HERRIMAN, Utah (Friday, February 23, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (0-1-0 MLS) continues its 2024 regular season – the Club’s 20th in Major League Soccer – Saturday night at St. Louis CITY SC at CITY Park in the first full weekend of the “MLS is Back” 2024 kickoff.
Wednesday, RSL saw its MLS Opening Day unbeaten run snapped at 14 games, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s side dropping an 0-2 decision at Miami against Lionel Messi & Co. Two RSL players made significant debuts at Chase Stadium earlier this week, as 17-year-old Mexican youth international Fidel Barajas played 24 minutes for his MLS debut; and MF Noel Caliskan – a short-term call-up from Real Monarchs of MLS NEXT Pro – made his RSL debut, appearing for 17 minutes with the Claret-and-Cobalt after making four combined MLS / U.S. Open Cup appearances a year ago with the Portland Timbers.
Could newly-acquired RSL midfielder Matt Crooks become the third player this week to make his RSL debut on Saturday? Should his work visa paperwork come through, he could be eligible; left back Alexandros Katranis could possibly make his 2024 MLS / RSL debut on next Saturday, March 2, at America First Field in RSL’s home opener against elite West rival Los Angeles FC, kicking off at 12 noon MT in RSL’s earliest-ever home kick.
Saturday’s kickoff starts at 6:30p MT on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass w/ Keith Costigan and Maurice Edu (ENG) and Jorge Perez Navarro and Marcelo Balboa (SPN). For local coverage, tune in at 5:30p MT for KSL 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 @ St. Louis CITY SC – MLS Matchday 2
CITY Park – St. Louis, MO
Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024 – 6:30p MT
2023 Records: Real Salt Lake (14-12-8, 50 pts, 5th West);
St. Louis CITY SC (17-12-5, 56 pts., 1st West)
RSL @ St. Louis CITY SC NOTES:
RSL and St. Louis split their 2023 series, each team winning on the road. In RSL’s lone previous trip to the Gateway to the West, it was young starlet Diego Luna who led his team to a 3-1 victory, the U.S. U-20 playmaker providing a goal and an assist against the West-leading CITY side. Early last season, St. Louis earned a 0-0 halftime scoreline in Utah courtesy of GK Roman Burki heroics, then scoring four second-half goals to match the worst half in Real Salt Lake’s home history.
The 2023 RSL side amassed the Club’s seventh 50-point season all-time, and just the second since the 2014 campaign. Finishing 11th overall out of 29 teams, RSL crashed out of the postseason by the thinnest of margins for a second consecutive year (Austin 2022, Houston 2023), dropping a road shootout tiebreaker in Texas. Other 2023 RSL milestones:
- Accumulated an all-time Club-best road record with 12 results in 17 away MLS matches, posting an 8W-5L-4T mark with 28 of its 50 reg. season points amassed on the road; RSL’s previous road bests were recorded in 2012 and 2013, with identical 6W-7L-4T marks;
- RSL’s home mark of 6W-7L-4T was its worst since 2007, when a 4W-7L-4T record on the Rice-Eccles turf marked the 19-year nadir;
- During a nearly four-month span from mid-April to early August, RSL dropped just three of 24 games across all competitions, including MLS reg. season action, its Open Cup run to the Semifinals and its initial Leagues Cup foray;
- Thirty-two (32) different players saw action for RSL in 2023, including 15-year-old FW Axel Kei and 16-year-old Zavier Gozo making their Homegrown debuts, along with Academy products GK Gavin Beavers and DF Delentz Pierre also making their first-ever first-team appearances; a trio of rookies – D/M Emeka Eneli, FW Bertin Jacquesson and FW Ilijah Paul – made their professional debuts, while FW Andrés Gómez, MF Nelson Palacio, DF Kevon Lambert and DF* Brayan Vera* notched their first-ever MLS appearances last season;
- Since April 16, 2005, RSL has enjoyed a prominent home-field advantage on Utah soil – posting a dominant 194-83-95 (Win-Loss-Draw) record across all competitions at home (1.82 points per game for a 0.649 win pct.) – since arriving on the Wasatch Front nearly 20 years ago;
- Since opening its permanent home in Sandy just over 15 years ago, in October, 2008, RSL’s 164-58-75 (W-L-T) MLS reg. season mark at America First Field – home of the “RioT” Supporters Group umbrella – equates to a 1.91 points per game average and a 0.679 win pct, one of the truly amazing value proposition in North American sporting landscape today.
