Real Salt Lake Visits Atlanta for Midweek Match

HERRIMAN, Utah (Tuesday, July 12, 2022) – Real Salt Lake (8-5-6, 30 pts, 3rd West) continues a crowded July slate with a Wednesday match at Atlanta United (5-8-5, 20 pts, 11th East) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. RSL boss Pablo Mastroeni’s club – unbeaten in six of its last eight overall – has not won since June 18, posting a loss and two draws while dropping points at home in recent weeks on either side of a 3-2 loss at Minnesota on July 3. 

Wednesday’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.

Wednesday’s contest at Atlanta marks the second-ever Real Salt Lake visit to the Peachtree City, the Claret-and-Cobalt suffering an 0-2 loss in 2018 before 72,017, the largest crowd RSL has ever played in front of. RSL defenders Justen Glad, Aaron Herrera, Damir Kreilach & Marcelo Silva remain on the RSL roster from that day, as do D/M Nick Besler, MF Pablo Ruiz and FW Jefferson Savarino. Atlanta won the first meeting between the sides back in 2017 on Utah soil, with RSL defeating the Georgia visitors in 2019, 2-1, on a stoppage-time stunner from Savarino.

Thus far this season on artificial surfaces, RSL has posted a 1-1-1 record, winning in New England in March and drawing at Portland in April, while suffering a last-minute loss at Vancouver in June. With the June 4 loss at Vancouver, RSL now owns an all-time MLS regular-season and playoff mark of just 15-40-19 (W-L-T) on artificial surfaces across the league since its 2005 inaugural campaign. In those 74 all-time games on the fake stuff, the Utah side has been outscored 129-75.

Following Wednesday’s match, RSL returns home to host rival Sporting Kansas City on Sunday, July 17, at 7:30p MT. Tickets still available at www.RSL.com/tickets. The Club’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 at Atlanta United FC

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA

Wednesday, July 13 at 5:30 p.m. MT

Game Notes for Wednesday’s RSL @ ATL Match Available Online

The Adobe PDF version of the 2022 MLS Game Guide in advance of Wednesday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Atlanta 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); Atlanta United (5-8-5, 20 pts, 11th East)

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.