On This Date In Real Salt Lake History
January 6, 2005
When preparing for the club’s inaugural season, Real Salt Lake looked to make a splash. At the time, there weren’t many in U.S. Soccer who would have been bigger than Clint Mathis and RSL landed the 2002 World Cup scorer to bolster the lineup on this date in 2005.
Through his first seven MLS seasons, the boisterous forward netted 48 goals in 132 matches for the LA Galaxy and MetroStars. During that tenure from 1998-2003, he was a regular with the U.S. National Team and scored a pivotal goal in the 2002 FIFA World Cup against South Korea, helping the U.S. advance out of the Group Stage. After the 2003 season, he moved to Germany to play with Hannover, where he played one year, scoring five goals in 17 matches before returning to MLS in 2005 with the expansion club at RSL, reuniting with his former U.S. U-17 coach in John Ellinger.
“To have a striker like Clint, who can do what he does, is a tremendous asset for our team,” Ellinger said in the Salt Lake Tribune article covering the press conference.
Although his forward tandem with Jason Kreis offered a lot of promise, it didn’t materialize on the field and Mathis finished with just three goals in 27 matches while RSL finished the season 5-22-5. He was traded after the season to the Colorado Rapids and later returned with much greater results in 2008-09, finishing with two goals and seven assists in RSL’s 2009 MLS Cup-winning season.
