HERRIMAN, Utah (Monday, April 18, 2022) – Real Salt Lake (3-2-3, 12 pts, MLS 6th West) kicks off the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Wednesday night, one of 17 Major League Soccer sides entering the 109-year old tourney in the 64-team Third Round this week. Kickoff at Rio Tinto Stadium is at 7:30 p.m. MT against USL League One representative Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC, playing in its fourth-ever competitive match.
Wednesday’s contest is included in Real Salt Lake’s 2022 Season Ticket Membership packages, the Club looking to break the Third Round attendance mark for the U.S. Open Cup, set at Rio Tinto Stadium back in 2012 when 17,212 fans attended RSL’s 1-3 loss to Minnesota Stars FC (NASL). That loss remains the Claret-and-Cobalt’s lone home loss to a lower-division squad in its Open Cup annals, RSL with an all-time 6-1-1 (W-L-T) mark against USL/NASL teams on Utah soil, outscoring those visitors 20-11 on aggregate. General public U.S. Open Cup on-sale ongoing at www.RSL.com/tickets.
Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s side resumes its MLS schedule later this week with a trip to Portland Saturday, closing out an injury-filled season-opening stanza with six out of its first nine games on the road, prior to the Club’s April 30 home match against long-time rival LA Galaxy. Mastroeni has used 24 players already through eight games this season, as MF Nick Besler made his 2022 debut Sunday.
Two Real Monarchs players – DF Bobby Pierre and MF Pierre Reedy – are added to Wednesday’s Real Salt Lake roster for the Open Cup tilt. Reedy made his MLS debut back on April 2 at Colorado – one of seven players to make their RSL debuts this season – while Pierre, an RSL Academy product, has returned to the Monarchs this season after two years at Strasbourg in France.
RSL will look to rebound quickly from Sunday’s 0-6 defeat at New York City FC, the Yankee Stadium debacle matching the Club’s worst-ever loss in its 18-year history. RSL DF Aaron Herrera started his first match of 2022, earning his 100th MLS career appearance to join DF Justen Glad as the lone Claret-and-Cobalt Homegrown players to amass 100 or more games in Major League Soccer.
Real Salt Lake vs. Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC (USL League One)
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. MT
The match can be streamed via ESPN+, and will be broadcast locally via 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.
Game Notes for Wednesday’s RSL v No. Colo. Hailstorm game Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2022 MLS Game Guide in advance of Wednesday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Northern Colorado 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 (3-2-3, 12 pts, 6th West); No. Colo. Hailstorm FC (0-1-1, 1 pt, 8th USL League One)
OPEN CUP HISTORY: While RSL is 6-1-1 all-time against lower-division sides at home, the Club’s all-time 28-game, 15-year tourney record is 11-14-3, including MLS “qualifying” games from 2007-10. The overall home record at Rice-Eccles Stadium (3-1-0) and Rio Tinto Stadium (8-4-2) is 11-5-2, with RSL splitting the penalty-kick tiebreakers at RioT – both in 2016.
Starting with the 2016 shootout loss to Seattle, RSL has dropped three consecutive Open Cup contests at home, the 0-2-1 mark during that time including 90-minute home losses before 15,000+ at RioT in 2018 (Sporting KC) and 2019 (LAFC). The 2020 and 2021 tournaments were canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ending 106 years of consecutive play.
RSL has advanced to the U.S. Open Cup’s “final four” on two occasions: 2013 and 2015. The Club’s five-game 2013 run included every match at home, with three against lower-division USL/NASL sides, prior to a 2-1 RioT win over Portland Timbers FC that enabled RSL to host a three-win D.C. United side in that year’s Final. Despite the imbalance indicated by League performance, RSL squandered that rare opportunity to lift hardware at home, losing 0-1 on a late first-half goal by MF Lewis Neal, who had been in preseason with RSL that fateful year, which also saw RSL drop the MLS Cup final at Kansas City via penalty-kick shootout.
In 2015, RSL rode three home wins – against Seattle’s USL “S2” side and again versus Portland Timbers FC and LA Galaxy – to advance to that year’s semifinal. However, RSL lost 1-3 in that road semi at Kansas City, despite an early 1-0 lead thanks to an Olmes Garcia goal.
