the 2015/16 season, which saw RSL drop a Quarterfinal series to Tigres (LIGA MX). Next year’s Cup will be the Claret-and-Cobalt’s fourth journey into the CCC / CCL.
HOME EXCELLENCE, ROAD RESILIENCE HALLMARKS OF 2024 CAMPAIGN ::
RSL returns home Tuesday looking to extend its active unbeaten streak to seven games, the current six-game run seeing three wins and three draws highlighted by just one goal allowed in its last 270 minutes, a run that includes a 0-0 home draw with Minnesota back on Oct. 2. While paling in comparison to the 15-game unbeaten run from March – June – the current six-game unbeaten streak is the second-longest of the season.
America First Field in Sandy is where the Claret-and-Cobalt have excelled this season, with 11 wins and three draws against just three losses in MLS action, in addition to a 12th home win in the August Leagues Cup tourney over LIGA MX power Atlas FC.
With the road win at San Jose back on Oct. 5, RSL – currently 5-4-8 / 23 points away – has secured the Club’s second-highest point total in a road season, surpassing the 2013 total of 22 points, second only to last year’s mark of 8-5-4 / 28 points.
Despite an inconsistent last 90 days, RSL still was able to set a new all-time single-season record of 59 points with that win over Vancouver on Decision Day, looking to enter the postseason as the team no one wants to face, in any place, at any stage.
LAMENTING DROPPED POINTS IN RECENT DRAWS ::
While RSL was able to eclipse the 57 points amassed in 2012, those three points against Vancouver establishing a new 20-year high for the Club’s MLS reg. season body of work, recent collapses have seen the Claret-and-Cobalt drop points important to its Shield pursuit … A pair of 2-0 leads at Austin Sept. 28 and at home against Portland on Sept. 21 are the most recent examples where an anticipated three points fell to just one in disappointing fashion, while RSL also failed to protect a 2-0 lead back on May 11 at LA Galaxy, conceding a very late stoppage-time equalizer on the last kick of the game.
Earlier this season, RSL was able to extract points late from losing positions as well, scoring three unanswered in the final half-hour to force a 3-3 finish at Dallas in late May, a few weeks after erasing a 2-0 deficit at home to Colorado in an eventual 5-3 win. RSL did equalize at the death at Seattle for a 1-1 draw at Lumen Field just three days after the Dallas heroics.
Scoreless draws at home – like the one Oct. 2 against Minnesota – back in mid-April against a heavily-rotated Columbus team and on the road at Montreal in mid-June also jump off the schedule as opportunities lost to bolster points in a season that has seen RSL drop just six road games in three competitions this season, while on the verge of setting a new home standard in Sandy, where the team has historically won 70% of its matches in the last 15 seasons.
