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MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Continues 20th Home MLS Season Saturday against Colorado Rapids

March 8, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (1-1-1, 4 pts., 4th West MLS) continues its home portion of the 2024 regular season - the Club's 20th and Major League Soccer 29th - this Saturday evening at America First Field in Sandy with a 7:30p MT kickoff against Rocky Mountain Cup rival Colorado Rapids. While the match is tracking towards a sellout, tickets remain available at www.RSL.com/tickets.

***PLEASE NOTE: For 2024, America First Field has adopted a "No Bag Policy". Bags larger than 4" x 6" x 2" are prohibited. Medical and diaper bags are permitted, but are required to be searched by security***

Last week, RSL saw second-year winger Andrés Gómez score twice and assist on another as the 21-year old winger doubled the goal output from his 2023 season. The former Millonarios player spent December and January in Colombia's full national team and Olympic team camps after scoring just one goal and adding six assists across all competitions last year (including five game-winning assists), utilizing the "childlike joy" of playing in snow for the first time to become the youngest player in RSL history with three goal contributions in a match.

Gómez - now considered a "Young DP" amongst RSL's roster designations - assisted his countryman, FW Chicho Arango, with his goal in the 50+ minute during first-half stoppage, Chicho scoring for the second consecutive match. A week prior, Arango tallied his 100th professional goal at St. Louis, for which he was honored in a brief pre-game ceremony. Chicho's goal Saturday marked the 10th in 21 games across all competitions for RSL since his July arrival, to go with his 101 career and 45 in MLS action across 68 games with RSL and LAFC.

While two offseason acquisitions made their RSL / MLS debuts in the first two road matches of the season in late February (FW Fidel Barajas at MIA, MF Matt Crooks at STL), it is another January acquisition - Greek left back Alexandros Katranis - who could potentially make his 2024 MLS / RSL debut against Colorado. Also, RSL will utilize short-term callups this weekend for a pair of Monarchs players - MF Noel Caliskan, who was called in for both the MIA and STL matches, making his RSL debut in South Florida on Feb. 21 - and Armenian youth international FW Daron Iskanderian.

Tomorrow's kickoff starts at 7:30p MT on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass w/ Keith Costigan and Maurice Edu (ENG) and Marcelo Balboa and Jorge Perez-Navarro (SPN). For local coverage, tune in at 6:30p MT for KSL Radio pre-game w/ David James & Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM and www.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM).

Real Salt Lake v. Colorado Rapids - MLS Matchday 4

America First Field - Sandy, UT

Saturday, March 9, 2024 - 7:30p MT

2023 Records:

Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West);

Colorado Rapids (14-10-10, 52 pts., 3rd West)

RUIZ OUT FOR YEAR FOLLOWING CONTRACT EXTENSION

The elation from Saturday's dramatic rollercoaster in the wind, lightning and snow came to a screeching halt in Tuesday's training session, as MF Pablo Ruiz suffered a contact injury to his left knee, with an MRI later that day revealing an isolated ACL tear. Ruiz will undergo surgery early next week, with the procedure performed by RSL Team Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Dain Allred of Intermountain Hospital in Provo. A timeline for his recovery will be determined following the procedure.

A 25-year-old Argentine who has often been on Chile's preliminary rosters in the last several FIFA windows started each of RSL first two games this season - a road loss at Miami and the away draw in St. Louis - before coming off the bench for the final 20 minutes of Saturday's 3-0 win over visiting LAFC ... In the days before the injury, Ruiz had just signed a new long-term contract with RSL that will keep him on the Wasatch Front through the 2026 season, with Club options for 2027/28.

Ruiz will be in attendance and recognized at Saturday's Rocky Mountain Cup contest at America First Field (7:30p MT kickoff; tickets available at www.RSL.com/tickets).

LUNA ADDED TO U22 DESIGNATION

RSL starlet Diego Luna - who would probably have as many as 3 assists this year once MLS re-institutes secondary assists - joined Ruiz in signing a long-term contract extension with the Club late last week, keeping the affectionately known "Moon Boy" with the Utah side through the 2026 season, with Club options for 2027/28.

Luna - who received his first-ever USMNT cap in January's friendly with Slovenia in San Antonio and is on the preliminary USMNT rosters for both the Nations League and Olympic camps later this month - is now considered a U22 roster designation for RSL, joining Braian Ojeda and Nelson Palacio, as winger Andrés Gómez is moved into the "Young DP" slot, alongside Chicho Arango and newcomer Matt Crooks (TAM-able in MLS' secondary window this summer).

RSL playmaker Diego Luna emerged last season as a late-season talisman for the Claret-and-Cobalt, scoring critical goals in each of the final five matches - two MLS reg. season contests, providing the equalizers in both leg one and leg three of the Playoffs at Houston, and scoring the game-clinching PK in the leg two elimination match at home ... Luna recently earned his first U.S. Men's National Team appearance in the January friendly in San Antonio against Slovenia, starting and playing 77 minutes in the very same free role drifting off left wing that he has made his own at RSL.

