PREGAME FACT & INFO SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE @ NEW YORK CITY FC
THU., JUNE 2, 2016 – 5:00 p.m. MT – YANKEE STADIUM
on KMYU, ESPN700 & 102.3 LaGranD / 1600 AM
0 – WINS FOR RSL IN ROAD DEBUTS AT EXPANSION TEAMS SINCE 2007, the Claret-and-Cobalt posting an 0-4-3 mark on the road in the modern MLS era, drawing at Orlando, Toronto and Philadelphia and losing to Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Montreal … Overall, RSL owns a 4-3-1 mark in its debut games against MLS expansion teams since 2007, including a 1-0-1 mark against NYCFC (2-0 W) and Orlando (1-1 T) last year …
1 – ALL-TIME REGULAR-SEASON WIN IN THE NEW YORK METRO AREA, coming back in 2011 when RSL won 3-1 at New York Red Bulls in Giants Stadium midweek to extend its win streak to five in a row … Goals from Fabian Espindola and Alvaro Saborio that September day cancelled out a Joel Lindpere score for NYRB, pushing RSL’s all-time goal differential into positive territory for the first time in the club’s first 211 all-time reg. season games …
1.67 – POINTS PER GAME FOR RSL THROUGH 12 GAMES, TIED FOR #3 OVERALL IN MLS entering the league’s 14th week of action … RSL trails only Colorado (2.00) and Dallas (1.80) and is tied with LA Galaxy at 1.67 … Head Coach Jeff Cassar’s pacing is impressive, with RSL on a record-setting extrapolation to 57 points for the Claret/Cobalt, especially with 8 of 12 games entering tonight away from home, where RSL is a perfect 4-0-0 …
2 – COMEBACK WINS ALREADY THIS YEAR, both coming in 2-1 home victories over Seattle and Houston, doubling the total deficits erased during the entire 2015 season … That lone come-from-behind win to capture the full 3 points from a losing position happened last October at Colorado, RSL winning 2-1 with late first-half goals by FW Joao Plata and MF Luke Mulholland …
3 – GOALS SCORED FOR RSL IN EACH OF THE LAST TWO GAMES, a 3-1 win at Kansas City and a 3-4 loss at Columbus … The three goals scored each of the last two weeks marks RSL’s season-high output, as RSL has now scored multiple goals in 8 of its first 12 games, finding the back of the net twice on six occasions prior to recent weeks’ outbursts …
4 – WINS THIS SEASON WITHOUT midfield maestro Javier Morales in the starting lineup, as RSL earned the full 3 points on March 12 v. Seattle (2-1, Morales did not dress), April 2 at Kansas City (2-1, Morales did not dress) and by 1-0 scores in each of two mid-April weeks against Colorado (Morales came off bench and helped create game-winning goal) and Vancouver (Morales did not dress) … This year’s total of 4 wins without the #maestro quadruples the number of wins (1) secured by RSL in 8 games played last season (out of 42) without Morales appearing as a starter or off the bench … The four wins this season without Morales equals the number of games won without the Argentine playmaker in the previous 42 played without him …
6 – WEEKS BETWEEN HOME GAMES FOR RSL, as Rio Tinto Stadium hosts its “Grand Reopening” on TUESDAY, JUNE 14 for RSL’s debut in the 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup against Wilmington Hammerheads (USL) … Kickoff is at 8:00 p.m. MT, with RSL hoping to advance one step further than its appearance in the 2013 Final (lost 0-1 at home to DCU) … A year ago, RSL was eliminated from the Open Cup at the Semifinal stage by eventual champion Sporting Kansas City, which won 3-1 at what is now Children’s Mercy Park …
7 – TIMES THAT RSL HAS CONCEDED 5+ GOALS in club history, including the recent 2-5 loss at LA … That debacle marked just the 4th time RSL had allowed 5 or more goals since the beginning of 2007 … With RSL conceding 4 goals away at Columbus last Saturday, the club has now allowed 56 goals in its last 26 road games dating back to last season, an astonishing 2.15 goals per game, three times more than at home (by comparison, RSL has allowed just 16 goals at home in its last 23 games at Rio Tinto Stadium, an 0.70 average) … On 12 occasions – nearly half of the last 26 road games – RSL has allowed 3 or more goals, posting a 6-17-3 mark away dating back to last Easter … RSL has conceded just one or fewer goals in just 10 of the last 26 road games, including each of the three games on the current trip at Colorado, Houston and Kansas City prior to Saturday at Columbus …
