Sports stats



MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Returns to Action at Home Wednesday v Houston Dynamo

July 2, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SANDY, Utah - Real Salt Lake (10-3-7 / 37 points / 3rd West) resumes its 2024 MLS campaign at home with two games this week, starting off with Wednesday's Independence Day Fireworks Celebration Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo (8-6-6 / 30 points / 6th West). RSL will host Atlanta on Saturday, the back-to-back home games critical as RSL seeks to remain in both MLS Supporters Shield and Western Conference top-seed contention. Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni's team will look to rebound from its June 22 home loss to LA Galaxy, which snapped a Club-record 15-game unbeaten run, and improve upon its 6-2-1 / 19-point home mark thus far in 2024. Kickoff Wednesday in Sandy is at 7:30p MT, available on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Max Bretos and Brian Dunseth (ENG) and Francisco X. Rivera and Martin Zuniga (SPN) on the call from America First Field.

RSL - now three points shy of both LAFC and the LA Galaxy in the race for Western Conference supremacy -follows up this week's home games on July 3 (Houston) and July 6 (Atlanta) with a three-game road week starting on July 13 to Portland, a week that also sees trips to LAFC (July 17) and Colorado (July 20) prior to the 2024 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus (July 24), featuring both Captain Chicho Arango and Homegrown Justen Glad.

The 2024 Leagues Cup begins with an August 1 home game vs. Atlas prior to an August 5 trip to Houston. RSL and Houston faced off on a Club-record six occasions last year, with a pair of regular-season matches followed up by the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal and an intense three-game first-round playoff series, featuring two shootouts. The Dynamo eliminated RSL in both the Open Cup and the 2023 MLS postseason.

Real Salt Lake v Houston Dynamo - MLS Matchday 24

America First Field - Sandy, UT

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 - 7:30p MT

STREAK SNAPPED

Last time out, RSL lost an MLS match for the first time since March 9, falling at home 0-1 to the LA Galaxy in a match marred by Chicho Arango's head injury just 16 minutes into the game. RSL's 15-game MLS unbeaten run established a new record for the Club's longest single-season streak in team history - while also matching the Portland Timbers (2013, 2018) and Colorado Rapids (2016) for the second-longest in MLS regular-season history (FC Dallas' 19 games unbeaten in 2010). In RSL's 20-season history, RSL also enjoyed a 16-game run from 2013 into 2014 (including a 12-game single-season run in 2014), and a Club-record 18-game unbeaten streak from July 2010 to April 2011 (2010 includes a 14-game single-season run, RSL's previous best).

ATTACKING ROLLERCOASTER FOR RSL

RSL suffered two shutouts in its last game week, blanked at Montreal in a 0-0 result and in the Galaxy loss eight days later. Between the two, however, RSL rebounded to score four goals on the road for the second time (April 20 at Chicago) this season June 19 in Kansas City. The scoreless draw was RSL's second of the season (also posting a disappointing 0-0 at home against a rotated Columbus side on April 13), while the donut against the Galaxy was just the fourth shutout suffered by RSL this season (Feb. 21 at Miami in a 2-0 loss). Conversely, RSL has also scored five goals in a game twice this year, both at home; first on May 18 in the 5-3 comeback against Colorado, and two weeks later on June 1 in the 5-1 over Austin FC, RSL's last home appearance prior to the Galaxy disappointment.

With both Chicho (16 goals) and Andrés Gómez (10 goals) securing double-digit goal totals this season, RSL has a pair of 10+ scorers in a single season for the first time since 2021 (Kreilach, 16 goals; Rusnák, 11 goals). Should Julio (six goals) or another player reach double-digits, RSL would have a 10+ goal-scoring trio for the first time ever.

