First-Place RSL Unbeaten in Last SIX Overall, Including Five Straight Road Results; Captain Chicho Arango Battling with Messi for MLS Lead in Goal Contributions w/ 15 (8g, 7a);RSL Back at Home Sat., May 4 Against Rival Sporting KC as Part of Club Tripleheader Weekend;Tickets for All 2024 America First Field Matches Still Available at www.RSL.com/tickets
HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, May 3, 2024) – With six road points in the last two weeks at Philadelphia and Chicago, first-place Real Salt Lake (5-2-3, 18 pts., t-1st West MLS) returns home Saturday night against long-time RSL rival Sporting Kansas City (2-3-5, 11 pts., 10th West MLS). RSL will look to improve upon its early-season 2-1-1 / 7-point home record as it hosts three MLS matches at America First Field this month, against historic rivals KC (Sat., May 4), Seattle (Wed., May 15) and Colorado (Sat., May 18). Tickets for all three expected sellouts are available via www.RSL.com/tickets.
This week, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team also looks to extend the Club’s active unbeaten streak to seven MLS games, the Claret-and-Cobalt last losing on March 9 at home against Colorado. Saturday’s home contest against Kansas City – part of a Club Tripleheader home weekend with Utah Royals FC hosting Angel City on Friday, May 3, with MLS NEXT Pro’s Real Monarchs at home Sunday night in Herriman against LAFC 2 – is just one of four America First Field matches for RSL from mid-April to mid-June, the Claret-and-Cobalt potentially playing nine out of 13 away from home during that span, which includes the May 8 U.S. Open Cup trip to Albuquerque, and a potential May 22 road match with USOC advancement.
Last matchday, RSL newcomer Alex Katranis stunned Philadelphia – formerly Major League Soccer’s last remaining unbeaten side – with an 89th-minute blast from 27 yards out – a ZAPATAZO named the MLS Goal of the Matchday for Week 11 – which was the second such game-winner on the road this season for the Greek international, who also completed a come-from-behind win at Vancouver back on March 23. RSL Captain Chicho Arango – the MLS Golden Boot leader with 8 goals, the early Landon Donovan MVP candidate adding 7 assists in just 10 games this season – provided the setup on Colombian speedster Andrés Gómez’ 34th-minute goal, Gómez fourth of the year.
This Saturday’s kickoff at 7:30p MT on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass features Brian Dunseth and Max Bretos (ENG) and Francisco X. Rivera and Martin Zuniga (SPN) on the call. For local coverage, tune in at 6:30p MT for KSL Radio pre-game w/ David James& Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM and www.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM).
Real Salt Lake v. Sporting Kansas City – MLS Matchday 12
America First Field – Sandy, Utah
Saturday, May 4, 2024 – 7:30p MT
Game Notes for Saturday’s RSL v Kansas City MLS Match Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2024 RSL Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City can be found HERE. Media members looking to receive the document as an attachment or have further questions are asked to please contact RSL Communications via email at RSLcommunications@RSL.com.
2023 Records:
Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West);
Sporting Kansas City (12-14-8, 44 pts., 8th East)
Saturday’s home respite against Kansas City arrives amidst a run that sees RSL potentially play nine of its 13 matches away from home from April 20 to June 19. RSL embarks on a very busy May slate, with RSL playing three of its first four MLS contests at home between May 4-18, plus as many as two possible 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup road games on Wednesday, May 8 at New Mexico (and possibly May 22 away with advancement), prior to a two-game road trip May 25-29 at Dallas and Seattle. Following a June 1 home game against Austin FC, RSL travels to Montreal and Kansas City on June 15/19 to wrap up the circuitous gauntlet.
RSL now boasts a 3-1-2 record away from home this year, winning on the road in Vancouver on March 23 and at Chicago / at Philadelphia each of the last two weekends, while settling for draws at St. Louis on Feb. 24 and at Minnesota on April 6, following a season-opening loss at Miami on Feb. 21. A year ago, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team amassed 12 road wins and five away draws across all competitions, against just eight losses, by far the most successful road campaign in Club history.
CHICHO ON FIRE
When Chicho Arango finds the scoresheet, as he has in eight of 10 matches this year, RSL owns five wins and two draws against one loss, the Claret-and-Cobalt failing to score at Miami Feb. 24 and April 13 v. Columbus, with Chicho’s assist on an Emeka Eneligoal back on March 9 coming in a loss to Colorado.
