6:30p MT Kickoff Saturday for Third of Three Consecutive Road Matches;
Yet Another Bounceback Opportunity Early in 2025 Campaign;
Tickets Available for May 14 Home Return via *www.RSL.com/tickets*
HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, May 9, 2025) – Real Salt Lake (4-7-0, 12 points, 11th West / 22nd Shield) continues its three-game road run Saturday at 6:30p MT against FC Dallas (4-4-3, 15 points, 9th West / 19th Shield) at Toyotoa Stadium in Frisco, TX. Saturday’s match will be available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Josh Eastern & Jamie Watson (ENG) on the call, as are Jose Bauz & Natalia Astrain (SPN).
Real Salt Lake arrives in the DFW Metroplex – where it has lost just once since the 2017 season – looking to earn a bounceback result and avoid consecutive losses for the fourth time this season, on the heels of last week’s 2-1 loss at Vancouver. Now, for the sixth time in eight opportunities across the first 13 games across all competitions in 2025, RSL has yet another chance to embody one of the hallmarks of the Mastroeni era, displaying its ability to rebound from a loss, RSL dropping just 13 back-to-back scenarios across all competitions in Pablo’s 152 overall games managed since August, 2021.
Last weekend at B.C. Place against the MLS Shield-leading Whitecaps and CONCACAF Champions Cup Finalists, RSL and U.S. Men’s National Team starlet Diego Luna converted late from the spot, scoring his fifth goal in the last five games, a span which includes two-goal braces in wins over LA Galaxy (2-0 at home on April 5) and San Diego FC (3-1 away on April 26). RSL GK Rafael Cabral saved a penalty kick as well, his second denial in four spot kicks faced in 11 MLS contests this year.
Two weeks ago at San Diego, RSL scored three goals for the first time since Sept., 2024, against Portland, a span of 17 games. Luna’s heroics late in the first half and RSL’s subsequent excellence improved RSL to 38W-7L-12T when scoring first during the Mastroeni era – marking the fourth match won this season across all competitions when scoring first (Seattle, Houston, LA Galaxy and at San Diego), against three losses (at home against Herediano, San Diego, away at Nashville).
RSL’s trip to Nashville on April 12 kicked off a run that sees four out of five contests played away, and seven of 10 overall on the road through the end of May. Following this weekend at Dallas, RSL returns home for a rare midweek match, next Wednesday, May 14 against Portland Timbers, before playing three of four away to end the month of May with trips to Colorado, Austin and LA Galaxy in the coming weeks, all prior to May 31.
The last two road trips at San Diego and Vancouver have seen several RSL players achieve various milestones, as 18-year-old Academy product Zavier Gozo earned his first-ever pair of MLS starts, the Eagle Mountain, Utah-native going the full 90 minutes on the right wing each of the last two weeks in place of injured Polish international Dominik Marczuk. The win at San Diego and the subsequent loss at Vancouver also marked the Claret-and-Cobalt debut for 25-year-old FW William Agada, acquired two weeks ago Wednesday from Sporting Kansas City at the close of the primary transfer window, and now the 222nd player in RSL’s 21-season Major League Soccer history.
Agada’s former Kansas City captain, winger Johnny Russell, has not yet appeared for RSL after the free-agent acquisition arrived in Utah just under two weeks ago, joining the team on the trips to San Diego and Vancouver but not dressing.
With homegrown centerback Justen Glad missing the San Diego win with an adductor injury, GK Rafael Cabral is the last remaining “Iron Man” this MLS season, appearing in every minute of the Club’s 11 MLS contests this year, totaling 990 MLS minutes, the Brazilian also playing all 180 minutes of RSL’s Concacaf Champions Cup action to kick off the season. Glad’s one-game absence puts him alongside Captain Emeka Eneli and MF Braian Ojeda, as well as Designated Player Diogo Gonçalves, as RSL players to have started 10 of the 11 games thus far in the MLS season.
That 3-1 victory at San Diego on April 26 also marked Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s 100th career coaching win across all competitions for the two Rocky Mountain Cup competitors, RSL (2021-present) and Colorado (2014-17). The former U.S. World Cup stalwart has now amassed 100 wins, 111 losses and 74 draws across all competitions for the Utah/Denver-based sides. Last June in Kansas City, Mastroeni earned his 50th win across all competitions with RSL in a wild 4-3 road decision, with the 2-0 reg. season win over LA Galaxy on April 5 marking his 50th MLS victory with RSL. Since August, 2021, in Utah, Mastroeni’s all-time coaching record is 61-54-37.
So far this season, RSL owns just a 2-4-1 / 7-point road record this season under the guidance of fifth-year Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, despite each of the last two seasons marking the Claret-and-Cobalt’s best road campaigns in team history. The 2023 side posted an 11W-8L-5T away mark across all competitions, a record which includes both that year’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal loss to Houston, and its road loss and elimination draw in the first and third games of the teams’ 2023 Audi MLS Cup Playoff series on the Shell Energy Stadium turf.
A year ago, Mastroeni’s men registered the second-most road points in RSL history, with a 5W-4L-8T MLS reg. season mark, one which does NOT includes its heartbreaking, multi-goal Leagues Cup elimination loss to the Dynamo following a home win over Atlas FC.
During each of Pablo’s previous three full seasons at the RSL helm, the Club has increased its annual point total (47 in 2022, 50 in 2023 and 59 last year), while increasing its Western Conference table position as well (7th in 2022, 5th in 2023 and 3rd last year). The 2025 campaign features RSL’s pursuit of a Conference-best fifth consecutive postseason berth, a seventh in the last eight seasons and its 15th in the last 18 years.
This season, Real Salt Lake returns nearly 21,000 collective minutes played from last year’s roster, as the Club looks to build upon a record-setting 2024 campaign, as last year saw RSL advance to the MLS Cup Playoffs for a fourth consecutive occasion, the sixth time in seven seasons (2020 the lone exception), and for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons since first qualifying in 2008 (2015, 2017 the other outliers). The 2024 MLS regular season reached an all-time high of 59 points for RSL, which finished third in the Western Conference and sixth overall in the 29-team MLS shield race, while also establishing a new all-time scoring high of 65 goals.
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