PREGAME FACTS AND INFO SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE v SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015 – 8:00 pm MT on UNIVISION DEPORTES / KMYU
& ESPN700 / 102.3 LaGranD / 1600 AM
1 – after last week’s game, the number of times in RSL’s 383-game MLS reg. season/playoff, CONCACAF Champions League and U.S. Open Cup history that only 16 players will dress and be available, due to injury, suspension or international duty depleting bench options …
2 – players making 2015 debuts in the starting XI tonight for RSL, as DF Aaron Maund and MF John Stertzer become the 18th and 19th players for Jeff Cassar’s team to start one of the club’s first 7 games … DF Elias Vasquez and DF Demar Phillips – also in tonight’s XI – only have 2 previous starts for RSL, Vasquez in each of the last 2 games, when the RSL defense has only allowed 2 shots on goal @KC and v VAN …
3 – occasions in RSL history that the club has been reduced to just 9 men on the field, including the red-card decisions at home against Vancouver two weeks ago for FW Sebastian Saucedo and DF Jamison Olave … RSL saw Olave and FW Fabian Espindola each ejected in July, 2012, in a 1-3 loss at San Jose, and DF Nat Borchers and Tony Beltran sent to the showers early in a 0-0 CCL quarterfinal at Columbus in Feb. 2011 …
5 – home losses, including last month, in last 3 seasons … Three of the 5 Rio Tinto Stadium losses since 2013 have involved a red card for the home team, as last week against Vancouver also marked the club’s first home reg. season shutout loss since March, 2012, against Chivas (RSL did drop 0-1 home decisions in the 2012 West Semis to Seattle and the 2013 U.S. Open Cup Final in October of that year to D.C. United) …
7 – consecutive playoff berths for RSL from 2008-14 (the longest active run in MLS), during which time the club has amassed a 99-66-62 record (avg. of 1.58 points per game) … RSL also owns a league-record 5 consecutive seasons with 15+ wins and 50+ points, matching LA’s active run from 2010 to present …
9 – consecutive seasons in an RSL uniform for GK Nick Rimando, MF Kyle Beckerman & MF Javier Morales … The longest-tenured RSL men also rank 1-2 amongst Major League Soccer’s active leaders in games/starts/minutes (Rimando: 375/375/33,913; Beckerman: 360/331/29,706) … Morales has either scored or assisted on nearly 25% of the club’s all-time 441 goals scored, with the Argentine “maestro” tallying 39 goals and 68 assists, despite missing most of the 2011 season …
10 – goals scored in opening 15 minutes for RSL last year, a league-leading total … club still awaiting first of 2015
15 – career games played by RSL #maestro Javier Morales against San Jose, with 9 goals and 6 assists in those contests … After missing the last two contests, Morales’s game-winner at Avaya against the Earthquakes on April 5 gave him two goals to go along with three assists in five matches this season, playing a part in all but one of RSL’s six goals (Saborio PK v PHI on 3/14) …
16 – wins needed by RSL GK Nick Rimando in 2015 to become Major League Soccer’s all-time leader in that category, overtaking Kevin Hartman … Rimando has 117 career shutouts, 5 more than Hartman in 42 fewer games all-time …
19 – consecutive sellouts at Rio Tinto Stadium, marking 21 of last 23 and 25 of club’s last 30 games to meet or exceed capacity, as the club returns to Utah with home games tonight v San Jose and next Wednesday, May 6 v Los Angeles …
21 – total points available in the month of May for RSL, as tonight’s match kicks off a 7-game month … RSL has earned 9 of a possible 21 points through March and April so far this MLS season …
41 – wins when FW Alvaro Saborio scores in all competitions for RSL, the club recording a 41-6-13 mark all time when the Costa Rican international finds the back of the net … RSL is only 22-34-24 when he plays and doesn’t score, but is 25-12-8 when he is unavailable due to suspension, injury or national team duty …
56 – points earned by boss Jeff Cassar in his first season at the helm, with a 15-8-11 record … Cassar and his RSL club got out of the gates a year ago with a league-record-tying 12 games unbeaten (6-0-6), the best mark since 1996 for a rookie head coach …
99 – wins in his 8-year RSL career for GK Nick Rimando, with nearly 80% of the club’s all-time 122 victories … Will tonight be #100?
107 – Veteran RSL DF Tony Beltran has earned the start in 107 of the club’s last 125 games (including today) on the right side of the back four ... The RSL “Iron Man” – part of a 3-man outside back rotation with Chris Wingert and Robbie Russell prior to RSL’s trade of Russell to D.C. United prior to the 2012 season – has remained injury-free and playing at a high level, usually seeing days off only in exhibition or Open Cup play, or sometimes succumbing to a rotation during 3-game weeks ...
123 – players to have taken the field in MLS play for Real Salt Lake in last 11 seasons, now that 25-year old Brazilian MF Wellington “Pecka” Paeckart made his debut last week at New England … Pecka celebrates his 26th birthday tomorrow, Saturday, May 2 …
316 – minutes played by RSL since scoring a goal late in the first half at San Jose back on April 5 … The scoreless streak is the club’s longest in six years, and the fourth-longest in club history … RSL’s expansion year saw a 557-minute drought, while 2007 saw a 370-minutes streak between goals … Should RSL not score before tonight’s 34th minute, it will eclipse the 350-minute drought suffered in May of the club’s MLS Cup-winning season in 2009 …