Chicho 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 17, 2018 (Damir Kreilach). Chicho’s three-goal performance is just the seventh in RSL’s now 623-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. 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 two hat tricks in his MLS career – his first was for LAFC in late 2021 against Dallas – and boasts 107 goals as a professional, including 51 goals in 85 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL. Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 16 goals and nine assists in 28 MLS appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 18 goals and 11 assists in 33 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).
IRON MEN ALL AROUND THE PARK
Two RSL players – MF Emeka Eneli (900) and FWChicho Arango (895) – have played nearly every minute of the Club’s 10-game season so far in 2024, with only second-year man Eneli perfect from a minutes standpoint. DF Andrew Brody (812) did not start this season for the first time Saturday in Philadelphia. DF Bode Hidalgo is the fourth player to have appeared in all 10 games, while four RSL players have appeared in nine matches, missing just one game this year – Anderson Julio, Braian Ojeda, Andrés Gómez and Matt Crooks.
GK Zac MacMath, Justen Glad, Brayan Vera, Diego Luna and Fidel Barajas have each appeared in eight of 10 contests thus far, with a heavily-congested May/June starting Saturday against Kansas City.
ABOUT REAL SALT LAKE
During the first week of January 2022, the RSL compendium of properties was acquired by global sports entrepreneur David Blitzer – who boasts interests in the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the New Jersey Devils (NHL), the Cleveland Guardians (baseball) and the Washington Commanders (NFL) – as well as several European soccer entities, including Crystal Palace (England), FC Augsburg (Germany), Estoril (Portugal), ADO Den Haag (Netherlands), Alcorcón (Spain), SK Beveren (Belgium) and Brøndby IF (Denmark). The Blitzer group partners with Utah-based Smith Entertainment Group (SEG), which owns the Utah Jazz (NBA) and the new Utah Hockey Club (NHL), led by Ryan Smith and including Dwyane Wade, among others.
Real Salt Lake recently kicked off its 20th Major League Soccer season, its third full season under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, who led the Utah side on an interim basis for the final 100 days in 2021. RSL is the lone Western Conference side to have advanced to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 campaigns, amassing 13 postseason appearances in the last 16 years, as well as on five occasions in the last six seasons.
RSL’s MLS Cup 2009 victory marked the state of Utah’s only major professional championship in nearly 40 years, the title preceding an historic run to the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League Final. Buoyed by a passionate base boasting several thousand season ticket holders and opening its permanent home in Sandy just over 15 years ago; since October, 2008, RSL’s 163-59-75 (W-L-T) mark at America First Field – home of the “RioT” Supporters Group umbrella – equates to a 1.91 points per game average and a 0.679 win pct, one of the truly amazing value proposition in North American sporting landscape today.
For the 2024 season and beyond, Real Salt Lake’s Blitzer / Smith ownership groups have partnered to bring the National Women’s Soccer League back to Utah, as Utah Royals FC returned this Spring. Led by Head Coach Amy Rodriguez, President Michelle Hyncik and Sporting Director Kelly Cousins, URFC aims to seize upon the success the NWSL enjoyed during its first iteration on the Wasatch Front from 2018-20 and grow the game to even greater heights going forward. Led by visionary sports business entrepreneur Jess Gelman – the founder of the Sloan Sports Analytics Institute, along with innovative NBA executive Daryl Morey – Utah Royals FC blazes new trails in 2024, with kickoff next Saturday, March 16 at America First Field.
In 2015, the club expanded its development pyramid with the addition of Real Monarchs SLC, one of several MLS-operated clubs playing in the USL Championship, the United States’ Division II setup. The Monarchs boast a pair of titles in its brief history, as the 2017 USL Championship Regular-Season champions, later winning the USL Championship title in 2019. For the 2022 season and beyond, Real Monarchs compete in the newly-launched “MLS NEXT Pro” as part of a joint United States and Canada endeavor to complete the professional player pathway by connecting youth academies in MLS NEXT to first teams in Major League Soccer.
The entire competitive RSL setup, which includes nearly 70 players representing the RSL Academy’s U-15 and U-17 teams, calls the expansive Zions Bank Training Center in Herriman, Utah their daily training home. With five world-class grass fields, two indoor turf fields, a residential dormitory, the STEM-based RSL Academy High School and the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium located on a 42-acre campus, Utah’s sporting future is bright.
The RSL Community Foundation was established in 2016, created with the goals of being active in the community yearround, utilizing the popularity and reach of RSL, the Royals, the Monarchs and the Academy in promoting health and wellness in children throughout the region, engaging supporters of soccer to raise funds and volunteer time for various local initiatives.