+7 – MARGIN FOR RSL so far this season when Javier Morales and Juan Manuel Martinez are on the field together (556 minutes), as RSL outscores opponents by an 11-4 margin … On the offensive side, the Argentine duo bring a creative flair unlike many in MLS, with the combination of metronomic tempo and unpredictable flash providing a constant threat …
9 – ROAD GAMES IN FIRST 13 OVERALL for RSL, as the Claret-and-Cobalt reach the finale of its five-game road trip, with the May 7 – June 2 trip to Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Columbus and New York City the longest in club history … The glut of early-season road matches is due to the resurfacing of Rio Tinto Stadium’s pitch, with the venue re-opening to MLS / USL and Open Cup play on June 14 with an exact replica of the original field installed back in September, 2008 …
12 – POINTS IN FOUR HOME GAMES SO FAR THIS YEAR, as RSL owns a perfect 4-0-0 league mark with 1-goal wins over Seattle and Houston (2-1), as well as Colorado and Vancouver (1-0) … RSL returns to its Rio Tinto Stadium home for league action on Sat., June 18 against Portland, following the current five-game road trip and four days after its 2016 Open Cup debut …
14 – STARTS LAST YEAR FOR DF CHRIS WINGERT at Yankee Stadium for NYCFC, as the Babylon, Long Island native makes #15 tonight, … Wingert boasts 213 all-time MLS reg. season appearances for RSL including tonight, out of his 305 career MLS games played for Colorado (16), Columbus (49) and NYCFC (27) …
18 – CAREER GOALS SCORED by returning RSL FW Yura Movsisyan in MLS action, the Armenian international scoring last week to surpass former boss Jason Kreis and move into 8th all-time in the RSL golden boot race … Yura has scored 18 league goals for RSL (15 from 2007-09, prior to a six-year career in Denmark and Russia that saw him score another 77 across all competitions, including the Armenian National Team; and one in each of three matches this year at Portland, vs. Houston and at Kansas City) … Amongst active RSL players, Yura ranks fourth overall, behind Javier Morales (45), Kyle Beckerman (25) and Joao Plata (25) …
18 – DENIALS IN 45 PK ATTEMPTS for RSL GK Nick Rimando, as the “Wall of the Wasatch” extended his stellar run of success by stoning Galaxy MF Stephen Gerrard from the spot on April 23 … Rimando’s denial on a total of 18 of 45 attempts during his 10 MLS seasons with RSL is about 30% higher than average, and his 8 PK saves in the 2013-16 seasons double the total of any other GK … For his MLS career, Rimando has now saved 27 of 75 attempts from the spot, in addition to his scintillating efforts in shootout tiebreakers to enable RSL to advance to and win MLS Cup 2009 (also engaged in playoff PK shootouts in 2004 with D.C. United and 2013 for RSL) …
22 – GAMES WITHOUT DF TONY BELTRAN IN THE STARTING XI out of the last 185 starting selections since March, 2012 in either Jeff Cassar’s or Jason Kreis’ selections across all competitions, after battling Robbie Russell and Chris Wingert for time early in his career as part of a three-outside back rotation …
24 – GAMES PLAYED IN LAST THREE SEASONS WITHOUT CAPTAIN KYLE BECKERMAN FOR RSL, the club amassing an overall 9-9-6 mark across all competitions without #KB5 … Earlier this season, RSL won 2-1 at Kansas City in the lone previous match without Beckerman, a game in which the dreadlocked leader was suspended; last year, with Kyle at Gold Cup or other USMNT duty, the club went 6-4-3 in MLS, CCL or Open Cup play, while posting a 2-4-3 record in 2014 with the Captain at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil or out due to other absences …
55% – GOALS SCORED OR ASSISTED THIS SEASON BY RSL FW JOAO PLATA, as the Ecudoran has scored (5x) or assisted (6x) on 11 of the club’s 21 MLS goals in 2016, as well as hitting on the lone RSL goal in CCL play against Tigres earlier this year … For his efforts, the diminutive FW was named the March 2016 Etihad MLS Player of the Month, RSL’s first winner of the monthly honor since June, 2010 (Nick Rimando) … Plata is just the fourth RSL player to have earned the award, as Rimando (2x), Jeff Cunningham and Alvaro Saborio join him …
64 – GOALSCORERS in RSL’s 12-year, 127-player, 366-game league history to have scored at least one MLS goal for the Claret-and-Cobalt, now that DF Justen Glad found the back of the net April 2 at Kansas City … Like Sunny before him back on March 12 at home, the 19-year old centerback nodded home a Joao Plata set piece offering for his first-ever MLS goal … Can one of the subs who has never scored – Tony Beltran – add his name to the list tonight?
