Real Salt Lake Returns Home Saturday to Host Minnesota United FC
MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Returns Home Saturday to Host Minnesota United FC

Published on August 22, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Real Salt Lake (9-13-4, 31 points, 10th West / 20th Shield) returns this week to America First Field in Sandy with Saturday's 7:30p MT Major League Soccer regular-season match against Minnesota United FC (13-6-8, 47 points, 2nd West / 6th Shield), in a highly-anticipated contest that should mark the Claret-and-Cobalt debut for the Club's newest player, MLS veteran and former USMNT standout DeAndre Yedlin.

Saturday's contest is available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Max Bretos and Brian Dunseth (ENG) on the call, as are Jorge Perez-Navarro and Marcelo Balboa (SPN). Iconic RSL voice David James and former MLS goalkeeper Jay Nolly will call the game for KSL Sports Radio (1160 AM / 97.5 FM), with Nelson Moran in his 21st season as RSL's Spanish radio home on both 102.3 KDUT FM / 106.3 FM KBMG.

RSL returns home to play five of its next six contests on Utah soil from Saturday through early October, before ending the 2025 reg. season campaign with two games away: the penultimate weekend on Oct. 11 at Seattle in a match rescheduled due to the Sounders' Leagues Cup advancement, and at St. Louis for MLS "Decision Day" on October 18. RSL now returns home - where it boasts five wins and two draws against just one loss since June 1 - looking to rebound from a pair of chaotic and controversial one-goal losses each of the last two weekends away at Charlotte FC and New York Red Bulls. This weekend's Minnesota United FC visit is a rematch of last year's MLS Cup Playoff First-Round series. Tickets are available at www.RSL.com/tickets.

RSL now puts its 7-6-3 (W-L-T) home mark on the Wasatch Front thus far this year in MLS, Champions Cup and Leagues Cup matches on the line against Minnesota on Saturday. A year ago, RSL amassed a 12-3-4 (W-L-T) record at home, where the Club has traditionally enjoyed a fortress-like record of success, winning nearly 70% of games and averaging just under two points per game in parts of 17 seasons across all competitions in Sandy.

Saturday's 1-0 loss at Charlotte FC saw new RSL Designated Player Rwan Cruz make his first-ever Claret-and-Cobalt start, while new striker Victor Olatunji made his Club debut, also in the starting XI. A first-half set-piece concession was the lone blemish against RSL's defense, a difference-making goal in a match that saw RSL denied early handball and red card shouts within the first five minutes. RSL now returns home Saturday seeking yet another "bounce-back" result for its record of resilience under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni. Since the former USMNT star and MLS veteran seized the Claret-and-Cobalt head coaching reins in August, 2021, RSL has dropped consecutive games just 15 times in 172 matches during the Mastroeni era, winning 29 and drawing 15 in games following a loss.

Due to caution accumulation suspensions to be served Saturday, RSL attackers Diego Luna, Zavier Gozo and William Agada are not available this weekend; each are eligible to return for Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's team's next match, on Sat., Sept. 13 at home against Sporting Kansas City.

In MLS action, RSL's 5-1-1 record during June and July featured four wins in its last five home games, the most recent seeing an 81st-minute Braian Ojeda blast from distance on July 26 serving as the game-winner against San Jose. The win - RSL's ninth of the season - marked its first comeback victory of 2025, with RSL scoring first in each of its previous eight victories this year. One week after a stunning home heartbreak against then-Supporters Shield leaders FC Cincinnati, the Ojeda winner ensured that RSL added to its impressive "bounce-back" record under Mastroeni, with just 15 back-to-back losses in those 173 all-time games coached by the former USMNT World Cup veteran and MLS star.

"Iron Man" GK Rafael Cabral made his third penalty-kick save in regulation this season two weeks ago in New Jersey, but he and the RSL rearguard were denied their ninth clean sheet across three competitions of the 2025 RSL campaign by an early second-half goal and a controversial stoppage-time penalty kick conversion by the Red Bulls. Brazilian GK Cabral - the lone RSL player to have appeared in every one of 2,880 minutes of the Club's 32 games played across all competitions this season - logged his eighth clean sheet of the season last time out at home against Queretaro in Leagues Cup action, with his seventh in MLS reg. season action coming July 16 at Portland.

Prior to conceding an 87th-minute game-winner on July 19 against Cincinnati - one which snapped RSL's season-best five-game unbeaten run - RSL GK Rafael Cabral and the team defense had not conceded in 275 minutes over the course of four matches, the 11th-longest shutout streak in the Club's nearly 700 MLS reg. season matches all-time.

