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MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Kicks off 20th Home MLS Season Saturday against LAFC

March 1, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (0-1-1, 1 pt., 9th West MLS) kicks off the home portion of its 2024 regular season - the Club's 20th and Major League Soccer 29th - this Saturday afternoon at America First Field in Sandy with a 12 Noon MT kickoff against West rival Los Angeles Football Club. While the match is tracking towards a sellout, tickets remain available at www.RSL.com/tickets.

The Club's 9000 South "tailgate" lot opens at 9a MT for the Supporters annual "Homebrew" contest, while gates open at 10:30a MT. The Supporters "March to the Match" begins at 11:00a from the tailgate lot into the South End, while all fans are encouraged to arrive early for a special pre-game ceremony honoring RSL FW and Captain Chicho Arango and his family for the Colombian striker's 100th career professional goal, scored last week in the 1-1 draw at St. Louis.

Last week, RSL saw its MLS Opening Day unbeaten run snapped at 14 games, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's side dropping an 0-2 decision at Miami against Lionel Messi & Co. Two RSL players made significant debuts at Chase Stadium in South Florida last week, as 17-year-old Mexican youth international Fidel Barajas played 24 minutes for his MLS debut, and MF Noel Caliskan - a short-term call-up from Real Monarchs of MLS NEXT Pro - made his RSL debut, appearing for 17 minutes with the Claret-and-Cobalt after making four combined MLS / U.S. Open Cup appearances a year ago with the Portland Timbers.

Last Saturday at St. Louis, it was newly-acquired RSL midfielder Matt Crooks who became the third player to make his RSL debut, combining with Diego Luna to set up Arango for his centennial goal. Another January acquisition - RSL left back Alexandros Katranis - could possibly make his 2024 MLS / RSL debut next Saturday, March 9, at America First Field in RSL's Rocky Mountain Cup tilt at home against Colorado Rapids with a 7:30p MT kickoff.

Tomorrow's kickoff starts at 12 Noon MT on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass w/ Max Bretos and Brian Dunseth (ENG) and Pablo Ramirez and Jesus Bracamontes (SPN). For local coverage, tune in at 11:00a 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. Los Angeles Football Club - MLS Matchday 3

America First Field - Sandy, UT

Saturday, March 2, 2024 - 12:00 Noon MT

2023 Records: Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West);

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

RSL v LOS ANGELES FC NOTES:

RSL and LAFC split their 2023 series, each team winning at the opposing side's home ... RSL fell 0-3 at home in early May to the visiting LAFC side, while winning 1-0 on October 1, with former Black-and-Gold striker Chicho Arango scoring the 81st-minute game-winner ... LAFC also won a third contest between the teams last year, emerging 4-0 in the Leagues Cup Round of 16 contest after RSL metronome Pablo Ruiz' 9th-minute non-contact knee injury, ending his season.

Back in 2018, LAFC arrived on the Wasatch Front for an RSL home opener, winning 5-1 at what was then Rio Tinto Stadium and handing RSL its worst-ever home loss - equaled by last year's St. Louis CITY contest in Sandy, when a 0-0 halftime deadlock resulted in an 0-4 concession to the 2023 expansion team.

Despite dropping its home opener a year ago, 1-2, against visiting Austin FC for just its second home-opening loss ever, RSL has enjoyed great success in season kickoffs on Utah soil over the years, posting an all-time 7-2-6 (W-L-T) record in Sandy at the venue now known as America First Field, outscoring opponents 27-19 on aggregate ... Prior to last season's stumble, the lone previous home- opening setback was a brutal 1-5 performance in 2018 against expansion LAFC. During the entirety of the Club's 19-year history, RSL is 8-2-9 overall (32-23 on aggregate), including the early Rice-Eccles years.

LAFC has always been comfortable in Sandy, winning at the typically road-resistant RSL venue in each of its six seasons ... RSL is just 1W-6L-0T against the Black-and-Gold at America First Field, the teams splitting both LAFC visits during the Covid-affected 2020 season ... In those seven MLS reg. season matches on Utah soil, LAFC has outscored RSL 18-6, by far the worst home goal differential in Claret-and-Cobalt annals.

One last note on Chicho Arango's 100 career goals as a professional: 35 were scored in his 57 games played across all competitions for LAFC in the 17 months from August, 2021 through January, 2023, prior to his 13 games over five months at Pachuca (5 goals) ... Chicho also scored 27 with Millonarios (72 games), 9 with Envigado - his first professional club - in 85 games as a teenager, 8 goals in Spain with Valencia B (26 games), and 6 goals in 42 games on loan with Portuguese sides Aves and Tondela ... With RSL, Chicho has 9 goals in 20 games played across MLS, Open Cup, Leagues Cup and Playoffs - so far ...

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 194-83-95 (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 164-58-75 (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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