It arrived on the final day of the 2024 MLS regular season. Perhaps belatedly, some would argue, but stirring all the same.
RSL had been paired against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the team’s final game before the postseason. The Claret-and-Cobalt sat in fourth place in the Western Conference standings, ahead of kickoff, and needed a victory at all costs to move up to third and achieve its season-long goal of 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup qualification. It wouldn’t be easy but on this final day, Pablo Mastroeni’s charges would give it everything.
In a trying contest, RSL fell behind early in the second half, before two late goals only 10 minutes apart turned the match on its head for a 2-1 RSL lead, finally putting Mastroeni’s men in charge of their own destiny. There would be no further shocks or twists after that.
For several supporters, the final whistle accompanied a prevailing, palpable sense of relief. For others – vertiginous excitement – proof of their team’s growth and achievements throughout the year and, more thrillingly, confirmation of its participation again in the Champions Cup after a near-decade out in the wilderness. For the faithful, it also presented another chance – a possibility – of unparalleled continental glory, or at least now the privilege to dream of it. And what, really, is the beautiful game if not the freedom to dream, to yearn – the concoction of hopes and fantasies?
With the restart of the competitive season now in full view, the upcoming CONCACAF Champions Cup inevitably returns into focus, and with it heralds Real Salt Lake’s modern advent on the continent, a seat at the table alongside North America’s biggest and brightest. Excitement is surely afoot at America First Field as the hours slowly tick past and the days roll by. These are exciting times and, along its office corridors of Sandy and Herriman, the Club hopes – aims even – that its re-emergence on the continental scene might constitute for a glorious juncture – a flashpoint, if you will, of a new era.
North America’s premier club competition, the Champions Cup represents an annual international club tournament organized by CONCACAF as the highest level of competition for clubs from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, pitting the best-performing teams domestically from all three regions against one another in a series of rounds and matchups for the ultimate decider of the footballing seat of power across the established frontiers. Now, in the possible event that a foreign reader might stumble upon this article, or perhaps just any fan or supporter not thoroughly versed with the American soccer system or pyramid, simply think of this as the North American equivalent of Europe’s UEFA Champions League. Both operations mirror one another at the very least in objective and respective regional standing.
Ten MLS clubs will compete in this year’s edition of the 27-team tournament, alongside 17 non-MLS teams, with the winner of the single-leg Final in June awarded a spot in both the next FIFA Club World Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup competitions. Of the confirmed participants, 22 begin their journey in the first round, with the remaining five receiving automatic passage into the Round of 16.
RSL fall under the former, with its first-round return and home leg against C.S. Herediano taking place only a week apart, this February 19 and 26. The Champions Cup also has a direct elimination knockout stage format and contains five rounds: Round One, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Final, with all stages except the Final being played over two legs.
February’s matchups will represent the third and fourth-ever meetings between RSL and Herediano in the Champions Cup, with the MLS side first enduring a 1-0 defeat and then a goalless draw both times when the clubs first met in the Group Stage of the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League.
It’s been a near decade since the Claret-and-Cobalt last danced on the premier continental stage – nine years, more precisely, since the faithful dared to dream – the pain of the 2016 quarterfinal defeat to Tigres still fresh and sore in the hearts and minds of those who lived through it. Indeed, nine years marks a long stretch in any industry or walk of life much less in football (soccer), where the constant changing and churning of tradition and trends almost guarantee that the sport’s only enduring anchor is its own impermanence.
Wednesday, February 19, though, presents the opportunity to begin a new story, a fresh fairytale, and a chance to dream anew. The return of elite continental football one week later to America First Field, for only the fourth time in RSL’s 21-year history, serves as ample cause for excitement and optimism and offers an opportunity to discover more about the club’s own history and classical ties with the Champions Cup – learning from its past whilst charting the path towards what it hopes is a triumphant, illustrious future. From faltering on the precipice of immortality to perennial early heartbreaks and a nine-year-long struggle, revisit RSL’s all-time moments in the famous old competition.
2010-11: Maiden Travail, Kreis’ History Makers
RSL’s inaugural foray onto the continental scene arrived in the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League season, under legendary manager Jason Kreis, having secured qualification through to the tournament on the back of the Club’s historic maiden and sole MLS Cup triumph in 2009.
