Real Salt Lake Kicks Off Three-Game Week on Road Saturday at Dallas

HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, May 24, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (8-2-4 / 28 points / 1st West) travels this holiday weekend to Frisco, Texas to face FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium Saturday night, looking to extend its first-place lead atop the MLS Western Conference and stretch its overall unbeaten run to 11 games, as a win or draw would also give Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team SEVEN consecutive road results. Kickoff Saturday at Dallas is at 6:30p MT, available on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Mark Followill and Warren Barton (ENG) and Raul Guzman and Carlos Ruiz (SPN) on the call.

First-place RSL – led by Captain Chicho Arango and his 13 goals / 8 assists in 14 MLS games thus far – improved to 5-1-1 at home last week with a pair of wins, starting with 2-0 win over visiting Seattle and an amazing comeback in the second of three Rocky Mountain Cup tilts this year against Colorado. For just the fourth time in the Club’s 628-game history, RSL rebounded from an 0-2 deficit to earn the full three points, riding 2-goal/1-assist performances from both Arango and Andrés Gómez to defeat the Rapids 5-3 before a standing-room only crowd of 20,728.

RSL arrives in Texas this weekend riding an active 10-game unbeaten run (seven wins, three draws) dating back to March 9 at home, a stretch that has seen one of Major League Soccer’s staunchest defenses (Cincinnati, Minnesota, Houston, Columbus, Charlotte) notch five clean sheets during this period. During the current MLS run, RSL has outscored opponents 22-9, scoring first in six of the 10 matches and hammering home five game-winning goals in the final 15 minutes of matches.

Off to the best start in Club history with 28 points from 14 matches (exceeding both 2016 and 2014), RSL has ascended to the top of the Western Conference for its latest first-place bragging rights in the calendar since April 30, 2016, and the latest solo No. 1 in the West since August 2013. This week’s back-to-back road contests precede the June 1 match against Austin FC, just the fourth of four America First Field matches for RSL from mid-April to mid-June, the Claret-and-Cobalt playing eight of 12 away from home during that span, including the trip to Dallas and a midweek rematch at Seattle. RSL will then enjoy a much-needed early June 8 international bye weekend prior to again traveling to Montreal and Kansas City on June 15/19 to wrap up the circuitous gauntlet.

Real Salt Lake @ FC Dallas – MLS Matchday 16

Toyota Stadium – Frisco, Texas

Saturday, May 25, 2024 – 6:30p MT

2023 Records:

Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West MLS);

FC Dallas (11-10-13, 46 pts, 7th West MLS)

WE’RE GOING STREAKING

The active 10-game MLS unbeaten run is the second-longest single-season streak and the Club’s fourth-longest overall in RSL’s 20-season history, trailing last year’s 11-game streak across three competitions, as well as a 16-game run from 2013 into 2014, and a Club-record 18-game unbeaten streak from July 2010 to April 2011. For the first time ever, RSL now owns back-to-back seasons with unbeaten runs of nine games or longer. With two more win/draw results at Dallas and Seattle this week, RSL could establish a new single-season unbeaten streak record.

Real Salt Lake’s recent three-game MLS win streak – snapped May 11 at LA Galaxy with the 95th-minute concession on the last kick of the game – was the Claret-and-Cobalt’s first in nearly two years … RSL last strung together three straight victories in league action in both May and March of 2022; RSL also had three such streaks in the 2019 season … However, RSL had not enjoyed a three-game win streak involving two road victories – as the recent run did – since August, 2018. How will this week’s trips to Dallas and Seattle rewrite the record books?

2024 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CUP TO BE DECIDED JULY 20

RSL and Colorado compete in three MLS reg. season matches this season for the fan-created Rocky Mountain Cup. Back on March 9, Colorado won 2-1, RSL unable to capitalize on Emeka Eneli’s first-ever professional goal and a solid performance by teenage goalkeeper Gavin Beavers. That Rapids win was the Colorado club’s first on Utah soil since 2020, and its first on Utah soil with fans in the stands since 2007 - SEVENTEEN years prior.

All time, RSL and Colorado have played 60 games across all competitions – 57 in MLS play and three in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Overall, RSL has won 30, lost 18 and tied 13 matches against Pablo Mastroeni’s former side, outscoring the Rapids by 31 goals overall. The teams’ first-ever meeting was also RSL’s inaugural home game, famously won 1-0 on a Brian Dunseth header in a game that also included Mastroeni, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Clint Mathis and several others who have worn both the Claret-and-Cobalt and the Burgundy-and-Blue.

RSL has been dominant on the Wasatch Front, with 17 wins, 6 losses and 7 draws, winning 14 Rocky Mountain Cups in the last 19 years. In suburban Denver, RSL has won 11 games, lost 12 and drawn six, with RSL winning the lone neutral-site match played during the pandemic bubble in 2020, a 2-0 victory in Orlando.

Should the teams tie Saturday or see an RSL win, this year’s Rocky Mountain Cup will be decided on July 20, with RSL pursuing its 15th RMC in 20 seasons.

CAPTAIN CHICHO REMAINS ON FIRE

When Chicho Arango finds the scoresheet, as he has in 11 of 14 MLS matches this year, RSL owns seven wins and three draws (May 11 brace at LA Galaxy wasted, with the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to score at Miami Feb. 24 and April 13 v. Columbus) against one loss, with Chicho’s assist on an Emeka Eneli goal back on March 9 coming in the home defeat to Colorado.

Chicho provided a three-goal explosion in a 21-minute span in the Utah side’s come-from-behind 3-1 home win over St. Louis on March 30, the Club’s first hat trick since September 17, 2018 (Damir Kreilach). Chicho’s three-goal performance is just the seventh in RSL’s now 628-game MLS history, the Colombian joining Alvaro Saborio (three hats – two in 2012, one in 2013), along with Robbie Findley (2009), Javier Morales (2014) and Kreilach. Former Captain, head coach and current Club director Jason Kreis also had a hat trick, albeit in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup.

Arango now has two hat tricks in his MLS career – his first was for LAFC in late 2021 against Dallas – and boasts 112 goals as a professional, including 56 goals in 89 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL … Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 21 goals and 10 assists in 32 MLS reg. season appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 23 goals and 12 assists in 37 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).

CHICHO CHASING MLS HISTORY

With another goal in Dallas on Saturday, RSL striker Chicho Arango would become just the eighth player in MLS history to reach 50 career MLS regular-season goals in 77 games or fewer:

With a goal in either of his next two matches, Chicho would become the second-fastest active player to reach the milestone behind only Josef Martinez (54 games), possibly becoming just the fourth active player to reach the mark in fewer than 100 games:

Active players to reach the career 50-goal milestone in fewer than 100 career games:

Chicho scored 30 of his 49 career MLS reg. season goals during the 2021 and 2022 seasons in 51 games with LAFC (0.59 goals per game, and a rate of 0.72 goals per 90), and has scored 19 in 25 games (0.76/game, 0/87 per 90) across the last 10 months with RSL, spanning the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Chicho needs 12 more Claret-and-Cobalt goals in the remaining 20 games of the current MLS campaign to surpass his LAFC output on a volume basis, with his per-game numbers significantly better at RSL.