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Pregame Facts and Info Sheet - RSL at L.A. Galaxy

October 6, 2012 - Major League Soccer (MLS) - Real Salt Lake News Release


RSL enters Saturday's match at L.A. on a roll. The team has won its last three matches across all competitions and gone 5-1-1 while conceding only two goals in its last seven, also across all competitions.

The Claret-and-Cobalt won its last match handily, getting a hat trick from MLS Best XI candidate Alvaro Saborio to defeat Chivas USA 4-0 at the Home Depot Center last Saturday. The performance took Saborio to 17 MLS goals this year, breaking the RSL record set when Jeff Cunningham won the MLS Golden Boot with 16 goals in 2006.

Saborio's strike partner, FW Fabian Espindola, also had a big game at Chivas USA, setting a RSL single-game record with three assists in the match.

The win at Chivas USA gave RSL a club-record 16th win of the season - breaking the 15-win mark set in 2010 and 2011 - and served as the biggest road win in team history. The win also pushed RSL past the 50-point mark for the third-straight year; the 2005/06/07 D.C. United squads and the 2010/11/12 L.A. Galaxy - which reached the milestone a few hours after RSL did - are the only other teams with that accomplishment.

Last Saturday's win took RSL to 3-0-0 at the Home Depot Center this year, having twice beaten Chivas USA and once defeated the L.A. Galaxy at the Carson, Calif. facility. The Claret-and-Cobalt has outscored opponents 10-1 at the HDC in 2012. All-time nine of RSL's 24 MLS away wins have come at the Home Depot Center.

The win at Chivas USA secured at least the Western Conference's No. 4 seed for RSL, ensuring that the Claret-and-Cobalt will host a playoff game this postseason.

RSL - which has just three regular season games remaining - currently sits in second-place in the Western Conference. The Claret-and-Cobalt leads the third-place Galaxy by two points and is ahead of fourth-place Seattle - which has a game in hand on and will play both RSL and L.A. - by three points.

It's vital that RSL maintains its position in the top-three of the Western Conference. Finishing fourth in the conference would put RSL in a one-off knockout game against the West's fifth-seed, with the winner of that match advancing to the two-game Conference Semifinal series against the West's top-seed. Playing in the knockout game would force RSL to play seven games in 24 days from Oct. 23-Nov. 17 in order to advance to the MLS Cup Final.

RSL will be without regular MF's Ned Grabavoy and Will Johnson on Saturday. Grabavoy is out injured and Johnson is missing the match after the birth of his first child earlier this week.

Two RSL players - Saborio and MF Javier Morales - will be suspended with their next yellow card.

RSL is 1-1-0 against L.A. this year. The Claret-and-Cobalt won the first matchup, getting three goals in the final 20 minutes to defeat L.A. 3-1 in Southern California. The second match didn't go as well for the Utah side, with RSL conceding three goals to fall 3-2 to the Galaxy at Rio Tinto Stadium.

RSL and L.A. are dead even all-time, with both teams posting an 8-8-5 record against the other in regular season play. RSL is 4-6-1 all-time against the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center.

L.A. enters Saturday's match playing just about as well as RSL. The Galaxy hasn't lost in two months in any competition, going 7-0-3 in 10 games since falling 4-0 at Seattle on Aug. 5.


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