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MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Hits Road Saturday at Houston Dynamo

May 4, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SANDY, Utah - Real Salt Lake (3-5-1, 10 pts., 10th West) kicks off another upcoming three-game week with a trip to South Texas this weekend for MLS Matchday 11, traveling to face the Houston Dynamo (4-3-1, 13 pts., 6th West) on Saturday (6:30p MT kickoff on the Apple MLS Season Pass w/ Adrian Healey and Cobi Jones (ENG) / Juan Arango and Carlos Suarez (SPN); 7:00p MT 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 @ Houston Dynamo

Shell Energy Stadium - Houston, Texas

Saturday, May 5, 2023 - 6:30p MT

2023 Records: Real Salt Lake (3-5-1, 10 pts, 10th West); Houston Dynamo (4-3-1, 13 pts, 6th West)

Saturday's contest is the fourth of what could be a 13-game, 45-day stretch that sees Real Salt Lake manage multiple competitions, with several potential Open Cup and MLS three-game weeks on the horizon. Real Salt Lake arrives in Houston unbeaten in four of its last five overall, and on the heels of its first clean sheet of 2023, as GK Zac MacMath and the RSL rearguard denied Seattle last week in another home sellout marred by numerous yellow cards. All-time / all competitions on Utah soil, RSL still boasts a dominant 13-2-4 (W-L-T) mark against the Sounders, which includes a 1-0-1 Open Cup record and a 1-1-0 playoff mark. With last week's scoreless draw, RSL owns a 12-game unbeaten run in MLS reg. season play against the Sounders, who last won in Sandy in 2011 (although a 2012 playoff stunner at RioT still stings).

RSL has not lost at what is now Shell Energy Stadium since 2017, posting one win and three draws in its last four visits, while also earning points in 7 of its last 9 overall in Houston (3W-2L-4T) ... A year ago, RSL managed a scoreless draw in the 2022 opener at Houston in its last road contest against the Dynamo. The teams last met in Utah last May, RSL winning 3-0 on the strength of goals by Justen Glad, Bobby Wood and Sergio Cordova, in a match which also marked DP FW Jefferson Savarino's return to RSL/MLS.

RSL boss Pablo Mastroeni called Houston home during the 2020 pandemic-affected season, serving as an assistant coach on Tab Ramos' staff that year, prior to coming to RSL as an assistant for the 2021 year under Freddy Juarez, assuming the interim HC role in late August and taking RSL to the West Final before losing to Portland.

As a result of last Wednesday night's 3-1, 120-minute win away at Las Vegas in its 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup opener, RSL will play at Portland Timbers (MLS) in the USOC Fourth Round on Wed., May 10, with an 8:00p MT kickoff streaming live on the B/R app and the Bleacher Report/U.S. Soccer YouTube pages. RSL Captain Damir Kreilach's extra-time brace, with an insurance goal from FW Danny Musovski, enabled RSL to snap a seven-game overall winless streak in the U.S. Open Cup dating back to 2015, and earn its first-ever road win in 11 attempts on the road in Open Cup play.

RSL is back at home next Saturday, May 13, hosting defending MLS Cup Champion LAFC at America First Field. Tickets for the expected sellout - which would be the Club's 21st in its last 25 matches - are available at www.RSL.com/tickets. LAFC has advanced as the MLS representative in this year's CONCACAF Champions League Final, facing Liga MX contender Leon in early June.

BACK-TO-BACK 3-1 WINS AT AFF

RSL finally scored first on April 22 in the 3-1 win home win over San Jose, the only one of its 9 MLS matches this season in which it earned a first-half lead ... Prior to that SJ victory, RSL enjoyed a lead for only the final 20 minutes on Feb. 25 at Vancouver and April 8 at home against Charlotte ... It had now been 13 reg. season games since RSL last posted a clean sheet, the disappointing 0-0 at home last September against D.C. United marking the occasion ...

Prior to the scoreless draw with Seattle, RSL emerged victorious by dominant 3-1 scorelines in each of its two prior home games, vanquishing Charlotte FC a month ago and the San Jose Earthquakes two weeks ago ... FW Jefferson Savarino saw his three-game scoring streak snapped Saturday vs. Seattle, providing the game-winner against San Jose between goals from MF Jasper Löffelsend and FW Andrés Gómez ...

The first-half goal from second-year professional Löffelsend marked the first time in eight games this season that RSL struck first ... After the former Univ. of Pittsburgh player won the ball at midfield, his pass to FW Danny Musovski sprung a three-on-one breakaway, with Musovski finding Löffelsend on his right in the box, the German native slamming home his second career goal, and his first since last July - at San Jose ... The Musovski assist was his first for RSL and his first in MLS play since last June, as a member of LAFC ...

Savarino's goal broke the 1-1 deadlock shortly after San Jose equalized early in the second half, with an assist from young Colombian newcomer Gómez ... Ten minutes from time, Savarino returned the favor, setting up Gómez for his first-ever MLS/RSL goal to ice the affair at 3-1 for the home side ... With that assist, Savarino became the fifth player in RSL annals to amass 30 goals & 30 assists in a career, and the second-fastest to achieve the threshold (Joao Plata, 104 games, four games fewer than Savarino) ...

Including the 1-2 loss at Dallas on April 15 - a performance which demonstrated how Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's group remains together and confident - RSL saw its talisman, Venezuelan FW Jefferson Savarino score in consecutive games, as well as provide the game-winning assist in the April 8 home game against Charlotte, a drought-snapping, dominant 3-1 win three weeks ago ... On that day at America First Field, RSL's 3-goal / 6-minute outburst equaled the number of goals RSL had scored in the first five MLS reg. season games overall ...

Back on April 8, the momentum found in the 2nd half against Charlotte saw three different South American attackers find the back of the net in a six-minute span, as MF Pablo Ruiz (Chile/Argentina), FW Anderson Julio (Ecuador) and FW Jefferson Savarino (Venezuela) each scored their first goals off the season ... Both Julio and Savarino saw their goals set up by exquisite crosses from Colombian winger Andrés Gómez, who became the 2nd-youngest player in RSL history (20 years / 208 days) to notch two assists in an MLS match (former MF Jordan Allen - now the Club's U15 Academy coach - set the mark in May 2015 in a 2-1 win at Chicago when he was 20 years / 13 days old) ...

Ruiz' goal snapped a 304-minute goalless drought, matching the 9th-longest experienced by RSL in its 19 MLS seasons ... The sudden outburst marked RSL's 2nd-quickest explosion of three goals ever, with the Utah side scoring three goals in five minutes of action back in 2014 against Rocky Mountain Cup rival Colorado Rapids ...

BOUNCEBACK MENTALITY

With the San Jose victory, RSL again improved upon its record in "bounceback" games under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, RSL now 12W-5L-6D, earning a result in 18 of 23 matches following a loss in the "Pablo era," suffering back-to-back losses now just five times in the former USMNT star's 63 games at the RSL helm ... Under Mastroeni's leadership, RSL is now 15-9-6 (W-L-T) on Utah soil against MLS opponents ...

The March/April 2023 streak of four consecutive losses represents three of the five total "back-to-back" ruts experienced by RSL since Mastroeni took over in August, 2021, RSL dropping consecutive home games just once before in each Mastroeni season prior to this March 2023 skid, first in late 2021 and again in late 2022 ...

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