HERRIMAN, Utah (Fri., Nov. 1, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (16-7-11, 59 points, 3rd West MLS) continues its 2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs facing possible elimination Saturday at Minnesota United FC (15-12-7, 52 points, 6th West) with a 7:00p MT kickoff at Allianz Field, where RSL earned a 1-1 result back in April. Including Tuesday’s 0-0 result – which saw Minnesota take a 1-0 series advantage via penalty-kick shootout – RSL and Minnesota have drawn each of its last five meetings in 2023 and 2024.
RSL’s 7:00p MT kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 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).
RSL returns to the road for the first time since an October 5 victory at San Jose – with a Diego Luna game-winner and the Club’s ninth clean sheet of the reg. season (prior to a 10th on Tuesday) – 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.
AUDI 2024 MLS CUP PLAYOFFS – WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND
REAL SALT LAKE (3) v. MINNESOTA (6) – MIN LEADS 1-0
Game One – Tuesday, October 29 – RSL 0 (4) ; (5) 0 Minnesota
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
Should RSL win – in regulation or via shootout – on Saturday to avoid elimination, the best-of-three series would be extended to a deciding match on Friday, Nov. 8 at America First Field (7:00 p.m. MT kickoff) in Sandy, where RSL has posted an impressively dominant 12-3-4 / 40-point mark across all competitions this season. Tickets to what would be RSL’s 37th playoff match in 20 seasons are NOW AVAILABLE at www.RSL.com/tickets.
Entering Nov. 8, just one of RSL’s last 10 postseason matches will have occurred on Utah soil, along with just five of its last 18 and seven of 22 playoff games since 2013. RSL’s last home regulation playoff loss occurred back in Oct. 2012, 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, the situation reversed Tuesday with Minnesota’s shootout win, although the match is officially recorded as a tie.
With its 2-1 win at home on Decision Day on 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. 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 competes in 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.
PENALTY-KICK PROMINENCE IN NEW FIRST-ROUND MLS FORMAT ::
Including Tuesday night’s 4-5 tiebreaker loss at home, RSL has now seen its last three consecutive Audi MLS Cup Playoff matches decided by kicks from the penalty mark, and four of its last five overall since the 2022 season. Overall, RSL has seen four of its last five MLS Cup Playoff matches – and five of the last eight – decided by kicks from the penalty mark, dating back to that spectacular 2021 postseason run.
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.
RSL GK Zac MacMath has been between the pipes for four of those five matches during the Mastroeni era, RSL winning two (2021 at SEA as backup to David Ochoa, 2023 v HOU) and losing three of the tiebreakers (2022 at ATX, 2023 at HOU, Tuesday v MIN). MacMath has saved three of the 19 tiebreaker PK attempts he has faced in those three games.
This year, opposing PK 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).
Including Tuesday’s spot kick results, RSL Captain Chicho Arango is a perfect 3-3 from the spot in the overtime tiebreaker. RSL Centerbacks Marcelo Silva and Brayan Vera are each 2-2, also perfect from the 12-yard spot on multiple tiebreaker PK attempts in RSL’s postseason play, while several others others on the 2024 roster now have conversions and/or attempts (Diogo Gonçalves 1-1, Anderson Julio 1-1, Emeka Eneli 1-1, Diego Luna 1-2, Justen Glad 1-2, Pablo Ruiz 1-1 and Braian Ojeda now 0-2).
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.
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 hits the road Saturday looking to extend its active unbeaten streak to eight games, the current seven-game run seeing three wins and four draws highlighted by just one goal allowed in its last 361 minutes, a run that includes a 0-0 home draw with Minnesota back on Oct. 2 on top of Tuesday’s shootout loss. While paling in comparison to the 15-game unbeaten run from March – June – the current seven-game unbeaten streak is the second-longest of the season.
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.
America First Field in Sandy is where the Claret-and-Cobalt have excelled this season, with 11 wins and four 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.
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.
