Surging Real Salt Lake Sees Five-Game Unbeaten Run on Line Saturday vs. FC Cincinnati
MLS Real Salt Lake

Surging Real Salt Lake Sees Five-Game Unbeaten Run on Line Saturday vs. FC Cincinnati

July 18, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


HERRIMAN, Utah - Surging Real Salt Lake (8-10-4, 28 points, 10th West / 20th Shield) continues a very busy month of July with Saturday's 7:30p MT kickoff against visiting Supporters Shield contenders FC Cincinnati (14-6-3, 45 points, 2nd East / 2nd Shield) at America First Field. The highly-anticipated 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 this weekend carrying an active five-game unbeaten run - its longest of 2025 - following Wednesday's 1-0 road win at Portland, where an 83rd-minute Diogo Gonçalves blast secured the full three points in support of another clean sheet, extending the defensive shutout streak to a season-high 189 minutes and counting. Gonçalves' goal was his second in the last three games - all wins - and his third of the season, moving the Portuguese DP into sole possession of second place in the Club's 2025 Golden Boot race, trailing only Diego Luna's eight goals this season.

Last weekend at home, RSL defeated visiting Houston, 1-0, a game which saw a late first-half William Agada goal making GK Rafael Cabral's clean sheet hold up for the victory. The three consecutive victories are the first for RSL since April/May of 2024, with the five-game unbeaten run and the back to back shutouts RSL's best since last October.

Entering Saturday against an elite Cincinnati side, RSL has captured 13 of 15 possible points thus far in June and July, scoring first in 15 of 24 contests so far this year, with an 8-4-3 (W-L-T) mark. Including this Wednesday at Portland, RSL has now recorded a 42W-8L-15T record when scoring first during the 165-game Pablo Mastroeni era, with all eight RSL victories this season coming when scoring first (Seattle, Houston, LA Galaxy, at San Diego, D.C., St. Louis, Houston and at Portland). Four of the eight losses under Mastroeni when taking the 1-0 lead since August, 2021, have come this season (at home against Herediano / San Diego, away at Nashville, home against Vancouver), with the May 10 draw at Dallas, the May 28 deadlock at Austin, as well as the late June 1-1 knot at KC seeing RSL drop points from a winning position.

RSL now returns home Saturday to host East power FC Cincinnati in the first of five consecutive home matches, putting its 5-5-1 (W-L-T) mark on the Wasatch Front thus far this year in both MLS and Champions Cup matches on the line, looking ahead to seven MLS reg. season and at least three Leagues Cup games to be played at America First Field through the 2025 "Decision Day" in mid-October. 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.

Away from home, RSL's 3-6-4 / 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 travel for a rare midweek match on Wednesday, July 16, at Portland Timbers, prior to returning home next Saturday, July 19, against Eastern Conference power FC Cincinnati. Again, tickets for all America First Field events are available at www.RSL.com/tickets.

Since Mastroeni seized the head coaching reins in August, 2021, RSL has dropped consecutive games just 14 times in 165 matches during the Mastroeni era, winning 28 and drawing 15 in "bounceback" contests. An RSL victory or draw this Wednesday against Portland would give RSL a five-game unbeaten run for the first time since last September, when RSL carried a seven-game streak without a loss through the end of the MLS reg. season and playoffs.

The first two-thirds of the 2025 RSL season has witnessed several RSL players achieve various milestones:

18-year-old attacker Zavier Gozo - who graduated with several Academy teammates in late May in Herriman - earned his first-ever extended run of MLS action, the Eagle Mountain, Utah-native going the full 90 minutes on the attack in 10 of the last 13 games, all starts in one of the four attacking positions.

Brazilian GK and RSL "Iron Man" Rafael Cabral - the lone RSL player to have appeared in every minute of the Club's 24 games played across all competitions this season - logged his seventh clean sheet of the season Wednesday at Portland, and his sixth in MLS reg. season action.

Prior to last Saturday's first-ever home goal for FW William Agada - who initially found the back of the RSL net at Austin on May 28 - his former Kansas City captain, winger Johnny Russell, follow suit by scoring for RSL in consecutive June games against D.C. and at KC, after the free-agent acquisition arrived in Utah in late April.

Second-year D/M Noel Caliskan has started and played impressively for the full 90 minutes in each of the last 11 contests - including 10 at right back - and scoring his first-ever MLS goal July 5 at home while making his 2025 first-team debuts. The German-born Caliskan was drafted out of Loyola Marymount University in 2023 by the Timbers, for whom he played MLS, Open Cup and MLS NEXT Pro action during his rookie season before signing with Real Monarchs a year ago.

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 103 wins, 113 losses and 77 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, in Utah, Mastroeni's all-time coaching record is now 66-57-42 (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.

Check out the Real Salt Lake Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from July 18, 2025


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