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MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Home Again Saturday as Western Conference Playoff Race Heats Up

September 20, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (14-7-8, 50 points, 2nd West MLS) continues its 2024 Major League Soccer slate Saturday night at home against Portland Timbers FC (12-10-7, 43 points, 8th West), the third and final match of three games in eight days from Sept. 14-21. Saturday's match is available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, as Max Bretos & Brian Dunseth (ENG) provide the call, as will Francisco X. Rivera and Martin Zuniga (SPN).

A point captured Saturday would clinch an MLS Cup Playoff spot for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons, and for the fourth consecutive year under the guidance of Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni. Wednesday's 3-2 home win over FC Dallas secured RSL's eighth 50-point season in Club history - and its first since 2019 - while the 2024 edition of the Claret-and-Cobalt need just eight points in its final five matches to establish a new all-time high for points in a season, surpassing the 57 accrued in 2012.

Goals from FW Anderson Julio in each half along with an early penalty-kick conversion by DF Brayan Vera led RSL to the much-needed win. Teenage GK Gavin Beavers earned his sixth win of the year and became the youngest goalkeeper in MLS' 29-year history to register an assist, his clearance finding Julio at midfield, with the Ecuadoran international taking one touch before unleashing a shot from nearly 58 yards out to give RSL a 2-0 lead. Newcomer Dominik Marczuk, a 20-year old Polish youth international winger making his first-ever RSL / MLS start, earned his first assist of the year, a game-winner in the 62nd minute that set up Julio for an easy tap-in.

RSL is one of seven Western Conference teams separated by just seven points currently occupying seeds 2 through 8 in the West race, chasing first-place LA Galaxy (16-7-7, 55 points / 30 games played). In pursuit of a top-four seed and home-field advantage in the first-round, best-of-three opening series of the MLS Cup Playoffs, as well as a Conference title and a berth in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup, the Utah side plays three of its remaining five contests of the 2024 regular season on home soil. America First Field in Sandy is where the Claret-and-Cobalt have excelled this season, with 10 wins and one draw against just three losses in MLS action, in addition to an 11th home win in the Leagues Cup tourney last month.

Following Saturday, RSL's September run finishes with yet another Texas road trip at Austin FC (9-12-8, 35 points, 10th West) next Sat., Sept. 28. RSL then welcomes Minnesota on Wed., Oct. 2 and Vancouver on the Oct. 19 Decision Day, the two home matches split by a Sat., Oct. 5 road trip to the Bay Area to face the San Jose Earthquakes prior to another FIFA international window the weekend of Oct. 12.

Real Salt Lake v Portland Timbers FC - MLS Matchday 34

America First Field - Sandy, UT

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024 - 7:30p MT

Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass / KSL Sports Zone Radio

LONG-RANGE HEROICS FIND FORM OF RSL ZAPATAZOS ::

Wednesday's Anderson Julio bombazo from just inside midfield - his shot registering at 57.5 yards, according to Sportec - adds to the lore of recent long-range offerings by RSL players ... RSL MF Nelson Palacio's scintillating, game-winning ZAPATAZO August 1 from deep - 38 yards out, at 78.1 mph (according to Sportrac) - was the previous highlight from distance, coming in a 2-1 Leagues Cup group stage win over Atlas FC.

RSL Captain Chicho Arango scored from midfield back on June 1 in a 5-1 home win against Austin as part of his hat trick that day, while MF Pablo Ruiz saw his 68-yard offering at Audi Field in Washington D.C. last summer a finalist for the 2023 MLS Goal of the Year.

Back in October, 2022, RSL's previous match against Atlas FC as part of that year's "Leagues Cup Showcase," RSL fell at home, 1-2, in a game will be remembered for former RSL Homegrown Aaron Herrera's long-range goal - a 78-yard bombazo - that gave the home side the lead.

YET ANOTHER BOUNCEBACK RESPONSE REGISTERED DURING MASTROENI ERA ::

RSL's 3-2 win Wednesday over Dallas saw the Club rebound from last weekend's 1-4 drubbing at Houston. The resilience, response and determination of RSL's collective DNA during the Pablo Mastroeni era - also known as the "xDAWG" mentality - was once again on full display amongst a heavily-rotated group that saw five personnel changes and two positional moves Wednesday. During 132 games coached by Mastroeni since taking the Claret-and-Cobalt reins in late August, 2021, RSL has dropped back-to-back matches now just 10 times overall - with four of those 10 occurring last August, following the season-ending, non-contact knee injury suffered by metronomic playmaker Pablo Ruiz in mid-August at LAFC in the Leagues Cup Round of 32 match.

