MLS FC Dallas

#RSLvDAL: Five Facts You Need to Know

Published on September 3, 2021 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Dallas News Release


Tenth-place FC Dallas (6-9-7, 25 points) visits seventh-place Real Salt Lake (7-8-6, 27 points) on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 7:00PM CT. It's the second of three meetings between the teams this season.

Details You Need to Know:

Gameday Social: #RSLvDAL

TV: 7PM on UniMas (Spanish)

Streaming: 7PM on

Radio: 7PM CT on TUDN Twitter (English)

Next Home Match: FC Dallas hosts San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 7:30PM at Toyota Stadium, in a match presented by Toyota.

5 Things to Know about #RSLvDAL

Luchi vs. Mastroeni

FC Dallas vs. Real Salt Lake also features a battle on the sidelines between two former teammates. Dallas head coach Luchi Gonzalez and RSL interim coach Pablo Mastroeni (who recently took over after former head coach Freddy Juarez departed) played for the Colorado Rapids together between 2005-06. Mastroeni also coached the Colorado Rapids between 2014-17 and has worked assistant coaching roles at Houston Dynamo and RSL.

International Absences

FC Dallas will be without its top scorer Ricardo Pepi and midfielders Bryan Acosta, Szabolcs Schön and Freddy Vargas as they have joined up with their respective national teams for World Cup qualifying. All four have started games within the last few weeks so their absences will no doubt affect how Dallas lines up on Saturday night. Still, the imminent returns of Paxton Pomykal and Facundo Quignon will go a long way in lessening the blow.

Battle of the Homegrowns

Saturday's match features two clubs with similar philosophies. Both Dallas and Real Salt Lake believe in building from within by developing and playing Homegrown players. In 2019, the clubs set an MLS record when they played a combined 12 Homegrown players in one game (RSL played seven, FCD played five). Earlier this year, the clubs played to a 2-2 draw at Toyota Stadium with Franco Jara and Ryan Hollingshead finding the back of the net for Dallas.

Against RSL

FC Dallas has a 20-12-10 (62 GF, 48 GA) all-time regular season record against Real Salt Lake. The club's away record against RSL is 7-11-5 (26 GF, 33 GA). In 2019, Luchi Gonzalez earned his first away win as an MLS head coach with a 4-2 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium. In their previous meeting this season, the teams played to a 2-2 draw on May 22 at Toyota Stadium.

About RSL

Real Salt Lake is currently in seventh place in the Western Conference with 27 points and a 7-8-6 record. The club's leading scorer is Damir Kreilach with eight goals (and five assists) from 20 appearances. Seven days ago, RSL announced that head coach Freddy Juarez was departing the team to become assistant coach for the Seattle Sounders with former assist coach Pablo Mastroeni taking over on an interim basis.

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