MLS Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake Update

Published on December 3, 2013 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


REAL SALT LAKE TO FACE SPORTING KANSAS CITY IN MLS CUP 2013 ON SATURDAY AT SPORTING PARK

Real Salt Lake will face Sporting Kansas City on Saturday in MLS Cup 2013 at 2:00 p.m. MT at Sporting Park. Saturday's match will be broadcast live on ESPN and UniMas and locally on ESPN 700 AM.

Real Salt Lake advanced to MLS Cup 2013 on Nov. 24, defeating Portland 1-0 at JELD-WEN Field to win the two-legged Western Conference Championship series 5-2 on aggregate.

Saturday's match will be the second meeting between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City this calendar year. The clubs previously met on July 20 at Rio Tinto Stadium - a heart-breaking 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City that snapped the Claret-and-Cobalt's 11-game unbeaten streak across all competitions. Real Salt Lake took the lead in the 56th minute with a goal by FW Robbie Findley. The Claret-and-Cobalt went down a man in the 66th, when referee Matthew Foerster controversially showed RSL DF Chris Wingert a second yellow card, ejecting him from the match. Sporting KC took advantage immediately, getting a goal from FW Soony Saad on the ensuing free kick before DF Ike Opara scored the winner in the 97th minute. Missing from RSL's lineup were veterans MF Kyle Beckerman, GK Nick Rimando, FW Alvaro Saborio and DF Tony Beltran, all of whom were all away on international duty.

Real Salt Lake is 5-8-3 in MLS regular season play against Sporting Kansas City. The last time the Claret-and-Cobalt faced Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park was on April 14, 2012 which resulted in a 1-0 loss. The Claret-and-Cobalt has not had great success In Kansas, posting a 1-5-2 all-time record at Kansas City. RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis holds a 4-6-2 against Kansas City all-time, while Sporting KC Head Coach Peter Vermes is 3-3-1 against Real Salt Lake all-time.

This is the second time in RSL's nine-year history that the team has advanced to MLS Cup. The Claret-and-Cobalt won MLS Cup 2009, beating the LA Galaxy in a penalty kick shootout at Seattle's CenturyLink Field.

REAL SALT LAKE PLAYERS SHUT OUT OF MLS BEST XI

Despite a season that saw the team finish runners-up in the Western Conference, advance to the U.S. Open Cup Final and qualify for Saturday's MLS Cup 2013 at Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake had no players named to MLS Best XI on Tuesday.

RSL GK Nick Rimando, Captain Kyle Beckerman and MF Javier Morales were the Claret-and-Cobalt's top-three Best XI candidates. Sadly, all three were shutout, with Rimando edged out by Portland "˜keeper Donovan Ricketts and Beckerman and Morales unable to crack a midfield featuring Portland's Will Johnson and Diego Valeri, New York's Tim Cahill and Kansas City's Graham Zusi.

The full MLS Best XI is listed below:

Goalkeeper: Donovan Ricketts (Portland)

Defenders: Jose Goncalves (New England), Omar Gonzalez (LA), Matt Besler (Kansas City)

Midfielders: Will Johnson (Portland), Graham Zusi (Kansas City), Diego Valeri (Portland), Tim Cahill (New York)

Forwards: Mike Magee (Chicago), Robbie Keane (LA), Marco Di Vaio (Montreal)

Real Salt Lake will have a chance to prove that it has the Best XI in all of MLS on Saturday, when it will take on Sporting Kansas City at MLS Cup 2013 at Sporting Park.

RSL HEAD COACH JASON KREIS FINISHES THIRD IN MLS COACH OF THE YEAR VOTING

Major League Soccer announced its 2013 Coach of the Year results on Monday morning, with Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis finishing third behind Portland's Caleb Porter and New York's Mike Petke.

Kreis had a remarkable year in charge of the Claret-and-Cobalt, keeping the team near the top of the table all season despite losing three All-Stars in the offseason. Kreis led RSL as it became the first team in MLS history to reach the 15-win, 50-point plateaus in four-straight seasons and turned the Claret-and-Cobalt into one of the deepest sides in all of MLS, playing 27 players in league action. The intense manager also transformed RSL into an offensive juggernaut, helping the squad set a new club record for regular season goals with 57 and diversifying an attack that saw 18 different players score in all competitions and six different players tally at least five regular season goals.

Of course, Kreis's biggest challenge of 2013 is still to come on Saturday, when he'll manage RSL in MLS Cup 2013 at Sporting Kansas City. Should RSL win on Saturday, Kreis would become just the fifth manager in league history with multiple MLS Cup titles.

Kreis finished with a weighted total of 26.58, collecting 12.25 percent of the club votes, 3.9 percent of the media votes and 10.43 percent of the player votes.

FIVE REAL SALT LAKE-ARIZONA ACADEMY GRADUATES ADVANCE TO 2013 MEN'S COLLEGE CUP ELITE EIGHT

Five Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy graduates - out of the original 19 who qualified for the NCAA Tournament - will play in the NCAA College Cup Elite Eight this weekend. Danny Gavin (Washington), Josh Goss (New Mexico), Lucas Seligman (New Mexico), Jordan Allen (Virginia) and Riggs Lennon (Virginia) will play the quarterfinal round of the tournament on Friday and Saturday.

In the first of two matches to pit Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy graduates against each other, Virginia, which features RSL-Arizona Academy graduates Riggs Lennon and Jordan Allen, hosted ninth ranked Marquette featuring fellow academy graduate Coco Navarro on Sunday. Despite going down to 10-men within the first minute of play, Virginia was able to pull off a 3-1 win over Marquette. Allen and Navarro were both named starters and played 90 and 82 minutes, respectively. Allen just missed out on Virginia's fourth goal when his shot from outside the 18-yard box hit the crossbar. Lennon came off the bench and played three minutes.

RSL-Arizona Academy product Cole Nagy and number UCLA were knocked out of the College Cup in the Round of 16 with a loss to Connecticut on penalty kicks after a thrilling 3-3 draw. Nagy did not feature in the match.

No. 2 ranked Washington and RSL-Arizona Academy graduate Danny Gavin eliminated Pac-12 conference rivals Stanford 1-0 on Sunday night in the Sweet 16. Gavin and fellow RSL-Arizona Academy product Trevor Hyman (Stanford) did not feature in the match.

Seventh-ranked New Mexico continued their success as they posted their second consecutive shutout in a 2-0 win over Penn State. New Mexico's RSL-Arizona Academy graduates, Josh Goss and Lucas Seligman, did not feature in the match.

No. 12 University of California-Irvine player and RSL-Arizona Academy product Elliot Farmer were knocked out of the tournament in the Sweet 16 by fifth-ranked Maryland with a 1-0 loss. Farmer did not feature in the match.

REAL SALT LAKE INJURY REPORT

OUT: GK Josh Saunders (L ACL reconstruction), DF Kwame Watson-Siriboe (R ACL reconstruction)

QUESTIONABLE: Alvaro Saborio (R hip flexor strain), Chris Wingert (Fractured rib; Pneumothorax)

Check out the Real Salt Lake Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from December 3, 2013


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