Three-Game Road Swing Continues Tuesday in Denver vs. Liga MX Top Seed;
Home of Colorado Rapids Also Hosts RSL This Saturday the 29th;
Three Wins to Capture Trophy, Two Wins to Earn CONCACAF Champions Cup Berth;
Tickets for All Home Events Remain Available via www.RSL.com/Tickets
DENVER (Monday, August 24, 2026) – This week, Real Salt Lake (2-0-1, 7 points, 4th MLS) continues its three-game road swing with a neutral-site contest in one of four 2026 Leagues Cup Quarterfinals, facing the Liga MX top seed Club León (3-0-0, 9 points, 1st Liga MX) on Tuesday night at 8:30p MT in Commerce City, Colo., at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – where RSL has won 11 times across all competitions in its 22-year history, two fewer than the LA Galaxy’s current Carson, Calif. venue, which also once housed CD Chivas USA.
Should RSL emerge from Tuesday’s Quarterfinal contest, it would travel to face the winner of Toluca (Liga MX) and Austin FC (MLS) on Wednesday, Sept. 2. The Toluca match would be held at Shell Energy Field in Houston, while Austin’s Q2 Stadium would host its Semifinal due to Austin’s higher seed. RSL could return to America First Field for either the Third-Place Match or the 2026 Leagues Cup Final against any opponent other than Columbus Crew SC. The 2026 Leagues Cup Final & Third-Place matches – critical for the trio of CONCACAF Champions Cup spots to be awarded – will be played on Sunday, Sept. 6.
RSL and León have met just once before, back in the 2023 Leagues Cup tourney. RSL defeated León, 3-1, in a weather-delayed match at America First Field that saw the Liga MX side take an early lead in the Round of 32 knockout match, before a Danny Musovski brace and Cristian Arango dagger in the final 20 minutes advanced the Utah squad.
Tuesday’s RSL v. León contest on Apple TV features Max Bretos and Brian Dunseth on the primary English-language call, with Jorge Perez-Navarro and Marcelo Balboa providing the Spanish-language analysis. Simultaneously, the KSL Radio team of David James and Jay Nolly return to the mic. Manuel Hernandez, Willy Barrueta and Isidro López make up the team responsible for the Spanish broadcast on KBMG Latino 106.3 FM.
GAME NOTES for Tuesday’s RSL v Club León Quarterfinal Match Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2026 RSL Game Guide in advance of Tuesday’s Leagues Cup Quarterfinal contest between Real Salt Lake and Club León can be found HERE. Media members looking to receive the document as an attachment or have further questions are asked to please contact RSL Communications via email at RSLcommunications@RSL.com.
Recent Real Salt Lake Knockout History
With a win Tuesday, RSL would advance to its third Semifinal contest in the five-year Pablo Mastroeni era. Advancement would mark RSL’s first since the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where it lost at Houston, 3-1, after extra time. Back in 2021, RSL also advanced to the MLS Western Conference Final, falling at Portland.
RSL has played 14 elimination games during its five-year history with Mastroeni as manager, winning six, with only one prior match approaching “neutral-site” status. During the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 32, RSL kicked off a two-leg series with Costa Rican champions Herediano, playing the first leg in the country’s National Stadium in San José. RSL drew 0-0 that day in GK Rafael Cabral’s first-ever match with the Utah side, which fell 1-2 at home in the second leg a week later.
In recent years, RSL has seen various means of elimination in knockout situations, bookended by road losses in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs at Portland – last year in the Western Conference Wild Card Round, and in the 2021 Western Conference Final. In MLS postseason games decided by penalty-kick shootout tiebreakers, RSL was eliminated in 2022 at Austin, 2023 at Houston and 2024 against Minnesota, advancing only in 2021 at Seattle.
In the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, RSL fell at home in a massive upset to the Northern Colorado Hailstorm playing its third competitive match ever. During RSL’s 2023 USOC Semifinal run, the Club won in extra time at Las Vegas before regulation wins at Portland, at Colorado and against LA Galaxy prior to its 120-minute loss at Houston. The 2024 Open Cup tourney saw RSL lose in regulation away at New Mexico United (USL Championship).
How Real Salt Lake Advanced
The Claret-and-Cobalt qualified for this week’s Quarterfinal stage by outscoring a trio of Mexican visitors 8-1 earlier this month at its America First Field home, with RSL riding six different goalscorers and employing 19 different starters. RSL’s 2026 Leagues Cup Phase One trio of performances improved RSL to 8-6-6 all-time (29-25 aggregate goals) against Mexican visitors on Utah soil in the last 22 seasons, with a 20-10-10 mark on the Wasatch Front against all international opponents.
RSL’s back-to-back clean sheets in its 4-0 win Aug. 8 against Atlante and the 3-0 victory Aug. 11 against Juarez are just the second set of shutouts in the 64-game Rafael Cabral era (2025/26), with the combined 7-0 aggregate over those 180 minutes the most dominant consecutive games in RSL’s 22-year, 850-game history across all competitions.
Tuesday’s match against Club León marks RSL’s 10th amidst a critical stretch of at least 12 games in 44 days while juggling both the MLS regular-season and Leagues Cup schedule gauntlet, a run that began with late July road losses at LAFC and Portland. While the St. Louis draw on Aug. 1 snapped a two-game losing streak in RSL’s post-World Cup slate, the Club is forced to carry an active eight-game MLS winless streak away from home into Saturday at Colorado.
2026 Real Salt Lake Road Woes
Throughout the 2026 season, RSL has lacked success away from home, the Club earning just one road win – back on March 7 in a 3-2 win at Atlanta – against three draws and six losses away, the active road winless streak now at eight games. RSL’s latest road setback was suffered Saturday in Orlando, a 2-1 loss that saw RSL score first for the fourth time in its last five MLS matches, yet fail to protect the lead.
