PREGAME FACT & INFO SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE v MONTREAL IMPACT
SAT., JULY 9, 2016 – 8:00 p.m. MT – RIO TINTO STADIUM
on KMYU, ESPN700 & 102.3 LaGranD / 1600 AM
0 – PREVIOUS VISITS BY EUROPEAN TEAMS TO FACE REAL SALT LAKE, prior to this Summer’s mid-July visit by Italian power Inter Milan to Rio Tinto Stadium … The legendary club – one which has won 39 total trophies, including a FIFA Club World Cup, three UEFA Champions League titles (most recently in 2010), three UEFA Cups, two InterContinental Cups, 18 Serie A titles, seven Italian Cups and five Italian SuperCups … The game will be played on July 19, with kickoff at 8:00 p.m. MT …
1 – WIN NEEDED FOR RSL GK NICK RIMANDO TO MATCH KEVIN HARTMAN at the top spot on Major League Soccer’s all-time list, as the “Wall of the Wasatch” earned career victory #179 on June 22 at home v Red Bulls … Rimando – already the all-time MLS leader in shutouts (125) by 13 over Hartman, despite playing 8 fewer games – could eclipse the longtime LA/DAL/KC/NY ‘keeper in several categories this Summer, including wins (needs 2 to surpass), starts (4 entering tonight), games (9) and minutes (388) … While Rimando’s career 1.19 goals against average is better than Hartman’s 1.22, “The Wall of the Wasatch” will probably have to wait until next year to eclipse the save total (60 behind) or shots faced (77 behind) to complete a sweep of every significant all-time category … Rimando has never come off the bench in his 408 career MLS appearances …
1.65 – POINTS PER GAME FOR RSL THROUGH 17 GAMES, TIED FOR #3 OVERALL IN MLS … RSL trails only Colorado (1.94) and FC Dallas (1.85), as Head Coach Jeff Cassar’s pacing is impressive, with RSL on a record-tying extrapolation to 56 points for the Claret/Cobalt, especially with 10 of the previous 17 games away from home, where RSL is 5-0-2 in league action this season, with 3 of the next 5 at the friendly RioT confines …
2 – RSL WINS IN BOTH PREVIOUS MONTREAL VISITS TO UTAH, riding an early Paulo Junior penalty kick back in 2012 to a 1-0 win, and a pair of late Olmes Garcia goals following an Impact red card in a 3-1 victory in 2014 … By contrast, RSL has lost both of its contests at Montreal, dropping a 2-3 decision back in 2013 as the teams traded late goals, with RSL losing 1-4 in the clubs’ last meeting in early 2015 …
3 – GAMES OVERALL WITHOUT A WIN FOR RSL, despite boss Jeff Cassar’s assessment that the recent home 1-1 draws against Seattle (June 28, Open Cup) and D.C. United (July 1, MLS) are “two of the best performances in the history of the club” … RSL opened the year with a three-game winless streak, losing at Tigres UANL in CCL before the home 1-1 draw and a 2-2 draw at Orlando to open the MLS season …
4 – COMEBACK WINS ALREADY THIS YEAR, coming in trio of 2-1 home victories over Seattle, Houston and New York Red Bulls, as well as the 3-2 win on the road in early June at NYCFC – quadrupling 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 … RSL also scratched back from an 0-2 deficit at home in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play against Wilmington, the game officially a draw with RSL advancing via penalty kicks …
9 – DIFFERENT PLAYERS TO HAVE SCORED FOR RSL THROUGH 17 GAMES THIS SEASON, the club compiling 28 goals as a team, tied for third most in the Western Conference and fifth overall in MLS entering the weekend …
10 – GAMES WITHOUT A LOSS AT RSL’s Rio Tinto Stadium fortress this season, with RSL going 5-0-2 at home in MLS action on top of three draws in CCL/Open Cup play … RSL is among five teams in MLS without a home loss this season, joining Dallas (7-0-3), Colorado (7-0-2), the LA Galaxy (5-0-4), and Orlando City SC (3-0-7) …
14 – ALL-TIME WINS AGAINST VISITING CANADIAN CLUBS, RSL posting an all-time 14-2-3 mark against guests from the Great White North in league and CCL play, with RSL posting an 8-1-0 mark against Toronto FC at home and a 4-1-3 record against Vancouver in addition to the 2-0-0 ledger against Montreal … Overall, RSL has outscored TFC / VAN / MTL by a 37-15 margin on Utah soil …
Between July 4, 2007 – a 1-2 loss to Toronto at Rice-Eccles Stadium – and April 18, 2015, when a pair of red cards doomed RSL against Vancouver – RSL went 16 consecutive games (13-0-3) without losing to one of Major League Soccer’s “Maple Leaf Triumvirate” … RSL defeated Vancouver, 1-0, back in April to capture the club’s 14th overall win against teams from Canada.
18 – DENIALS IN 46 PK ATTEMPTS for RSL GK Nick Rimando, as the “Wall of the Wasatch” extended his stellar run of success by stoning Galaxy MF Steven Gerrard from the spot on April 23 … Rimando’s denial on a total of 18 of 46 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 76 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) … So so close last game out against David Villa and NYCFC …
21 – CAREER GOALS SCORED by returning RSL FW Yura Movsisyan in MLS action, the Armenian international scoring in four of his last five MLS starts to surpass Jason Kreis and Jeff Cunningham to move into 7th all-time in the RSL golden boot race … Yura’s 21 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) ranks him fourth overall amongst active RSL players, behind Javier Morales (45), Joao Plata (25), and Kyle Beckerman (25) …
24 – STARTS MISSED, INCLUDING TONIGHT, BY RSL DF TONY BELTRAN, OUT OF THE LAST 191 MATCHES ACROSS ALL COMPETITIONS … RSL’s “Iron Man” is suspended due to yellow card accumulation, as the club’s 2008 draft pick picked up his fifth caution of the year last Friday against DCU …
60 – GOALS ALLOWED IN LAST 28 ROAD GAMES BY RSL, an astonishing 2.11 goals per game, three times more than its 0.77 GAA over same period at home … On 12 occasions – nearly half of the last 27 road games – RSL has allowed 3 or more goals, posting a 6-18-3 mark away dating back to last Easter …
103 – HOME WINS since 2008, as RSL has amassed a 103-22-44 mark on home soil in all competitions in its last 169 home matches, during which it has outscored opponents by 173 goals (297-124) … Last Friday’s 1-1 draw against DCU marked RSL’s most recent match at Rio Tinto Stadium, the club amassing an all-time home 82-17-38 record in MLS reg. season games (241-100 goals), and an 8-1-2 CCL mark (21-7), a 5-2-2 playoff resume (11-4), and an 8-2-2 ledger in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (24-13) …
128 – players to have represented the Claret-and-Cobalt in MLS ACTION in the club’s first 12 seasons, as MF Omar Holness – who became #128 on June 25 in Dallas in his MLS debut – adds himself to the list … The #5 overall pick from North Carolina makes his Rio Tinto Stadium debut in the RSL XI tonight, adding depth to a midfield crew that includes Morales, Beckerman, Mulholland and Stertzer as well as Sunday Stephen, out another 5 weeks after surgery to repair broken bones in his face suffered on June 22 v NYRB …