The sport as a whole certainly is no stranger to the concept of romanticism. In varying forms, too, the beautiful game retains more than a decent degree of magic and romance – the epithet “beautiful” is far from a nominal one. For RSL, 2010-11 would be its closest, and perhaps only, experience with that fantasy, at least as far as the Champions Cup is concerned.
The Claret-and-Cobalt were drawn alongside Mexican heavyweights Cruz Azul, Canadian side Toronto FC, and Panamanian outfit Arabe Unido in Group A of the group stage, with all four sides playing one another over two legs at home and away for a total of six group stage games for each team. True to their MLS Cup-winning form from their previous domestic campaign, Kreis’ men became the first-ever American side to win a CCL group, duly earning qualification through to the Quarterfinals with 13 points from a possible 18, boasting four wins, a draw, and a solitary loss which came in the away fixture to Cruz Azul in a spellbinding, waterlogged 5-4 thriller in August 2010.
At home, RSL were flawless. Kreis’ men won all three of its games played in Sandy by a combined aggregate scoreline of 9-3, which encompassed a 2-1 victory against Arabe Unido, and commanding 3-1 and 4-1 victories over Cruz Azul and Toronto FC, respectively, while the team’s only draw throughout the group stage arrived via a goalless stalemate in the reverse away fixture against the Canadian side.
In the quarterfinals, Kyle Beckerman and Co. were paired against the Columbus Crew, who had finished runners-up in Group B, in what would ultimately prove to be a captivating matchup. The first leg, played on the frozen tundra at the Historic Crew stadium, culminated in a drawn-out goalless stalemate, before a rejuvenated RSL side duly made amends in front of its home supporters with a 4-1 battering in the second leg, in a dazzling performance at America First Field, as goals from Álvaro Saborío, Andrew Williams, and a Javier Morales brace settled the series and cemented the Claret-and-Cobalt’s berth in the Semifinal.
In the penultimate round leading up to the Final, the team came up against a determined Saprissa side, defeating the Costa Rican outfit 2-0 in the home leg with a goal each on either side of halftime from strikers Saborío and Fabian Espindola, before surviving a scare at the legendary “Purple Monster” venue away in the form of a 2-1 loss - with the vital away goal from Jamison Olave - in San José for a 3-2 aggregate victory.
As far as flashpoints go, this one was particularly compelling. Despite the second-leg defeat, the aggregate result conspired to send RSL through to the competition’s showpiece event in what was its maiden appearance and made the Club the first MLS side in history to reach the final of the CONCACAF Champions League in all of the years since its existence. It was a seminal moment indeed for the club, and a moment for American soccer in its entirety. Kreis’ boys had done it. They had toiled, and they had travailed, and against all odds, during their first-ever appearance on the continent, had reached the gates of the promised land – glory and honor on the crest of their tongues, so close, in fact, they could almost taste it, as immortality tickled at their fingertips.
Romance and fantasy, to a certain degree at least, all rolled into one – to be the first team from an entire nation ever to achieve such a feat. The “MLS for RSL” hashtag gained traction, an entire League in support of the underdog fighting for glory on the continent’s grandest stage.
But alas, that would be as good as it got, the extent of the team’s journey – so close yet so far. The game giveth and the game yet taketh away, and so it ultimately proved. In one night at home, fantasy turned to despair, and excitement to devastating heartache. In the final, RSL came up against Mexican powerhouse Monterrey over two legs, as was the tradition at the time.
The first leg, held at the Estadio Tecnológico, ended in a pulsating 2-2 draw with icon Morales netting a crucial 89th-minute equalizer to keep the tie in the balance after Nat Borchers had initially restored parity for the MLS side earlier. The second leg, however, would inevitably prove the definitive moment. Despite a more than valiant effort, and the potential promise of home triumph, RSL suffered a decisive defeat in the return home fixture, succumbing to a 1-0 loss at the pulsating Sandy venue to send its dreams of continental glory crashing in heartbreaking fashion, denying RSL international glory and a trip to that year’s Club World Cup in Japan.
