HERRIMAN, Utah (Thursday, April 25, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (4-2-3, 15 pts., t-2nd West MLS) resumes its 2024 MLS regular season – the Club’s 20th and Major League Soccer 29th – this Saturday evening in suburban Philadelphia, at Subaru Park in Chester, Penn., with a 5:30p MT kickoff against MLS’ lone remaining unbeaten side (3-0-4, 13 pts, 4th East MLS). RSL enters Matchday 11 of the 2024 season unbeaten in its last five overall matches – last losing on March 9 to Colorado – and seeking a fifth consecutive road result, with Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team posting a 2-1-2 (8 pts) record away this year, losing only the season kickoff at Miami on Feb. 24.
Last week’s 4-0 road win at Chicago – RSL’s largest since a 6-0 win away at Colorado in August, 2018 – saw RSL Captain / FW Chicho Arango earn MLS Player of the Matchday honors with the Club’s first-ever 2-goal/2-assist match in 624 all-time MLS reg. season contests. Arango – now Major League Soccer’s top goal contributor with eight goals and six assists on the season – continued his MVP-caliber campaign, although the defensive clean sheet by teenage GK Gavin Beavers and a makeshift backline was the Club’s second in as many games, despite a centerback injury epidemic.
Last Saturday in Chicago, it was 22-year-old Colombian winger Andrés Gómez providing what proved to the be the game-winning goal midway through the first half at historic Soldier Field. With Arango setting up left back Alex Katranis on an overlap, the former Greek youth international found Gómez behind the defense. RSL’s second-year Colombian winger cut back inside from the right to the left atop the 18, slamming home a near-post burner for the 1-0 lead.
Arango – who had recorded four of his previous six goals in consecutive weeks vs. St. Louis and at Minnesota in an eight-day span from March 30 – April 6, prior to being held scoreless at home by Columbus on April 13 – scored twice in the next 15 minutes. Arango deftly read a mistimed back pass by a Fire defender to move RSL’s lead to 2-0, then losing his marker on a corner kick shortly before halftime to head home a Bryan Oviedo offering. The three goals scored by RSL in the first half on the road at Chicago equaled the feat accomplished twice before in the Claret-and-Cobalt’s 309 all-time MLS road game history: May 2014 at Houston in a 5-2 win, and May 2023 at Colorado last year prior to an eventual 3-2 victory.
This Saturday’s kickoff at 5:30p MT on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass featuring Chris Wittyngham and Lori Lindsey (ENG) and Oscar Salazar and Jaime Macias (SPN) on the call. For local coverage, tune in at 4:30p MT for KSL Radio pre-game w/ David James & Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM andwww.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM).
Real Salt Lake @ Philadelphia Union – MLS Matchday 11
Subaru Park – Chester, Penn.
Saturday, April 27, 2024 – 5:30p MT
Game Notes for Saturday’s RSL @ Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia Union 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);
Philadelphia Union (15-9-10, 55 pts., 4th East)
RSL now boasts a 2-1-2 record away from home this year, winning on the road in Vancouver on March 23 and at Chicago last weekend, 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.
Saturday’s trip to Philadelphia continues a run that sees RSL play nine of its 13 matches away from home from April 20 to June 19. RSL visits Philadelphia to close out a three-game span against consecutive Eastern Conference opponents, with a fourth trip East on June 15 at Montreal. The team’s trip to Subaru Park – its first since 2018 – marks the third and final road match during the month of April, prior to a very busy May which sees RSL play 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 May 8 at New Mexico (and May 22 away with advancement),prior to a two-game road trip May 25-29 at Dallas and Seattle.
CHICHO ON FIRE
When Chicho Arango finds the scoresheet, as he has in seven of nine matches this year, RSL owns four 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 Eneli goal 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’sthree-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 84 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 eight assists in 27 MLS appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 18 goals and 10 assists in 32 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).
BEAVERS YOUNGEST TO RECORD CLEAN SHEET IN CLUB HISTORY
Despite a centerback injury epidemic that has seen RSL lose its top four central defenders in the last three weeks, utilize an emergency callup AND trade for a young DF on Friday, RSL was able to notch a second consecutive shutout last week … 18-year-old GK Gavin Beavers – starting due to a pre-planned rotation with incumbent Zac MacMath – did not have the usual tandem of Justen Glad (adductor) and Brayan Vera (hip) to calm his nerves in the eighth MLS start of his career …
Instead, RSL boss Pablo Mastroeni inserted Costa Rican veteran Bryan Oviedo – typically a left back, sometimes a left wing – and RSL Academy graduate Bode Hidalgo, a 22-year-old converted winger who has seen time mostly at right back in his 38-game / 19-start MLS career – in the middle of the back four in place of Glad/Vera … Beavers made five saves and controlled his box aggressively in earning the first-ever MLS clean sheet of his career (Open Cup May 2023 at Colorado), becoming the youngest-ever RSL goalkeeper to post an MLS shutout, eclipsing David Ochoa by nearly two years …
QUINTON MAKES RSL DEBUT
Saturday night at Soldier Field, capping off an insane 30-hour period, newly-acquired DF Philip Quinton joined four others to have made their RSL debuts in 2024 … This young season, RSL has also seen teenage playmaker Fidel Barajas, MF Matt Crooks, DF Alex Katranis and MF Noel Caliskan make their MLS debuts for the Club ...
Quinton was acquired Friday morning in a trade from Columbus, meeting the team in Chicago Friday night, participating in group and individual video sessions on gameday, and appearing in the final 16 minutes of the eventual 4-0 victory …
The 22-year-old centerback out of Notre Dame was drafted by the Crew with the 25th overall MLS SuperDraft pick – a pick originally owned by RSL and sold to Columbus for $50,000 GAM – and won an MLS NEXT Pro title in 2022 prior to being a part of the Crew’s MLS Cup 2023 championship side …
Quinton had started the weekend prior at America First Field, a pivotal figure in RSL’s 0-0 home crew with the Crew on April 13 …
IRON MEN ALL AROUND THE PARK
Three RSL players – MF Emeka Eneli (810), DF Andrew Brody (809) and FW Chicho Arango (805) – have played nearly every minute of the Club’s 9-game season so far in 2024, with only second-year man Eneli perfect from a minutesstandpoint …
DF Bode Hidalgo is the fourth player to have appeared in all nine games, while five RSL players have appeared in eight games, missing just one match this year – Diego Luna, Anderson Julio, Braian Ojeda, Andrés Gómez and Matt Crooks …
GK Zac MacMath, Justen Glad, Brayan Vera and Fidel Barajas have each appeared in seven of nine contests thus far …
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), 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 2024 campaign will see the Monarchs represent the Club in the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a tourney open to teams from all levels of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, the first trophy hoisted back in 1914.
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.
