7:30p MT Kickoff Saturday for Second of Three Consecutive Road Matches;
Claret-and-Cobalt Seeking Back-to-Back Wins for First Time in 2025 Season;
Newcomers William Agada, Johnny Russell Could Make First Start/Appearance for RSL;
Tickets Available for May 14 Home Return via www.RSL.com/tickets
HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, May 2, 2025) – Real Salt Lake (4-6-0, 12 points, 10th West / 19th Shield) continues its three-game road run at 7:30p MT against current MLS Supporters Shield leaders and Concacaf Champions Cup Finalist Vancouver Whitecaps FC (7-1-2, 23 points, 1st West / 1st Shield) at B.C. Place. Saturday’s match will be available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Mark Followill & Warren Barton (ENG) on the call, as are Nacho Garcia & Max Cordaro (SPN).
Real Salt Lake arrives in Vancouver – where it has won each of the last two years in 2-1 come-from-behind fashion – seeking back-to-back wins for the first time in a rollercoaster 2025 season. Last week, RSL won 3-1 at expansion side San Diego FC, the first visitor to win at Snapdragon Stadium as the Claret-and-Cobalt rode another Diego Luna brace to victory, with substitute DF Sam Junqua providing the insurance dagger. 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).
The victory at San Diego 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, 110 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 61-53-37.
Game Notes for Saturday’s RSL @ Vancouver Match Available Online
The Adobe PDF version of the 2025 RSL Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Vancouver 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*.
Saturday also saw two RSL players achieve career milestones, as 18-year-old Academy product Zavier Gozo earned his first-ever MLS start, the Eagle Mountain, Utah-native going the full 90 minutes on the right wing in place of injured Polish international Dominik Marczuk. The win at San Diego also marked the Claret-and-Cobalt debut for 25-year-old FW William Agada, acquired a week 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.
This week in Vancouver could potentially see Agada – the Nigerian striker who wears the No. 9 shirt for RSL – make his debut start for RSL. Agada – now in his eighth season as a professional, having scored 65 goals in 213 career games, including 24 goals in 78 games across all competitions with Sporting KC (and now RSL) since his U.S. arrival – could welcome his former Kansas City captain, winger Johnny Russell, to the field for RSL for the first time. Russell was announced as a free-agent signing for RSL on Friday, and joined the team on the trip to San Diego but did not dress.
With homegrown centerback Justen Glad missing the San Diego win with an adductor injury, newcomer GK Rafael Cabral is the last remaining “Iron Man” this MLS season, appearing in every minute of the Club’s 10 MLS contests this year, totaling 900 MLS minutes, the Brazilian also playing all 180 minutes of RSL’s Concacaf Champions Cup action to kick off the season.
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 to be played on the road through the end of May. Following this weekend at Vancouver, RSL will also travel to face Dallas, Colorado, Austin and LA Galaxy on the road in the coming weeks, all prior to May 31.
So far this season, RSL owns just a 2-3-1 / 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.
--- ***www.RSL.com*** ---
