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MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Continues Three-Game Road Gauntlet Wednesday at LAFC

July 16, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (12-4-7 / 43 points / t-1st West) remains on the road for the second of three games in eight days prior to this year's MLS All-Star break and the subsequent 2024 Leagues Cup, continuing the critical Western Conference gauntlet Wednesday at LAFC. RSL seeks to remain in both MLS Supporters Shield and Western Conference top-seed contention as Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's team looks to bounce back from seeing its 10-game road unbeaten streak snapped in an 0-3 loss Saturday at Portland, RSL's heaviest loss of the 2024 campaign. Still, RSL have dropped just two of its last 19 MLS contests since mid-March in the Club's best start in nearly a decade.

Kickoff Wednesday at BMO Stadium in downtown Los Angeles is at 8:30p MT, available nationwide on Fox Sports 1 w/ Josh Eastern and Tony Meola and worldwide on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Jake Zivin and Taylor Twellman (ENG) and Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri (SPN) on the call.

RSL - again tied on 43 points with both LAFC (22 games played) and LA Galaxy (24 games played) in the race for Western Conference supremacy - follows up Wednesday's LAFC visit with a trip to Colorado this Saturday for the Rocky Mountain Cup decider, prior to the 2024 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus (July 24), featuring RSL Homegrown Justen Glad. RSL Captain Chicho Arango - a former LAFC player - will now miss both MLS reg. season games this week as well as the All-Star Game, pursuant to the disciplinary decision announced Monday.

Despite Saturday's loss at Portland - one that saw RSL concede inside of the first three minutes of each half - RSL boasts four road wins and six road draws against just two losses away this season. In its last visit to BMO, RSL won 1-0 last October, with former LAFC icon Arango heading home a late game-winner in the 81st minute, with GK Zac MacMath and the RSL rearguard notching a vital clean sheet.

In nearly four full seasons under Mastroeni, RSL has played 124 matches across all competitions, winning 52, losing 42 and drawing 30. 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 Los Angeles FC - MLS Matchday 27

BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, Calif.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 8:30p MT

Fox Sports 1 and Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass

FIFTH SHUTOUT SUFFERED SATURDAY

Saturday's 0-3 loss at Portland was RSL's heaviest suffered in 23 games this season, with the RSL attack - the second-highest scoring group in MLS with 48 goals, three behind Miami - suffering its fifth blanking of the 2024 season ... RSL failed to score in four previous occasions (2/21 @ MIA; 4/13 v CLB; 6/15 @ MTL; 6/22 v LAG) prior to the July 13 setback on the Providence Park turf ... Two or RSL's four losses this year have occurred in its last four contests, with three of the five clean sheets suffered occurring in RSL's last six games.

RSL has now completed its three matches to be played this year on the artificial surface, notching a 1-1-1 record at Vancouver (2-1 W on March 23), at Seattle (1-1 T on May 29) and then Saturday's loss at Portland (0-3 L on July 13).

HOME COOKING REIGNS SUPREME

Last week's home double on July 3/6 saw RSL improve to 8-2-1 / 25 points at home with back-to-back America First Field wins over Houston and Atlanta by an 8-4 aggregate scoreline, as Olympic snub Diego Luna scoring two goals - including an MLS Goal of the Matchday honoree - while adding five assists, including a three-assist performance Saturday that was his second of the year and just the fourth "hat trick of assists" in RSL's 20-year, 636-game MLS history ... Luna was named alongside teammate Alex Katranis on the MLS Team of the Matchday on July 8, while also being voted the MLS Player of the Matchday for Matchday 25 following his scintillatingly dominant Saturday performance. With 12 assists on the season, Luna now ranks third in MLS, tied with Timbers star Evander and behind Lucho Acosta (17, Cincinnati) and Lionel Messi (13, Miami). RSL Captain Chicho Arango ranks fourth with 11 assists.

With last week's performance, Luna became the first-ever MLS player with multiple three-assist games prior to his 23rd birthday in the 29-season history of Major League Soccer ... Also, Luna has become the first player 20 years old or younger to produce at least 10 assists in a single MLS regular season since Talles Magno (10) did so for New York City FC in 2022.

July 6 also saw 19-year-old RSL goalkeeper Gavin Beavers earn his fourth win in six MLS starts this season, while midfield engine Braian Ojeda scored the July 3 game-winner as well as another goal against Atlanta, finding the back of the net in back-to-back games after not scoring in his initial 66 games with RSL since arriving in late summer 2022. MF Matt Crooks scored his second goal of the year and his first at home, putting RSL up 1-0 just 43 seconds into Saturday's contest, the fourth-fastest goal all-time for RSL, and one of five to be scored in the first minute of a match.

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 Saturday's 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 nine 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 48 goals scored this year ranks second in MLS (Miami, 51) and is now tied for best in the West with 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), Cincinnati and Miami (plus-14) and LA Galaxy (plus-12).

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 - suspended Wednesday at LAFC due to caution accumulation - 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 43 points in just 23 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 five 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 seven 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 and an idle RSL on June 29, 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 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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