Ending on a High Note
Tonight is Real Salt Lake’s final home regular season match. The players and coaches have made clear that they want the fans to finish the regular season with a good feeling about how the team is playing and while FC Dallas is no slouch, RSL’s home record speaks for itself. At 7-3-6, only four teams in MLS have fewer home losses than Salt Lake – the New England Revolution, FC Dallas, the LA Galaxy and Sporting Kansas City.
While tonight is the final regular season match at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL hosts Municipal from Guatemala on Tuesday in the final Group Stage match in CONCACAF Champions League.
Rotation, Rotation, Rotation
Both teams are coming off of mid-week games – Dallas winning at home against Vancouver Whitecaps FC and RSL falling 1-0 at home against the Portland Timbers. So expect both teams to be rotating their starting lineups a bit entering the final week of the MLS season.
This season, Real Salt Lake has used 27 players while Dallas has played 25 different players.
Beckerman the Record Man
If he plays on Saturday, Kyle Beckerman will surpass MLS legend Steve Ralston on the league’s all-time leader in games played. The two are currently tied with 378 career appearances, which Beckerman reached on Wednesday against the Portland Timbers.
Since coming to Real Salt Lake on July 16, 2007, Beckerman has played 230 regular season matches with the Claret-and-Cobalt. Previously, he played 145 matches with the Colorado Rapids (2002-2007) and three with the Miami Fusion (2000-2001).
Test the Young Fella
FC Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez has impressed through his first nine matches as a professional. The 20-year-old Homegrown signing has a 5-3-1 record with four shutouts and a 1.00 goals against average while starting the last nine matches for Dallas. However, he has been less stellar away from his home grounds at Toyota Stadium. In five road matches, he is 1-3-1 with a 1.40 goals against average.
The key has been forcing him to make saves. In his three losses, he faced an average of 6.33 shots on goal per game, compared with just 3.33 per game in his five wins.