2024 should be a big year for Luna, whose role within the team is certain to expand after he has now started 24 of 28 games following his return from USYNT qualifying last summer ... This year, Luna will have to juggle his Club obligations with potential U.S. Men's National Team duty in March's Nations League, June's Copa America and his almost certain Olympic Team duty in July ... The Paris Olympics schedule dovetails nicely with the Leagues Cup slate, minimizing Luna's potential absences from MLS reg. season contests.

ALL-TIME ROCKY MOUNTAIN CUP HISTORY

On last year's Decision Day in Commerce City, RSL rode a Diego Luna goal and a Zac MacMath clean sheet to win 1-0 for the four-game all competitions sweep of the Rapids last year ... In addition to the 2-0 home win last Sept. 2 in what would end up being Robin Fraser's final Rapids' game, the late May back-to-back RSL @ Colorado wins - one MLS (3-2), one Open Cup (1-0), helped rekindle the fan-created Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry, with RSL now winning 13 of the last 16 RMC titles dating back to the Claret-and-Cobalt's first-ever piece of hardware back in 2007.

RSL's 19 total MLS wins over Colorado since 2014 leads the League in wins over a single opponent during that time (credit to Opta).

The 2020 #RockyMtnCup is disputed due to the Covid-affected campaign, which saw some games count towards the teams' regular-season records and the third scheduled match not played due to a late-season Covid-19 outbreak running roughshod through the Rapids' locker room ... Appropriately tipping 2020 onto the RSL ledger, and the Wasatch side leads the all-time RMC series 15-4 over the Front Range team, which won in 2005 and 2006.

With last year's Decision Day road win and the back-to-back May wins at DSG just four days apart, RSL's all-time road mark at Colorado is now 11W-11L-6T, outscoring the Rapids 38-33. The 11 RSL wins in Commerce City is the highest victory road total in RSL's 19-year history, four more than the Utah side has enjoyed at LA Galaxy, at San Jose and at Chivas USA.

RSL's 1-0 win on May 24 returned a long overdue favor to Colorado. The sides have competed in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup twice before, the Rapids winning in both 2006 and 2007 contests at RSL's former Rice-Eccles Stadium home to eliminate the Utah side. RSL returned the elimination favor at DSG Park in the 2023 edition of the 109-year-old tourney, advancing on to a Quarterfinal home win over LA Galaxy.

All-time, RSL is now 17-4-7 (W-L-T) at home against the Rapids with a 48-23 aggregate scoreline over Colorado, who won on Utah soil in 2005, 2006, 2007 - the first three years of the rivalry - as well as in 2020.

Colorado returns to Sandy on May 18, with RSL heading to suburban Denver on July 20 to complete this year's 3-game RMC series.

2023 IN REVIEW:

RSL's 2023 RSL side amassed the Club's seventh 50-point season all-time, and just the second since the 2014 campaign. Finishing 11th overall out of 29 teams, RSL crashed out of the postseason by the thinnest of margins for a second consecutive year (Austin 2022, Houston 2023), dropping a road shootout tiebreaker in Texas. Other 2023 RSL milestones:

Accumulated an all-time Club-best road record with 12 results in 17 away MLS matches, posting an 8W-5L-4T mark with 28 of its 50 reg. season points amassed on the road; RSL's previous road bests were recorded in 2012 and 2013, with identical 6W-7L-4T marks;

RSL's home mark of 6W-7L-4T was its worst since 2007, when a 4W-7L-4T record on the Rice-Eccles turf marked the 19-year nadir;

During a nearly four-month span from mid-April to early August, RSL dropped just three of 24 games across all competitions, including MLS reg. season action, its Open Cup run to the Semifinals and its initial Leagues Cup foray;

Thirty-two (32) different players saw action for RSL in 2023, including 15-year-old FW Axel Kei and 16-year-old Zavier Gozo making their Homegrown debuts, along with Academy products GK Gavin Beavers and DF Delentz Pierre also making their first-ever first-team appearances; a trio of rookies - D/M Emeka Eneli, FW Bertin Jacquesson and FW Ilijah Paul - made their professional debuts, while FW Andrés Gómez, MF Nelson Palacio, DF Kevon Lambert and DF Brayan Vera notched their first-ever MLS appearances last season;

Since April 16, 2005, RSL has enjoyed a prominent home-field advantage on Utah soil - posting a dominant 195-83-95 (Win-Loss-Draw) record across all competitions at home (1.82 points per game for a 0.649 win pct.) - since arriving on the Wasatch Front nearly 20 years ago;

Since opening its permanent home in Sandy just over 15 years ago, in October, 2008, RSL's 161-58-75 (W-L-T) MLS reg. season mark at America First Field - home of the "RioT" Supporters Group umbrella - equates to a 1.91 points per game average and a 0.679 win pct, one of the truly amazing value proposition in North American sporting landscape today.

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