Pursuing Multiple Trophies
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup returns for 2022, with RSL and its 24 fellow American sides competing for the nation’s oldest trophy, regardless of sport … 17 MLS teams enter in the tourney’s third round, as RSL was drawn to host USL League One expansion side Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC, the match to be played Wednesday, April 20, with the other 8 U.S.-based MLS sides entering at the Round of 32 stage (April 22 pairings draw), with games to be played May 11 …
Other key LHUSOC dates (subject to change):
May 10/11 – Round of 32 (Friday, April 22 draw)
May 24/25 – Round of 16 (May 12 draw)
June 20/21 – Quarterfinal
July 27/28 – Semifinal (June 23 draw)
Sept. 7 / 14 – Final
In 2023, Leagues Cup returns with a new, expanded format, a made-for-TV event with three CONCACAF Champions League berths on the line, pitting as many as 29 MLS teams with full participation from 18 LigaMX sides … Details forthcoming …
RSL v. No. Colo. HAILSTORM FC STORYLINES TO WATCH:
ABOUT NORTHERN COLORADO: In Northern Colorado’s first-ever competitive match, back on April 6, the USL League One expansion side shocked the Colorado Springs Switchbacks (USL Championship) 1-0, advancing to Wednesday’s Third Round of the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Despite losing FW Irvin Parra to a red card in the 27th minute, the Hailstorm won in extra time, with Jerry Desdunes leading a 10-man Hailstorm side to score the club’s first-ever goal in the 96th minute.
Parra, who last scored in the U.S. Open Cup as a member of L.A. Wolves FC in 2017, was sent off for a malicious elbow in the 27th minute, and Hailstorm played with only 10 men for the final 60-plus minutes of regular time. The match finished with even numbers after Switchbacks FC’s Tristan Hodge received his second yellow card and was sent off in the first period of overtime. Switchbacks FC’s Macauley King had a shot on goal stopped by Hailstorm FC goalkeeper Daniel Faundez in the 116th minute. Foundez made two saves in the “cupset” victory.
Owned by Future Legends LLC, who relocated the Orem Owlz to Windsor, Colo., last year, Hailstorm FC drew and lost its first two USL League One contests, drawing 1-1 at Richmond before losing at Charlotte Independence, 1-2, this past weekend.
RSL OPEN CUP MISCHELLANEOUS
- Former RSL DF Tony Beltran – now the Club’s Assistant General Manager – owns the most U.S. Open Cup appearances in team history, playing in 17 games and starting 15 – three more than the runner-up in each category.
- Beltran – who scored just one goal in his 20,652 Major League Soccer regular-season minutes – scored twice in Open Cup contests – tied for third all-time – to go along with two assists, also third place in RSL’s LHUSOC annals.
- Three currently rostered RSL players boast multiple appearances for RSL in the Open Cup – DF Andrew Brody (3 games, 2 starts, 188 min.), MF Nick Besler (2 starts, 180 min.) and DF Justen Glad (2 starts, 158 min.).
- Seven current RSL players – Aaron Herrera, Pablo Ruiz, Marcelo Silva, Erik Holt, Everton Luiz, Damir Kreilach and Tate Schmitt – have represented the Claret-and-Cobalt in the Open Cup, with the first five playing a full 90 minutes, Kreilach/Schmitt playing 78.
- No current RSL player owns Open Cup stats in the following four categories: game-winning goal, game-winning assist, penalty kick or shutout.
- RSL is winless at home in four consecutive Open Cup matches, the Club’s last 90-minute victory in the competition coming on July 14, 2015 in a 1-0 decision over LA Galaxy. Former DF Aaron Maund with the 87’ stunner in that one.
- Since May, 2012, RSL has played 17 Open Cup contests, including Wednesday … 14 of those have been at home, the Club posting a 7-4-2 (W-L-T) mark in that time, splitting the resultant penalty tiebreakers.
- RSL boasts only one road result (0-9-1, W-L-T) in the Club’s 10 LHUSOC matches played away, winning a shootout at San Jose in 2010 … In that match, RSL led 2-0 in the 68th minute before Chris Leitch and Arturo Alvarez – who signed with RSL 6 months later, critically setting up Javier Morales’ equalizing road goal in CCL Leg One at Monterrey – brought the home ‘Quakes to 2-2 in regulation … San Jose took a 3-2 lead in the 108’ before RSL icon Nat Borchers’ 118th-minute equalizer forced kicks from the penalty mark (KFPM) … Alvarez missed his PK, RSL made its five to advance to a second MLS qualifier, at D.C. United the same week as the Obama White House visit and a reg. season contest in the Nation’s Capital.
- While RSL has lost just once at home to a lower-division side – May, 2012 to Minnesota Stars FC (NASL) – it has dropped three road USOC contests to teams from lower leagues … The Club’s first-ever LHUSOC game was 2005 in the Round of 16, Jason Kreis’ hat trick surpassed by Melvin Tarley’s four-goal game in a 4-6 (AET) loss for RSL … RSL lost at Atlanta in the 2014 Open Cup, in Jeff Cassar’s LHUSOC coaching debut … and in 2017 at Sacramento in what would be Mike Petke’s lone USOC match with RSL, also Jordan Allen’s last game played.