Nevertheless, it yet represented a momentous and encouraging Champions League campaign for the Club in its inaugural voyage into the competition, establishing the Claret-and-Cobalt truly for the first time as a force to be reckoned with across CONCACAF.
2012-13: Group Stage Elimination
RSL’s second appearance in the Champions League came in the competition’s 2012-13 edition, on the back of a sufficiently successful 2011 MLS campaign under Kreis, one which saw the team finish third in the West standings before a 3-1 defeat in the West final, qualifying as the Club with the next best record after LA Galaxy.
RSL were placed in a three-team group (Group 2) alongside Herediano and Panamanian side Tauro FC, with only the group winners guaranteed qualification through to the quarterfinal stage. Of the team’s four games (two at home and two away), the Claret-and-Cobalt recorded two wins, a draw, and a solitary loss, finishing with seven points at the end of its group-stage crusade which, on paper at least, seemed a strong campaign but fell three points shy of group winners Herediano, with 10 points from four games.
RSL was doomed in its 0-1 loss at Herediano following an early second-half red card to Borchers, and could not advance after suffering a scoreless home draw in the fourth group stage match, missing talisman Saborio due to injury, despite heroics from Club legend Nick Rimando between the sticks.
The margin for error on this occasion was less than minimal, and as a result, RSL were consequently forced to endure the harsh reality of early elimination from continental competition, but there would be one final attempt before its barren years.
2015-16: Group Winners and Quarterfinal Ousting
In the team’s 2015-16 CONCACAF Champions League campaign, RSL, under second-year manager Jeff Cassar, were drawn in Group G alongside Guatemalan side Municipal, and Salvadoran multi-sport outfit Santa Tecla in another three-team-style grouping where, again, only the winners of the group could gain qualification. The race was on!
In defiance and contrast to its 2012-13 showing, RSL this time accomplished the task of finishing top of its group with three wins and a draw, culminating in a 10-point haul, in four games played. A 1-0 win away at Municipal in the team’s first game gave way to a goalless draw in Santa Tecla before subsequent 1-0 and 2-1 victories in the reverse home fixtures respectively against both sides to set up a tantalizing quarterfinal matchup for RSL against eventual tournament runners up Tigres UANL of Liga MX.
It was the club’s first qualification past the group stage in its last two attempts. Expectations were high and the supporters dared to dream again. The first leg, played away at the Estadio Universitario, saw Cassar’s men fall to two second-half goals in a 2-0 defeat to the Mexican side setting up a critical return home leg in front of the RSL faithful as the team valiantly chased a way back into the contest. In the second game, at America First Field, a glimmer of hope soon arrived only 22 minutes in when striker Joao Plata poked the ball home past the keeper from close range to cut the deficit in half and leave the hosts with yet a potential chance of salvaging their continental campaign, but in the end, it would prove not to be.
Despite creating much the better chances throughout the match, even winning a penalty in the 72nd minute that was saved, the team struggled to find an all-important second goal and was eventually punished late on when André-Pierre Gignac netted an equalizer for Tigres in the 90th minute, eliminating RSL from the competition.
It would prove to be RSL’s final appearance in the Champions League for quite some time, with the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to appear again in the tournament for nine years before HC Mastroeni’s men gained qualification for the Club once again at the end of its record-setting 59-point 2024 campaign.
Historical Record
In RSL’s three seasons hitherto in the CONCACAF Champions tourneys, the Club has played a total of 22 games, boasting 11 wins, six draws, and five losses, outscoring its opponents by 34-22, including a home record of eight wins, two draws, and a solitary loss which only arrived in the second leg of the 2010/11 edition Final against Monterrey.
Continental football returns to the Wasatch Front this week and the chance for eternal glory continues to beckon, with the promise of silverware remaining all the more elusive as Mastroeni and Co. set their sights on what they hope will be more history in the making in 2025.
Whether or not 2025 is the promised year is perhaps anyone’s guess. But if nothing else, it presents the opportunity to write a new narrative and etch a fresh story in the history and folklore of the club.
The game giveth and the game taketh away – the hope is that 2025, for Real Salt Lake, falls under the former.
