HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, May 10, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (6-2-3 / 21 points / 1st West) returns to MLS action this weekend at LA Galaxy, the team looking to rebound from Wednesday night’s 2-4 loss at New Mexico in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32. Kickoff Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park against the Galaxy (5-2-4 / 19 points / 3rd West) is at 8:30p MT, available on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Mark Rogondino and Heath Pearce (ENG) and Raul Guzman and Carlos Ruiz (SPN) on the call.
First-place RSL arrives in Carson, Calif., riding a seven-game unbeaten run (five wins, two draws) dating back to March 9 at home, a stretch that has seen Major League Soccer’s staunchest defense notch four clean sheets. During the current MLS run, RSL has outscored opponents 13-4, scored first in four of the seven matches and scored four game-winning goals in the final 15 minutes of matches.
RSL travels to Los Angeles this weekend boasting a 3-1-2 record / 11 points away from home in MLS action this year, winning on the road in Vancouver on March 23 and at Chicago / at Philadelphia in late April, while settling for draws at St. Louis on Feb. 24 and at Minnesota on April 6, following a season-opening loss at Miami on Feb. 21. A year ago, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team amassed 12 road wins and five away draws across all competitions, against just eight losses, by far the most successful road campaign in Club history.
Real Salt Lake @ LA Galaxy – MLS Matchday 13
Dignity Health Sports Park – Carson, Calif.
Saturday, May 11, 2024 – 8:30p MT
2023 Records:
Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West MLS);
LA Galaxy (8-14-12, 36 pts, 13th West MLS)
This week, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team also looks to extend the Club’s active unbeaten streak to eight MLS games, the Claret-and-Cobalt last losing on March 9 at home against Colorado. Last weekend’s 1-0 win over rival Kansas City was just one of four America First Field matches for RSL from mid-April to mid-June, the Claret-and-Cobalt eight of 12 away from home during that span, includes this week’s U.S. Open Cup trip to Albuquerque.
Real Salt Lake’s current three-game MLS win streak is the Claret-and-Cobalt’s first in nearly two years – last accomplished in both May and March of 2022; RSL also had three such streaks in the 2019 season. However, RSL has not had a three-game win streak involving two road victories – as the current run does – since August, 2018.
The active seven-game MLS unbeaten run is the seventh-longest 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.
The active run to the top of the Western Conference table places RSL there 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.
RSL will return home from this week’s road trip for a double-game MLS week at America First Field on Wed., May 15 & Sat., May 18, the Utah side looking to improve upon its early-season 3-1-1 / 10-point home record as it hosts two more MLS matches this month, against historic rivals Seattle (Wed., May 15) and Colorado (Sat., May 18). Tickets for both expected sellouts are available via www.RSL.com/tickets.
RSL will then embark on another two-game road trip May 25-29 at Dallas and Seattle. Following a June 1 home game against Austin FC, RSL will enjoy a much-needed early June bye weekend prior to again traveling to Montreal and Kansas City on June 15/19 to wrap up the circuitous gauntlet.
CHICHO ON FIRE
When Chicho Arango finds the scoresheet, as he has in nine of 11 MLS matches this year, RSL owns six wins and two draws against one loss, the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to score at Miami Feb. 24 and April 13 v. Columbus, with Chicho’s assist on an Emeka Eneli goal back on March 9 coming in a loss 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 625-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 108 goals as a professional, including 52 goals in 86 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL. Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 17 goals and nine assists in 29 MLS reg. season appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 19 goals and 11 assists in 34 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).
IRON MEN ALL AROUND THE PARK
Two RSL players – MF Emeka Eneli (990) and FW Chicho Arango (985) – have played nearly every minute of the Club’s 11-game MLS season so far in 2024, with only second-year man Eneli perfect from a minutes standpoint. DF Andrew Brody (902) did not start this season for the only time April 27 in Philadelphia. DF Bode Hidalgo is the fourth player to have appeared in all 11 league games, while three RSL players have appeared in 10 matches, missing just one game this year – Anderson Julio, Braian Ojeda and Andrés Gómez.
GK Zac MacMath, Justen Glad, Brayan Vera, Matt Crooks, Diego Luna and Fidel Barajas have each appeared in nine of 11 MLS contests thus far, with a heavily-congested May/June kicking off with Saturday’s 1-0 win against Kansas City.
CRASHING OUT OF OPEN CUP
On Wednesday in Albuquerque, RSL fell 4-2 in 90 minutes to USL Championship side New Mexico United, conceding two goals to Zico Daniels in the 19th / 20th minutes before teenager Fidel Barajas pulled one back in the 36th minute – RSL Academy products Zavier Gozo and Tommy Silva earning the assists on that Barajas goal, his first for RSL. Another long-distance offering from the home side created a 3-1 halftime deficit, with RSL starlet Diego Lunacutting the NM Utd lead to one in the 49th minute with a scintillating goal. But in the 88th minute, New Mexico iced the match with a rebound off the bar from 16 yards out for the final 4-2 margin, eliminating RSL in the Round of 32, the Claret-and-Cobalt suffering its eighth “one and done” ouster in its 20-year history of the 111-year-old tourney.
In RSL’s last previous Open Cup road trip prior to Las Vegas last year, in June 2017 at Sacramento, a young side guided by Mike Petke lost 4-1 to USL Republic FC in what was RSL Academy Homegrown starlet – and current RSL Academy head coach – Jordan Allen’s last professional game. Back in 2014, RSL lost at Atlanta to the lower-division Silverbacks.
Last season, RSL advanced to the USOC Semifinal Round with a road-heavy schedule, ultimately losing 3-1 at the Dynamo in 120-minutes of extra time, while previously winning road matches at Las Vegas (3-1 AET in the Round of 64), at Portland (4-3 in the Round of 32) and at Colorado (1-0 in the Round of 16), as well as a home Quarterfinal against LA Galaxy (3-2).
Wednesday’s loss drops the Club to an all-time 35-game, 18-year tourney record of 15-17-3 (W-L-T), including MLS “qualifying” games from 2007-10. The overall home record at Rice-Eccles Stadium (3-1-0) and the former Rio Tinto Stadium (9-5-2) is 12-6-2, with RSL splitting the penalty-kick tiebreakers in Sandy – both in 2016.
85 DAYS AWAY FROM LEAGUES CUP OPENER: On August 1, RSL kicks off its participation in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the second year of the 47-team, 78-game tournament, with three CONCACAF Champions Cup berths on the line … RSL is grouped with a road tilt away at Houston Dynamo (MLS) on August 5, with the home opener on August 1 against Atlas CF (MEX) match at America First Field in its West 2 group, with single-elimination knockout games to follow leading up to an August 25 title match.
Based on last year’s fifth-seeded West finish (14W-12L-8T, 50 points, 48 GF / 50 GA), RSL will be grouped with both Houston and Liga MX side Atlas F.C. in Leagues Cup 2024 this July. RSL last faced Atlas in the 2022 Leagues Cup “Showcase” match in Utah, dropping a 1-2 decision despite former DF Aaron Herrera’s wondergoal from 65 yards away over the retreating goalkeeper.
Due to the new for 2024 Leagues Cup seeding formula, RSL will once again travel to Houston for a group stage LC match in addition to its two MLS reg. season games against the Dynamo, with RSL now winless in its last six games against Houston – all last year – across all competitions. Prior to the active six-game streak without a win against the South Texas side, RSL had seen great success against the Dynamo, which defeated RSL for the first time in 11 games dating back to 2017 in last year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal.