102 – HOME WINS since 2008, as RSL has amassed a 102-22-40 mark on home soil in all competitions in its last 164 home matches, during which it has outscored opponents by 172 goals (289-117) … The 2-1 win over Houston on April 30 marked RSL’s most recent match at Rio Tinto Stadium, the club amassing an all-time home 81-17-36 record in MLS reg. season games (236-96 goals), and an 8-1-2 CCL mark (21-7), a 5-2-2 playoff resume (11-4), and an 8-2-0 ledger in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (21-10) … RSL is back to reopen the RioT on Tuesday, June 14 in Open Cup action and June 18/22 in MLS play …
127 – players to have represented the Claret-and-Cobalt in MLS ACTION in the club’s first 12 seasons, as MF Stephen Sunday Obayan – nicknamed “Sunny” – became #127 on March 6 as he started the 2016 opener in Orlando, prior to being sacrificed after the Phillips red card … Last year saw HC Jeff Cassar give several players – Justen Glad, Phanuel Kavita, Boyd Okwuonu, Elias Vasquez, Demar Phillips, Sebastian Saucedo & Pecka – their MLS debuts … 28 players saw league minutes last year, meaning everyone on the roster except GK Lalo Fernandez participated in league action …
177 – CAREER WINS for RSL icon Nick Rimando, who needs just 4 more this season to surpass all-time MLS leader Kevin Hartman for all-time victories (180) … Rimando – already the all-time MLS leader in shutouts (125) by 13 over Hartman, despite playing 12 fewer games – could eclipse the longtime LA/DAL/KC/NY ‘keeper in several categories, including wins (needs 4 to surpass), starts (8 entering tonight at Columbus), games (13) and minutes (748) … “The Wall of the Wasatch” is roughly ½ a season away from securing G.O.A.T. (“Greatest of All Time) status …
206 – DF Tony Beltran made his 206th career MLS reg. season appearance Saturday, extending his status as the fifth active man in a select group to have reached 200+ games played for the Claret-and-Cobalt … Beltran joins a group of six overall with the honor, including Nick Rimando (259), Kyle Beckerman (241), Javier Morales (219), Chris Wingert (212) and Nat Borchers (205)...
304 – GK Nick Rimando will make his 304th appearance in an RSL uniform tonight, a month after making career MLS reg. season start #400 on April 23 at LA, becoming only the 2nd man in league history to reach the threshold (GK Kevin Hartman, 416) … Tony Meola is 2nd in MLS annals with all starts (no appearances off bench) at 250, a number Rimando reached back in the 2009 MLS Cup-winning season …
500 – With the April 30th 2-1 win over Houston, RSL surpassed the 500-point threshold in its 12-season MLS history, now at 505 total in 365 MLS regular-season contests … RSL’s all-time PPG average is just 1.39, but receives a significant boost from 2010-present, once the team embarked as defending MLS Cup Champions in its second season at Rio Tinto Stadium, with an average PPG of 1.62 …