RSL has scored first on 18 occasions in 31 games across all competitions this season, as 18-year-old Eagle Mountain, UT-native Zavier Gozo found the back of the net two weeks ago at New York Red Bull on assists from William Agada and Diego Luna. The goal was the third of the year for the West Valley City-born Gozo, who has started 19 of RSL's last 20 matches across both MLS reg. season action and Leagues Cup. This season, RSL is now 9W-5L-4T when drawing first blood against its opposition.

RSL has now recorded a 43W-9L-17T record when scoring first during the 173-game Pablo Mastroeni era, with all but one of 10 RSL victories this season coming when taking the 1-0 lead (July 26 against San Jose is the lone come-from-behind win). Five of the nine losses under Mastroeni when taking the 1-0 lead since August, 2021, have come this season (at home against Herediano / San Diego / Vancouver, away at Nashville / Red Bulls), with both 2-2 regulation draws in Leagues Cup, the May 10 draw at Dallas, the May 28 deadlock at Austin and the late June 1-1 knot at KC seeing RSL drop points from a winning position.

Away from home, RSL's 3-9-4 / 13-point road record this season across all competitions has underperformed fifth-year head coach Mastroeni's track record, with each of the last two seasons marking the Claret-and-Cobalt's best road campaigns in team history. The 2023 side posted an 11W-8L-5T away mark across all competitions, a record which includes both that year's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal loss to Houston, and its road loss and elimination draw in the first and third games of the teams' 2023 Audi MLS Cup Playoff series on the Shell Energy Stadium turf.

A year ago, Mastroeni's men registered the second-most road points in RSL history, with a 5W-4L-8T MLS reg. season mark, one which does NOT includes its heartbreaking, multi-goal Leagues Cup elimination loss to the Dynamo following a home win over Atlas FC. RSL will next travel on Sunday, September 21, to face LAFC, just four days after South Korean and former Tottenham star Son Heung-Min come to Utah. RSL will then close out its 2025 MLS reg. season with an Oct. 11 trip to Seattle and the Oct. 18 "Decision Day" jaunt to St. Louis.

On August 2 in Leagues Cup, RSL opened early against Atlético San Luis with Ojeda slamming home the Pablo Ruiz corner kick, but conceded the first-half equalizer for a 1-1 halftime score. The second 45' saw visiting Atlético San Luis take the lead, before an 88th-minute offering from Ojeda completed his brace to force the penalty-kick shootout, won by the Liga MX visitors.

July 30 against Club América saw goals from 2024/25 Major League Soccer All-Star Diego Luna and forward William Agada give RSL a 2-1 halftime lead over tourney favorite Las Aguilas, but a flurry of missed second-half chances for the Utah side allowed a last-gasp 97+ equalizer to Club América before 19,544 fans at America First Field, setting the stage for a penalty-kick tiebreaker. RSL Captain and goalkeeper Rafael Cabral earned Man of the Match honors with a heroic eight-save performance, including stops on three of four PK attempts faced, while Claret-and-Cobalt men Pablo Ruiz, Justen Glad and Brayan Vera converted their attempts to secure two points in the Leagues Cup table.

On Utah soil against Mexican visitors, RSL now owns an all-time 6W-6L-5T mark, including three wins (León, Atlas and Queretaro since 2023), a loss to Monterrey in 2023 and a pair of dramatic 2-2 draws in the 2025 Leagues Cup, splitting the results in PK shootout tiebreakers against continental power Club América and Atlético San Luis.

That 3-1 victory at San Diego on April 26 also marked Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's 100th career coaching win across all competitions for the two Rocky Mountain Cup competitors, RSL (2021-present) and Colorado (2014-17). The former U.S. World Cup stalwart has now amassed 105 wins, 116 losses and 80 draws across all competitions for the Utah/Denver-based sides. Last June in Kansas City, Mastroeni earned his 50th win across all competitions with RSL in a wild 4-3 road decision, with the 2-0 reg. season win over LA Galaxy on April 5 marking his 50th MLS victory with RSL. Since August, 2021, his arrival in Utah, Mastroeni's all-time RSL coaching record is now 68-60-44 (W-L-T).

During each of Pablo's previous three full seasons at the RSL helm, the Club has increased its annual point total (47 in 2022, 50 in 2023 and 59 last year), while increasing its Western Conference table position as well (7th in 2022, 5th in 2023 and 3rd last year). The 2025 campaign features RSL's pursuit of a Conference-best fifth consecutive postseason berth, a seventh in the last eight seasons and its 15th in the last 18 years.

Last year saw RSL advance to the MLS Cup Playoffs for a fourth consecutive occasion, the sixth time in seven seasons (2020 the lone exception), and for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons since first qualifying in 2008 (2015, 2017 the other outliers). The 2024 MLS regular season reached an all-time high of 59 points for RSL, which finished third in the Western Conference and sixth overall in the then-29-team MLS Shield race, while also establishing a new all-time scoring high of 65 goals.

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