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Real Salt Lake Concludes Three-Game Road Gauntlet Saturday at Colorado

July 19, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (12-4-8 / 44 points / t-2nd West) remains on the road for the third and final away match in an eight-day stretch prior to this year's MLS All-Star break and the subsequent 2024 Leagues Cup, continuing the critical Western Conference gauntlet Saturday at Colorado, wehre RSL will attempt to capture its 15th Rocky Mountain Cup title in the 20-season history of the fan-created series.

Kickoff Saturday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in suburban Denver is at 7:30p MT, available worldwide on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Steve Cangialosi and Danny Higginbotham (ENG) and Oscar Salazar and Jaime Macias (SPN) on the call.

RSL seeks to remain in MLS Supporters Shield contention as Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's team seizes momentum from Wednesday's 1-1 draw at LAFC, where a 34th-minute Brayan Vera free kick goal - his first of the season - equalized following a fifth-minute concession. RSL's road record this year is now 4W-2L-7T after seeing its Club-record 10-game road unbeaten streak snapped in the 0-3 loss Saturday at Portland, RSL's heaviest loss of the 2024 campaign. Still, RSL have dropped just two of its last 20 MLS contests since mid-March in the Club's best start in nearly a decade.

RSL - now tied on 44 points with LAFC (one fewer game played) - dropped out of first place for the first time since mid-March, now looking up at the LA Galaxy (46 points on 25 games played) in the race for Western Conference supremacy. Wednesday's hard-fought and valiant 1-1 draw at LAFC served as a course-correcting statement of intent, the Club yet again avoiding back-to-back losses during the Mastroeni era.

In nearly four full seasons under Mastroeni, RSL has played 125 matches across all competitions, winning 52, losing 42 and drawing 31. In that span, the Club has dropped back-to-back contests on just 9 occasions, with four of the nine coming last August/September, when RSL lost six out of seven following Pablo Ruiz' injury suffered at LAFC in a Leagues Cup Quarterfinal.

Real Salt Lake at Colorado Rapids - MLS Matchday 28

Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City, Colo.

Saturday, July 20, 2024 - 7:30p MT

Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CUP SERIES DECIDER

RSL arrived in Denver early Thursday morning following the 1-1 draw at LAFC, now facing Colorado for the third time this season, the teams splitting March (1-2 RSL loss) and May (5-3 RSL win) results in Utah. A win or draw Saturday in Commerce City would give RSL its 15th Rocky Mountain Cup in 20 seasons.

In its last visit to DSG Park, RSL rode a 74th minute goal from Diego Luna to secure the 1-0 win last October. Earlier in the year, in May of 2023, RSL won twice against the Rapids in Commerce City just three days apart, a 1-0 Open Cup Round of 16 match followed by a 3-2 reg. season victory, RSL securing its 14th of the last 18 Rocky Mountain Cup titles, with the 2020 edition disputed.

GOALS GALORE, NOW BY COMMITTEE

While the RSL road warriors have played just four games at home from June 1 - present, the Claret-and-Cobalt have scored 13 home goals in those four matches, which includes a 5-1 win over Austin on June 1, the 0-1 loss to LA Galaxy on June 22, a 3-2 comeback win over Houston on July 3 and a 5-2 thrashing of Atlanta on July 6 ... While the Chicho Arango hat tricks and the Diego Luna playmaking have garnered international headlines, the high-octane performances have often been group efforts, with the July 6 five-goal explosion coming from five different scorers, the fourth time RSL have accomplished that particular feat ... The list:

April 29, 2009 - 6-0 W v NE - 6 scorers (Olave, Mathis, Movsisyan, Escalada, Williams, Findley)

July 4, 2017 - 6-2 W v Galaxy - 5 scorers (Rusnák, Beckerman, Movsisyan, Savarino, Plata)

August 25, 2018 - 6-0 W @ Colorado - 5 scorers (Kreilach, Savarino x2, Plata, Baird, Rusnák)

July 6, 2024 - 5-2 W v Atlanta - 5 scorers (Crooks, Ojeda, Chicho, Katranis, Luna)

All three of RSL's five-goal games this season have occurred at home, and all have come in the last 11 matches played since May 18 ... RSL also has three other games with three or more goals in that span ... However, RSL has scored four goals in a road match on two occasions this year, both wins - 4-0 at Chicago on April 20 and 4-3 at Kansas City on June 19.

RSL's 49 goals scored this year ranks second in MLS (Miami, 54) and retakes the best in the West over Portland's 48 ... RSL no longer boasts the best goal differential in MLS this season, at plus-18, with surging Columbus now at plus-26 ... Only four other teams have amassed double-digit goal differentials so far in 2024, as LAFC (plus-15), Miami (plus-16), Cincinnati and LA Galaxy (plus-13).

CHICHO / GÓMEZ / LUNA TRIUMVIRATE

RSL has never had three players each hit 20 combined goals/assists in a single season, and following a red-hot first week of July, RSL playmaker Diego Luna is just 3 g/a away from joining Captain Chicho Arango (17 goals / 11 assists) and dynamic winger Andrés Gómez (12 goals / 9 assists) in the 20+ goal contribution club this season.

Luna - now with five goals / 12 assists this season - provided three assists in a single game on July 6 for the second time this season, something that has occurred just four times in RSL's history ... In addition to Diego's triple-assist match back on March 2 at home against LAFC (3-0 win), Pablo Ruiz accomplished the feat in 2023, with Fabian Espindola back in 2012 the first RSL player to secure three assists in an MLS match.