In those 132 games coached by Pablo since late August, 2021, matches following a loss has seen RSL bounce-back successfully and respond with 23 wins and 13 draws against just 10 losses, avoiding long droughts and not letting losing streaks fester. Mastroeni's all-time RSL record across all competitions is now 55W-46L-31T mark in MLS reg. season, MLS Cup Playoff, Leagues Cup, Open Cup and int'l friendly matches, guiding the Club to the 2021 MLS Western Conference Final and the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM ::

If the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs presented by Audi began today, second-seeded RSL would face off for a second consecutive season against the Houston Dynamo. RSL would look to rebound from two years of battles with Houston, a place in which it has not won since the 2018 season, defeating the Dynamo in just three of the last 14 meetings across all competitions ... RSL has seen Houston end three different competitions in the 2023/24 campaigns, as RSL fell 1-3 at Houston in last year's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal in a 120-minute affair, before being ousted from the first round of the 2023 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in a three-game series that saw the final two legs decided by penalty kicks ... On August 5 of this year, RSL fell 0-3 at Houston to suffer elimination from the 2024 Leagues Cup, when nearly any other result would have seen the Utah side win its group, which also included Atlas FC (Liga MX).

Earlier this year, RSL registered a 3-2 come-from-behind home win on July 3 against Houston to snap the recent drought; prior to last year's reg. season loss, RSL went unbeaten against Houston in 11 consecutive games dating back to 2017, including five straight in South Texas ... All-time, RSL owns a 3W-14L-6T record in Houston, with the Dynamo enjoying a +16 goal differential across all competitions, buoyed by last weekend's 4-1 win over RSL.

FINAL STRETCH OF SEASON / PLAYOFF PUSH FOR PABLO ::

During the Pablo Mastroeni era - qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs in each of the three previous seasons - RSL has endured a rollercoaster ride in the final 10 games of each season. Time now to improve upon the 2W-3L-0 record from July 20 - present MLS contests.

Back in 2021, RSL split its 10 games under Pablo, winning five and dropping five, securing a dramatic Decision Day win at Kansas City to qualify for the postseason, eventually progressing to the West Final and suffering elimination at Portland.

In 2022, RSL posted a 3-3-4 / 13-point finish, suffering unexpected home draws / losses but delivering yet another Decision Day win, this time a dominant 3-1 home victory over Portland. That year's RSL side burst out to a 2-0 lead at Austin courtesy an early Sergio Cordova brace in a first-round, single-elimination MLS Cup Playoff match, but a 53rd-minute Rubio Rubin ejection ended up with RSL falling in PKs after 120 minutes.

Last season, RSL went 4-5-1 / 13 points in its final 10 matches, as it learned how to play without injured metronome Pablo Ruiz following his non-contact Leagues Cup Round of 16 injury at LAFC. RSL did win three of its final five last year, including its lone win at LAFC on a late Chicho Arango goal, and a 1-0 Decision Day victory at Colorado, one that saw Diego Luna emerge and announce his presence with authority, scoring four goals in his final five matches of 2023, including the three-game series with Houston. However, the postseason once again saw RSL eliminated by the narrowest of margins, as both games two and three of the first-round series with the Dynamo were decided by PKs.

MLS GOLDEN BOOT CONTENDER CHICHO ARANGO BACK AGAIN ::

RSL Captain, Colombian striker and MLS Golden Boot leader Chicho Arango returns Saturday against Portland after missing six of the last nine RSL games due to either MLS suspension - forcing him out of the 1-1 July 17 RSL draw at LAFC, the 2-3 loss at Colorado on July 20, the July 24 MLS All-Star Game against the Liga MX All-Stars and the 2-1 Leagues Cup win over Atlas - or injury (just 41 minutes played Aug. 24 in 0-2 loss to San Jose, without even dressing in 2-0 Aug. 31 win over New England). Chicho then played a full 90 minutes in the 1-4 loss at Houston prior to serving a yellow card accumulation suspension in Wednesday's 3-2 victory over FC Dallas.

Chicho - no longer the League's Golden Boot leader, now two back of D.C. United's Christian Benteke and tied with LAFC man Denis Bouanga and Miami's Luis Suarez, despite the Colombian's scoring drought from July 13 - present - did play the final 45 minutes of an 0-3 loss at Houston in RSL's second Leagues Cup group stage match.

The RSL Captain has five games remaining to re-enter the Golden Boot push and raise his name back up in the Landon Donovan MVP discussion, contributing to 28 of RSL's 57 goals this season. The 28-year-old now has 116 goals in his professional career, which started in his native Colombia and includes stops in Portugal and Mexico alongside a stellar MLS record of 60 goals in 98 games across all competitions for RSL and LAFC. Since last July, Chicho has 27 goals and 14 assists in just 44 appearances across all competitions for RSL, which missed his presence late in the season and in the playoffs in Houston due to a nagging hamstring injury.

The incendiary striker enters Saturday against Portland just one goal shy of breaking Alvaro Saborio's single-season RSL goal record of 17, set in 2012, while his assist June 19 saw the RSL Captain join Albert Rusnák and Jeff Cunningham as just the third RSL player in 20 seasons with a 10g / 10a campaign.

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