SANDY, Utah (Friday, April 25, 2023) – Real Salt Lake (3-5-0, 9 pts., 9th West) returns home this weekend for MLS Matchday 10, welcoming longtime rivals Seattle Sounders FC (6-2-1, 19 pts., t-1st West) on Saturday (7:30 p.m. MT kickoff on the Apple MLS Season Pass w/ Adrian Healey and Cobi Jones (ENG) / Juan Arango and Carlos Suarez (SPN); 7:00 p.m. MT radio pre-game w/ David James & Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM and www.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM).
Real Salt Lake v. Seattle Sounders FC
America First Field – Sandy, UT
Saturday, April 29, 2023 – 7:30 p.m. MT
Game Notes for Saturday’s RSL v Seattle Sounders FC match Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2023 RSL Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Seattle can be found here. Media members looking to receive the document as an attachment or have further questions are asked to please contact Meg Van Dyk in RSL Communications via email at meg.vandyk@rsl.com
2023 Records: Real Salt Lake (3-5-0, 9 pts, 9th West); Seattle Sounders FC (6-2-1, 19 pts, t-1st West)
Saturday’s contest is the third of what could be a 13-game, 45-day stretch that sees Real Salt Lake manage multiple competitions, with several potential Open Cup and MLS three-game weeks on the horizon. Wednesday night’s 3-1, 120-minute win away at Las Vegas in its 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup opener has made this possible. RSL Captain Damir Kreilach’s extra-time brace, with an insurance goal from FW Danny Musovski enabled RSL to snap a seven-game overall winless streak in the U.S. Open Cup dating back to 2015, and earn its first-ever road win in 11 attempts on the road in Open Cup play.
Real Salt Lake seeks three consecutive home wins for the first time since May/June 2022, when a 2-1 home win over Austin FC was followed by a dominant 3-0 win over visiting Houston, concluded with a tense, 2-0 win over San Jose. In the 14 home matches since then, RSL has posted an even 5W-5L-4T mark on Utah soil.
The Sounders arrive in Utah with former RSL DP Albert Rusnák, former HC Freddy Juarez and former GM Craig Waibel leading the charge, while MF Kelyn Rowe is another former RSL player on a roster that became the first-ever MLS side to win CONCACAF Champions League in 2022, a dynamic run that surely prevented the group from advancing to last year’s postseason. Seattle’s 6-2-1 / 19-point record this year has them tied for first place atop the West with expansion St. Louis, a record which includes a 2-0 home win over RSL back in Matchday Two on March 4 on the Lumen Field turf.
All-time / all competitions on Utah soil, RSL boasts a dominant 13-2-4 (W-L-T) mark against the Sounders, which includes a 1-0-1 Open Cup record and a 1-1-0 playoff mark. Seattle drew at RSL in an Open Cup shootout in 2016 – its last points gained at what is now America First Field – with RSL owning a 12-game unbeaten run in MLS reg. season play against the Sounders, who last won in Sandy in 2011 (although a 2012 playoff stunner at RioT still stings).