With both Chicho (17 goals) and Andrés Gómez (11 goals) securing double-digit goal totals this season, RSL has a pair of 10+ scorers in a single season for the first time since 2021 (Kreilach, 16 goals; Rusnák, 11 goals) ... Should Julio (six goals) or Luna (five goals) or another player reach double-digits, RSL would also have a 10+ goal-scoring trio for the first time ever.

Also, a single assist by Gómez - returning to the side Saturday after Wednesday's suspension - would allow RSL to become the first MLS side since 2018 with three players at 10-or-more assists in a campaign.

BEST CAMPAIGN IN A DECADE

With RSL boasting 44 points in just 24 games, the Club's best start in over a decade, RSL has a chance to surpass its all-time high of 57 points in a season, set back in 2012. RSL also has a trio of 56-point campaigns since MLS went to a 34-game reg. season (2010, 2013, 2014). RSL needs just two road wins in its final four away trips to match its second-highest visiting win total (2012, 2013; last year was RSL's best-ever road performance, with an 8-5-4 / 28-point mark). With six more home games this season, RSL would need to win four of those to match the Club's best-ever home mark of 12-4-1 / 37 points, set in 2019. Two more home wins would give RSL its eighth season with double-digit wins, and its first since 2019.

Should RSL get another six points this year, it would be the Club's eighth 50-point season in its 20-year history.

TIME FOR ANOTHER NEW STREAK

Since seeing its single-season Club-record unbeaten streak snapped at 15 consecutive MLS games back on June 22, RSL has won back-to-back matches, both at home. Saturday at Portland denied RSL a chance at three consecutive wins for the second time this season, previously earning nine points out of nine from April 20 - May 4 with road wins at Chicago/Philadelphia and a home victory on May 4.

This week's Portland match also saw RSL's Club-record 10-game ROAD unbeaten streak in MLS action terminated, with RSL posting four road wins and six away draws since falling 0-2 at Miami back on Feb. 21 in the MLS season opener prior to Saturday ...

That June 22 RSL loss - RSL's lone MLS defeat in an 18-matche span prior to Saturday - was the Club's first setback since March 9, falling at home 0-1 to the LA Galaxy in a match marred by Chicho Arango's head injury just 16 minutes into the game. RSL's 15-game MLS unbeaten run established a new record for the Club's longest single-season streak in team history - while also matching the Portland Timbers (2013, 2018) and Colorado Rapids (2016) for the second-longest in MLS regular-season history (FC Dallas' 19 games unbeaten in 2010) ... In RSL's 20-season history, RSL also enjoyed a 16-game run from 2013 into 2014 (including a 12-game single-season run in 2014), and a Club-record 18-game unbeaten streak from July 2010 to April 2011 (2010 includes a 14-game single-season run, RSL's previous best).

CAPTAIN CHICHO RETAINS GOLDEN BOOT LEAD

Despite his injury-marred appearance on June 22, an idle RSL on June 29 and this week's suspension that has caused him to miss both the LAFC and Colorado games, RSL Captain Chicho Arango still leads the MLS Golden Boot race with 17 goals in 23 games, adding 11 assists to outlast Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, as Chicho boasts a League-leading 28 goal contributions this season (now tied with Cincinnati's Lucho Acosta). Arango will return to MLS action August 24 against San Jose needing just one goal to break RSL's single-season scoring record (17 goals, Alvaro Saborio, 2012).

When he does score or assist - as he has in 15 of his 23 MLS matches this year - RSL owns 11 wins and three draws (May 11 brace at LA Galaxy wasted, with the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to score at Miami Feb. 24 and April 13 v. Columbus) against just one loss, with Chicho's assist on an Emeka Eneli goal back on March 9 coming in the home defeat to Colorado.

Chicho also provided a three-goal explosion in a 21-minute span in the Utah side's come-from-behind 3-1 home win over St. Louis on March 30, the Club's first hat trick since September 1, 2018 (Damir Kreilach). Chicho's three-goal performances are just the seventh and eighth of RSL's now 636-game MLS history, the Colombian joining Alvaro Saborio (three hats - two in 2012, one in 2013), along with Robbie Findley (2009), Javier Morales (2014) and Kreilach (2018). Former Captain, head coach and current Club director Jason Kreis also had a hat trick, albeit in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup.

Arango now has three hat tricks in his MLS career - his first was for LAFC in late 2021 against Dallas - and now boasts 116 goals as a professional, including 60 goals in 98 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL. Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 23 goals and 12 assists in 34 MLS reg. season appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 25 goals and 15 assists in 42 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).

TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM LEAGUES CUP OPENER: On August 1, RSL kicks off its participation in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the second year of the 47-team, 78-game tournament, with three CONCACAF Champions Cup berths on the line. RSL is grouped with a road tilt away at Houston Dynamo (MLS) on August 5, with the home opener on August 1 against Atlas CF (MEX) match at America First Field in its West 2 group, with single-elimination knockout games to follow leading up to an August 25 title match.

Based on last year's fifth-seeded West finish (14W-12L-8T, 50 points, 48 GF / 50 GA), RSL will be grouped with both Houston and Liga MX side Atlas F.C. in Leagues Cup 2024 this July. RSL last faced Atlas in the 2022 Leagues Cup "Showcase" match in Utah, dropping a 1-2 decision despite former DF Aaron Herrera's wondergoal from 65 yards away over the retreating goalkeeper.

Due to the new for 2024 Leagues Cup seeding formula, RSL will once again travel to Houston for a group stage LC match in addition to its two MLS reg. season games against the Dynamo, with RSL now winless in its last six games against Houston - all last year - across all competitions. Prior to the active six-game streak without a win against the South Texas side, RSL had seen great success against the Dynamo, which defeated RSL for the first time in 11 games dating back to 2017 in last year's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal.

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