RSL arrives in Colorado for the first of two games there this week with the sting of dropped points fresh in the collective soul following both Saturday’s Orlando result as well as last Wednesday’s 3-4 loss against FC Dallas, which saw a stoppage-time winner drop RSL to 10-2-2 (W-L-T) overall on Utah soil in 2026, still outscoring visitors 34-15. Prior to the volatile Dallas loss, RSL conceded in the 89th minute against Minnesota just over a week ago, forced to settle for a 1-1 draw against the visiting Loons, the Claret-and-Cobalt now 18-5-4 (W-L-T) at its America First Field fortress since June 1, 2025.
Red-Hot Rookie Solans Looks to Extend Scoring Streak
Despite resting Saturday in Orlando, five of RSL’s previous six August matches saw RSL rookie Sergi Solans find the back of the net, scoring a Club-high 13 goals this season (nine in MLS, two in Leagues Cup, two in the Burnley friendly). The RSL Golden Boot leader has set a new RSL rookie scoring record, breaking Corey Baird’s eight-goal total during his MLS Rookie of the Year season in 2019, and enters Tuesday’s León match with an active four-game scoring run. Should Solans score Tuesday, he would match former RSL captain Damir Kreilach’s record five-game scoring streak, accomplished in Sept.-Oct., 2021.
Last Wednesday against Dallas, RSL climbed back from a 1-3 halftime deficit courtesy of early second-half goals by French-born DP Morgan Guilavogui – scoring his third goal overall (and second in as many appearances, after sitting out last Saturday against Minnesota) and his second in MLS action this year – and star playmaker Diego Luna, who assisted on the Solans and Guilavogui goals before scoring one of his own, his fifth on the season to go with eight assists across all competitions in 2026.
Dropping Points From Winning Positions
Saturday in Orlando, second-year RSL winger Dominik Marczuk gave RSL a 1-0 lead for the fourth occasion in its last five MLS matches. As it had back on July 25 at Portland (Guilavogui red card), August 1 at St. Louis (Hartel equalizer) and August 15 at home against Minnesota (89th-minute concession), RSL coughed up the advantage. When scoring first during the Mastroeni era, RSL is now 56-12-22 (W-L-T) since August, 2021, while taking a 1-0 lead.
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni has now managed the Club in 208 matches across all competitions, registering 85 wins, 74 losses and 49 draws in MLS, Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup and international friendly contests since late August, 2021. The former U.S. Men’s National Team World Cup standout (2002, 2006), MLS Cup Champion (2010) as a player, and former Colorado Rapids manager (2014-16) has averaged 1.60 points per game with RSL in his 202 matches at the helm. Only Cup-winning former manager Jason Kreis (2007-13) – now the Club’s President of Soccer – boasts more games, more wins and a higher PPG average than Mastroeni in RSL’s 22 seasons.
Rsl’s Bounce-Back Dna
During the Mastroeni era, resilience, grit and determination have served as trademarks for RSL, with the Club suffering back-to-back losses on just 21 occasions in those 208 games. Tuesday marks the latest opportunity for the Claret-and-Cobalt to display its “xDAWG” mentality and earn the necessary result, previously winning 35 and drawing 17 times in “bounce-back” games following a loss in Mastroeni’s five-plus seasons in Utah.
2026 Leagues Cup Quarterfinal Schedule
Tuesday, August 25
6:30pm CT | 8:30 ET: CF Monterrey (Liga MX #4) vs. Chicago Fire FC (MLS #1)
SeatGeek Stadium – Bridgeview, IL
Apple TV
8:30 MT | 10:30 ET: Club León (Liga MX #1) vs. Real Salt Lake (MLS #4)
Dick's Sporting Goods Park – Commerce City, Colorado
Apple TV
Wednesday, August 26
6:30pm MT | 8:30 ET: Toluca FC (Liga MX #3) vs. Austin FC (MLS #2)
Sports Illustrated Stadium – Harrison, NJ
Apple TV | UniMas/TUDN, FS1, TSN 5, Imagen TV
8:45pm MT | 10:45 ET: Club América (Liga MX #2) vs. Columbus Crew (MLS #3)
Dignity Health Sports Park – Carson, CA
Apple TV | UniMas/TUDN, FS1, TSN 5, Televisa, Imagen TV
Road to the 2026 Leagues Cup Final
The four Quarterfinal winners will advance to the Leagues Cup Semifinals on September 1-2, with the Third-Place Match and Final scheduled for Sunday, September 6. The Leagues Cup Champion, Runner-up and Third-Place winner will each qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup. To view the complete Leagues Cup 2026 bracket, click here.
Ticket Information
Tickets for Leagues Cup 2026 Quarterfinal matches will be available in the coming days at LeaguesCup.com/tickets and through the applicable hosting club. MLS club season ticket holders should contact their club representative for additional information.
Where to Watch
Fans can watch every Leagues Cup match on Apple TV, with select Quarterfinal matches available across Leagues Cup’s linear broadcast partners. Full broadcast information is available at LeaguesCup.com/schedule.
By virtue of the Utah side’s performance in Phase One of this tournament and a combination of results in matchday three, RSL’s accrual of seven points from three Phase One matches and its MLS-best goal differential of +7 – outscoring opponents 8-1, with goals from six different scorers and 19 different starters – ensured the top four finish on the Major League Soccer side of the 2026 bracket.
RSL Next Match: 9/5 @ America First Field
Premier League star Son Heung-Min comes to America First Field as RSL takes on LAFC.
