SANDY, Utah (Monday, October 19, 2015) – Real Salt Lake closes out its 2015 home campaign Tuesday night in the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League Group G finale, hosting Guatemalan power Municipal. RSL currently leads the group with a 2-0-1 mark and 7 points, buoyed by the club’s 1-0 August 4 win against the “Rojos,” a game which saw FW Joao Plata score in the 2nd minute and GK Nick Rimando extend his personal CCL shutout streak to 436 minutes.
With a win or draw at home – where RSL is now 7-1-1 all-time in the continental competition – the Claret-and-Cobalt would advance to next February’s Quarterfinal stage. A Municipal win eliminates RSL due to various tiebreak scenarios. In the Rio Tinto Stadium era, RSL boasts a 22-2-6 home mark all-time against international clubs, (10-1-3 against non-Canadian visitors).
Tuesday’s match against Municipal is included in RSL’s 2015 season-ticket package, labeled CONCACAF B. The game will be nationally-televised on Fox Sports 2 with an 8:00 p.m. MT kickoff, with pre-game coverage airing live on ESPN700 AM at 7:00 p.m. MT.
How to Follow Real Salt Lake v. Municipal (GUA)
- Coverage Begins: 8:00 p.m. MT
- TV: Fox Sports 2 – Mark Rogondino & Brian Dunseth
- English Radio: ESPN 700 AM (7:00 p.m. MT) – Bill Riley, Jeremy Horton & Brian Kamler
- Spanish Radio: 102.3 La Gran D FM / 1600 AM – Nelson Moran & Fernando Hortal
- Online: The @RealSaltLake Twitter feed provides updates
At Rio Tinto Stadium this season, RSL is now 11-4-6 across all competitions, including a CONCACAF Champions League victory last month and a trio of home wins in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Since the beginning of 2008, RSL boasts a 97-22-39 mark in its last 158 home games (all comps) in that span, during which it has outscored opponents by 167 goals (282/115), with a 77-17-36 regular-season mark (230/93), a 7-1-1 CCL record (19/6), 5-2-2 in playoffs (11/4) and an 8-2-0 ledger in the Open Cup (21/10).
In Saturday night’s 0-1 loss to Western Conference Champion FC Dallas, RSL Captain Kyle Beckerman became Major League Soccer’s all-time appearance leader amongst field players, with 379 career matches under his belt in 16 seasons with RSL, Colorado Rapids and the Miami Fusion. RSL’s “Iron Man” – who surpassed Steve Ralston in appearances, and should break Ralston’s starts and minutes played records in 2016 – played 300 minutes last week, including 120 minutes on Oct. 10 for the U.S. National Team at the Rose Bowl.
Back on October 4 in RSL’s come-from-behind, 2-1 win at Colorado, Beckerman became the second Claret-and-Cobalt member to surpass 20,000 regular-season minutes for the club, joining longtime RSL/USA teammate Nick Rimando (with 22,355 minutes played for RSL) as the only players to have surpassed the threshold for the 11th-year club.
