MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake DF Eddie Pope heading home for U.S. match vs. Jamaica

April 4, 2006 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SALT LAKE CITY (Tuesday, April 4, 2006) - Real Salt Lake DF Eddie Pope has been called into U.S. Men's National Team camp by Manager Bruce Arena as part of the 18-man roster that will face CONCACAF foe Jamaica and rookie RSL MF Ryan Johnson on Tuesday, April 11 at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary, N.C. at 5:00 p.m. MT, live on ESPN2.

Pope, along with RSL teammate MF Chris Klein, rejoined the U.S. for its game against Germany on March 22, the team's first loss in its run up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. Prior to the Germany match, Pope anchored the U.S. defense on February 27 helping to shut down FW Carlos Ruiz and the rest of the Guatemalan attack on February 19 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. In the match against Guatemala, Pope played a full 90 minutes along with RSL teammate Klein for the U.S.

The Rocky Point, N.C. native notched his seventh career U.S. goal in the 5-0 rout of Norway on January 29. Pope has 77 career appearances and has tallied eight goals for the U.S. since his first appearance on November 10, 1996 against Trinidad & Tobago. He started and played in 20 RSL games during the 2005 season, and tallied one goal against the Los Angeles Galaxy on May 14.

The U.S. is undefeated in 16 meetings with Jamaica, holding a 9-0-7 record against the Reggae Boyz. The teams' last meeting came in the quarterfinals of the 2005 Gold Cup, the U.S. collecting a 3-1 win on the strength of goals by Josh Wolff and a pair from DaMarcus Beasley. While never dropping a match to Jamaica, there have been a number of close match-ups with five of the nine victories coming by just one goal.

The U.S. has kicked off the year in solid form, going 4-1-1 and netting 14 goals while surrendering six. After drawing with Canada on Jan. 22 in San Diego in their opening game of 2006, the U.S. has produced four straight victories against Norway, FIFA World Cup finalists Japan and Poland, and Guatemala, three by shutout.

ROSTER BY POSITION

Goalkeepers (2) - Tony Meola (New York Red Bulls), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders (5) - Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nick Garcia (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake)

Midfielders (7) - Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), John O'Brien (out of contract), Ben Olsen (D.C. United), Steve Ralston (New England Revolution), Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City Wizards)

Forwards (4) - Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

The schedule for the U.S. MNT 2006 international friendlies and its 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany slate follows:

Day Date Matchup Time (MT)/Results LOCATION

Sun. Jan. 22 Canada T 0-0 Torero Stadium, San Diego, Calif.

Sun. Jan. 29 Norway W 5-0 Home Depot Center, Carson, Calif

Fri. Feb. 10 Japan W 3-2 SBC Park, San Francisco, Calif.

Sun. Feb. 19 Guatemala W 4-0 Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, Texas

Wed. March 1 Poland* W 1-0 Fritz-Water-Stadio, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Wed. March 22 Germany* L 1-4 Westfalenstadion, Dortmund, Germany

Tues. April 11 Jamaica* 5:00 p.m. SAS Park, Cary, N.C.

Tues. May 23 Morocco* 5:00 p.m. The Coliseum, Nashville, Tenn.

Fri. May 26 Venezuela* 5:00 p.m. Cleveland Browns Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio

Sun. May 28 Latvia* 5:00 p.m. Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn.

Mon. June 12 Czech Republic # 10:00 a.m. FIFA World Cup Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Sat. June 17 Italy# 1:00 p.m. Fritz-Water-Stadio, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Thurs. June 22 Ghana# 8:00 p.m. Frankenstadion, Nuremburg, Germany

*All games televised live on ESPN2 #2006 FIFA World Cup Germany

GARLICK ON 1280 THE ZONE EVERY WEDNESDAY AT 2:30 P.M. MT: RSL GK Scott Garlick begins his weekly show with Ryan Hatch and David Fox on "Hatch and Hollywood" at 2:30 p.m. MT on Wednesday, April 5. Garlick joined RSL, along with MF Carey Talley, on November 22, 2005 in exchange for a portion of an allocation with FC Dallas. He played his first match in a regular season game for RSL on Sunday in the 3-0 loss to Chivas USA. The Phoenix, Arizona native spent each of the past two seasons in Dallas, appearing in 40 regular season games and starting each of the Hoops postseason matches against Colorado this season.

REAL ELITE TRAINING PROGRAM: The Real Elite Training Program is a progressive summer training program for boys and girls ages 8-16 with previous playing experience and a strong desire to reach their maximum potential. There are a total of 18 sessions, three days a week, and two and a half hours per day. The benefits of the program include: exposure to the highest level of training; specializing in technique, tactic, fitness and teamwork; training from RSL soccer players and coaches; and two training shirts and ticket voucher to a select game. For more information, contact Teresa Nelson by phone at (801) 924-8565, by email at tnelson@RealSaltLake.com or by logging onto http://real.saltlake.mlsnet.com/MLS/rsl/player_development/.

MLS CAMPS: The Official Camp and Clinic of Major League Soccer is NOW the Official Camp & Clinic of Real Salt Lake! NEW for 2006, Fantasy Camp and focused Team Training experiences. To find out more about all of RSL's Youth Development Programs, call Scott Reynolds at (801) 924-8575 or by email at SReynolds@RealSaltLake.com. To partner with RSL to host MLS Camps in your community, call us today.

2006 RSL TICKET PACKAGES ON SALE: RSL 2006 ticket packages are on sale and fans can now purchase full season, half season, the "High-Five" pack and flex season by visiting the RSL Ticket Office at 515 South 700 East, #2R, SLC, UT 84102, by logging onto www.RealSaltLake.com or by contacting the Real Salt Lake Ticket Office at (866) 9-SOCCER. Fans can also purchase single-game tickets by visiting the Utah Ticket Office at 451 South 1400 East, by logging onto www.UtahTickets.com or by contacting the Ticket Office at (801) 581-UTIX. Finally, fans can purchase The KFC Colonel's Corner $12 ticket voucher, the club's most affordable single-game ticket, by visiting any of the 36 KFC® restaurants in Utah.

ACCESS REAL: Real fans can now receive up-to-date information on the team by signing up for the RSL Weekly Newsletter on our website at http://real.saltlake.mlsnet.com/MLS/rsl/fans/.

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