REAL SALT LAKE WEEKLY UPDATE
Mon. – Fri., Nov. 6-11, 2017
SANDY, Utah (Wednesday, November 8, 2017) – The Real Salt Lake pyramid remains busy during the Claret-and-Cobalt offseason in preparation for 2018, as both RSL and the Real Monarchs settle into offseason workings. Meanwhile, both RSL Academy teams look to continue phenomenal starts to their U.S. Soccer Development Academy seasons, with the Club’s Zions Bank Academy campus in Herriman entering the final stages of construction.
Real Salt Lake
Claret-and-Cobalt midfielder and 2017 Team MVP Albert Rusnák was called to international duty by Slovakia for two friendlies in Europe this week. Rusnák and Slovakia will face Ukraine on Friday, November 10, in Lviv, Ukraine, before hosting Norway on Tuesday, November 14.
In his first season with RSL, Rusnák finished fourth in the league with 14 assists in 30 appearances, falling one shy of the RSL single-season record of 15 set by Javier Morales in 2008. He was voted the club’s MVP and earned the Golden Boot honors as one of four players to have tallied seven goals.
Last Thursday, RSL announced that the club had exercised the purchase option on Venezuelan international FW Jefferson Savarino, bringing the winger to RSL on a permanent contract after spending six months on loan from Zulia FC in his home country. The 20-year-old made a profound impact in his six-month loan spell with the club, as RSL went 10-5-4 and outscored opponents 36-24 in his 19 starts. Savarino finished his abbreviated Major League Soccer campaign with six goals and five assists.
Real Monarchs
The Monarchs are hard at work in the offseason just three weeks after bowing out of the 2017 USL Cup Playoffs in an opening-round shootout loss to Sacramento Republic FC. The Monarchs entered the postseason for the first time in its three-season history with the overall No. 1 seed as the Regular Season Championship Shield winners, but were upset in the tiebreaker after a 1-1 result following 120 minutes by the eighth-seeded Republic FC at Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday, October 20.
Elsewhere in the USL, Louisville City FC and Swope Park Rangers will face off in the 2017 USL Cup in Louisville on Monday, November 13 (ESPNU, 5:30 p.m. MT). The two sides each earned conference championship berths via shootout wins last weekend. The Monarchs went 1-0-1 against Swope Park in 2017 and didn’t face Eastern Conference foe Louisville City, which will host Monday’s 2017 USL Cup by virtue of entering the tournament as the top-seeded team in the east.
Real Salt Lake Academy
Called up: RSL U-19 midfielder Diran Bebekian was just called into the Armenia U-19 International side for a five-day training camp in preparation for two friendlies against Belarus on November 7 and 9 in Armenia. This is Bebekian’s first-ever selection for international duty as the Armenia U-19 side is used as a way to identify and train players for the U-20 and senior team rosters.
Both Real Salt Lake U-17 and U-19 Academy sides continue training this week after both squads earned emphatic shutout victories over San Diego Surf back on the weekend of October 28, with the U-17s winning 3-0 at America First Field in Sandy, followed by the U-19s delivering another dominant victory, winning 8-0.
After last weekend’s matches against Surf, FW Ben Ortiz now boasts eight goals this season for the U-17s, sitting in fourth place among West U-17 "Golden Boot" leaders (Ortiz also scored twice in three games as the 17s went 2-1-0 in MLS Generation adidas Cup qualifying). For the RSL U-19s, FW Sebastian Soto leads the country in goals scored (13) and goals per game (2.16), after scoring four goals against the Surf in the side’s last contest.
With the performances against Surf, the U-17s remain unbeaten in U.S. Soccer Development Academy action, owning an overall 5-0-1 record this season, outscoring opponents 19-3 on the season. The U-19s won its fifth consecutive match for Head Coach Martin Vasquez, moving to 5-1-0 on the year, dominating opponents by a 33-1 scoreline, with four shutouts in the active five-game win streak.
With no matches this weekend, the Academy sides now prepare for back-to-back games in Southern California the weekend of Nov. 18-19, first facing Real So. Cal on Sat., Nov. 18 before a Sun., Nov. 19 matchup with Arsenal FC. Both U-17 matches will kick off at 11:00a MT with the U-19s following shortly after at 1:30p and 1:00p MT on the 18th and 19th respectively. The full RSL Academy schedule can be viewed here: rsla.ussoccerda.com
Below is the training schedule for the RSL Academy teams for the remainder of the week. With this week’s training schedule, media members are strongly encouraged to attend trainings at the Zions Bank Real Academy in Herriman to become acquainted and familiar with the development of RSL’s young talent as the club strives to produce successful young players on the national stage:
Wed., Nov. 8: 11:00a – 12:30p MT – America First Field – ALL
Thurs., Nov. 9: 7:00a – 9:00a MT – Utah Sports Lodge – ALL
Fri., Nov. 10: 4:30p – 6:00p MT – America First Field – ALL
Sat., Nov. 10: 10:30a – 11:45a MT –America First Field – ALL
The rest of the Real Salt Lake Academy schedule can be found at RSL.com/Academy as well as any other information regarding the Zions Bank Real Academy in Herriman.If you plan on attending a training session / game and requesting access, please contact RSL Media Services personnel Taran Meyer at (801) 657-2161 / tmeyer@rsl.com a day in advance for arrangements.
The Zions Bank Real Academy Campus in Herriman - located at 14788 South Academy Parkway (3718 West) - MUST be entered off of Mountain View Corridor, just West of the Facility