RSL's 40 goals scored this year ranks fourth in MLS (Miami, 48; LAFC/LA Galaxy 41 each) but lead the West over the Galaxy's 37 scored. RSL no longer boasts the best goal differential in MLS this season, at plus-17, with both surging LAFC and Miami now at plus-18. Only three other teams have amassed double-digit goal differentials so far in 2024, as Columbus (plus-16), Cincinnati (plus-10) and LA Galaxy (plus-14) join RSL and LAFC / Miami.

DEFENSIVE VOLATILITY FOR RSL

The clean sheet logged at Montreal June 15 did mark the Club's sixth of the year in 20 MLS reg. season games, with veteran GK Zac MacMath notching four of those six. Prior to conceding three June 19 in Kansas City, RSL had allowed just two goals in its previous 270 minutes played, at Seattle (1-1 draw) and v Austin (5-1 win) prior to the scoreless draw in Quebec. However, RSL has now allowed three goals on three different occasions in the last month or so, starting with May 18 at home against Colorado and then again on May 25 against Dallas.

CAPTAIN CHICHO RETAINS GOLDEN BOOT LEAD

Despite his injury-marred appearance on June 22 and an idle RSL on June 29, RSL Captain Chicho Arango still leads the MLS Golden Boot race with 16 goals in 20 games, adding 10 assists to outlast Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, as Chicho boasts a League-leading 26 goal contributions this season. Arango returns home from this week needing just one goal to match and two goals to break RSL's single-season scoring record (Alvaro Saborio, 2012).

When he does score or assist - as he has in 13 of 20 MLS matches this year - RSL owns nine wins and three draws (May 11 brace at LA Galaxy wasted, with the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to score at Miami Feb. 24 and April 13 v. Columbus) against just one loss, with Chicho's assist on an Emeka Eneli goal back on March 9 coming in the home defeat to Colorado.

Chicho also provided a three-goal explosion in a 21-minute span in the Utah side's come-from-behind 3-1 home win over St. Louis on March 30, the Club's first hat trick since September 1, 2018 (Damir Kreilach). Chicho's three-goal performances are just the seventh and eighth of RSL's now 631-game MLS history, the Colombian joining Alvaro Saborio (three hats - two in 2012, one in 2013), along with Robbie Findley (2009), Javier Morales (2014) and Kreilach (2018). Former Captain, head coach and current Club director Jason Kreis also had a hat trick, albeit in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup.

Arango now has three hat tricks in his MLS career - his first was for LAFC in late 2021 against Dallas - and now boasts 115 goals as a professional, including 59 goals in 95 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL. Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 22 goals and 12 assists in 31 MLS reg. season appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 24 goals and 14 assists in 39 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).

FOUR WEEKS AWAY FROM LEAGUES CUP OPENER: On August 1, RSL kicks off its participation in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the second year of the 47-team, 78-game tournament, with three CONCACAF Champions Cup berths on the line ... RSL is grouped with a road tilt away at Houston Dynamo (MLS) on August 5, with the home opener on August 1 against Atlas CF (MEX) match at America First Field in its West 2 group, with single-elimination knockout games to follow leading up to an August 25 title match.

Based on last year's fifth-seeded West finish (14W-12L-8T, 50 points, 48 GF / 50 GA), RSL will be grouped with both Houston and Liga MX side Atlas F.C. in Leagues Cup 2024 this July ... RSL last faced Atlas in the 2022 Leagues Cup "Showcase" match in Utah, dropping a 1-2 decision despite former DF Aaron Herrera's wondergoal from 65 yards away over the retreating goalkeeper.

Due to the new for 2024 Leagues Cup seeding formula, RSL will once again travel to Houston for a group stage LC match in addition to its two MLS reg. season games against the Dynamo, with RSL now winless in its last six games against Houston - all last year - across all competitions. Prior to the active six-game streak without a win against the South Texas side, RSL had seen great success against the Dynamo, which defeated RSL for the first time in 11 games dating back to 2017 in last year's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal.

Check out the Real Salt Lake Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Major League Soccer message board...

Major League Soccer Stories from July 2, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central