SANDY, Utah (Tuesday, September 1, 2015) – Real Salt Lake has announced that defenders Elias Vasquez, Demar Phillips and Abdoulie Mansally have all joined their respective national teams for matches this month. The trio joins a list of five players in Real Salt Lake’s organization who already have gone on international duty this month.
Vasquez is with Guatemala in the third round of the qualification process for the 2018 FIFA World Cup with two matches against Antigua & Barbuda, starting on Friday in North Sound, Antigua, and concluding on Monday in Guatemala.
The 23-year-old defender has 32 caps for Guatemala, including four in World Cup qualifiers prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In his first season with RSL, he has 14 MLS appearances, 13 of them starts.
Mansally is set to join The Gambia for 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, where it was drawn into Group M with Cameroon, South Africa and Mauritania. He is scheduled to play on Sunday against Cameroon in the second game of the Group Stage in Bakau, Gambia. In the first match, Gambia played to a scoreless draw with South Africa.
With Real Salt Lake, Mansally has 18 appearances and 1,220 minutes this season, the most in his four seasons in an RSL uniform.
Phillips will play with Jamaica in World Cup qualifiers against Nicaragua, with matches on Friday in Kingston and Monday in Managua.
In his first season with Real Salt Lake, Phillips has 14 appearances, 13 of them in a starting role. He has 66 caps with Jamaica since making his first appearance for his country in 2006.
That trio joins a list of RSL players that have left for international duty this week that already includes Boyd Okwuonu and Luis Gil with the U.S. U-23 National Team and Sebastian Saucedo, Justen Glad and Christian Herrera (Real Monarchs) with the U.S. U-20 National Team.
