PREGAME FACT & INFO SHEET
REAL SALT LAKE @ VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
WED., JULY 13, 2016 – 8:30 p.m. MT – BC PLACE
on KMYU, ESPN700 & 102.3 LaGranD / 1600 AM
0 – PREVIOUS VISITS BY EUROPEAN TEAMS TO FACE REAL SALT LAKE, prior to this Summer’s mid-July visit by Italian power Inter Milan to Rio Tinto Stadium … The legendary club – one which has won 39 total trophies, including a FIFA Club World Cup, three UEFA Champions League titles (most recently in 2010), three UEFA Cups, two InterContinental Cups, 18 Serie A titles, seven Italian Cups and five Italian SuperCups … The game will be played on July 19, with kickoff at 8:00 p.m. MT …
0.73 – INCREASE IN GOALS CONCEDED RATE for all RSL centerback pairings other than tonight’s starters, DF Aaron Maund and Justen Glad, who have combined to spearhead a defense that has allowed just 14 goals in the tandem’s 11 starts this season, a rate of 1.27 goals against … In the 10 games (all competitions) that have featured other pairings – all of which have included one of this dynamic duo – RSL has conceded 19 goals, a rate of 1.90 per game … The duo has allowed just 8 goals in 9 combined starts, excepting the 6 goals the duo bled 5 days apart in late May at Columbus (a 3-4 loss) and the pair conceded at NYCFC on June 2 (a 3-2 RSL win, complete with a disputed PK call late) …
1 – WIN NEEDED FOR RSL GK NICK RIMANDO TO MATCH KEVIN HARTMAN at the top spot on Major League Soccer’s all-time list, as the “Wall of the Wasatch” earned career victory #179 on June 22 at home v Red Bulls … Rimando – already the all-time MLS leader in shutouts (125) by 13 over Hartman, despite playing 7 fewer games – could eclipse the longtime LA/DAL/KC/NY ‘keeper in several categories this Summer, including wins (needs 2 to surpass), starts (3 entering Saturday night, his next likely MLS start), games (8) and minutes (298) … While Rimando’s career 1.19 goals against average is better than Hartman’s 1.22, “The Wall of the Wasatch” will probably have to wait until next year to eclipse the save total (57 behind) or shots faced (73 behind) to complete a sweep of every significant all-time category … Rimando has never come off the bench in his 408 career MLS appearances …
1.61 – POINTS PER GAME FOR RSL THROUGH 17 GAMES, TIED FOR #3 OVERALL IN MLS … RSL trails only Colorado (1.89) and FC Dallas (1.85), as Head Coach Jeff Cassar’s pacing is impressive, with RSL on a record-setting extrapolation to 57 points for the Claret/Cobalt, especially with 10 of the previous 17 games away from home, where RSL is 5-0-2 in league action this season, with 3 of the next 5 at the friendly RioT confines …
4 – COMEBACK WINS ALREADY THIS YEAR, coming in trio of 2-1 home victories over Seattle, Houston and New York Red Bulls, as well as the 3-2 win on the road in early June at NYCFC – quadrupling the total deficits erased during the entire 2015 season … That lone come-from-behind win to capture the full 3 points from a losing position happened last October at Colorado, RSL winning 2-1 with late first-half goals by FW Joao Plata and MF Luke Mulholland … RSL also scratched back from an 0-2 deficit at home in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play against Wilmington, the game officially a draw with RSL advancing via penalty kicks …
6 – STARTS THIS SEASON, INCLUDING TONIGHT, FOR RSL GK JEFF ATTINELLA … Attinella’s selection tonight will be his 4th in MLS action (to go with a pair of 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup starts), RSL posting a 1-2-2 mark so far this season when Rimando’s understudy gets the nod … A year ago, the 5th-year pro out of South Florida made nine MLS starts and 15 overall (including Open Cup and CCL) for RSL, the Claret-and-Cobalt posting a 7-6-2 mark across all competitions … In his MLS career from 2013-present, Attinella is 7-14-6 overall, posting 5 clean sheets against MLS opponents …
8 – ALL-TIME ROAD WINS ON ARTIFICIAL SURFACE FOR RSL, with the last one coming at BC Place on Sept. 28, 2013, a total of 13 games ago … RSL posted identical 0-4-1 artificial turf marks in both 2014 and 2015, and has earned a pair of road results this season – March 6 at Orlando and March 19 at Portland, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in both games and finishing 2-2 … All-time, RSL is 8-23-18 on the fake stuff, outscored 42-85, but captured MLS Cup 2009 on what was then known as Qwest Field in Seattle, following a 1-1 draw with the LA Galaxy …
9 – DIFFERENT PLAYERS TO HAVE SCORED FOR RSL THROUGH 18 GAMES THIS SEASON, the club compiling 29 goals as a team, tied for third most in the Western Conference and fifth overall in MLS entering tonight … Could DF Aaron Maund, MF Omar Holness or outside backs Chris Wingert / Tony Beltran make it 10 tonight?
11 – GAMES WITHOUT A LOSS AT RSL’s Rio Tinto Stadium fortress this season, with RSL going 5-0-3 at home in MLS action on top of three draws in CCL/Open Cup play … RSL is among five teams in MLS without a home loss this season, joining Dallas (7-0-3), Colorado (7-0-2), the LA Galaxy (5-0-4), and Orlando City SC (3-0-7) …
14 – CONSECUTIVE GAMES WITHOUT A SHUTOUT ACROSS ALL COMPETITIONS THIS SEASON, RSL last posting a clean sheet against the Whitecaps with a 1-0 home win on April 16 … RSL went 13 straight MLS games back in 2005 without holding opponents to zero goals, the previous longest shutout drought … RSL was so so close to a road clean sheet with GK Jeff Attinella between the pipes April 2 at KC, but a disputed PK call late enabled Sporting to cut the margin to 2-1 in favor of RSL … RSL has now allowed 60 goals in its last 28 road games dating back to last season, an astonishing 2.12 goals per game, three times more than at home (by comparison, RSL has allowed just 24 goals at home in its last 30 matches at Rio Tinto Stadium, an 0.80 average) …
18 – DENIALS IN 46 PK ATTEMPTS for RSL GK Nick Rimando, as the “Wall of the Wasatch” extended his stellar run of success by stoning Galaxy MF Steven Gerrard from the spot on April 23 … Rimando’s denial on a total of 18 of 46 attempts during his 10 MLS seasons with RSL is about 30% higher than average, and his 8 PK saves in the 2013-16 seasons double the total of any other GK … For his MLS career, Rimando has now saved 27 of 76 attempts from the spot, in addition to his scintillating efforts in shootout tiebreakers to enable RSL to advance to and win MLS Cup 2009 (also engaged in playoff PK shootouts in 2004 with D.C. United and 2013 for RSL) … So so close last game out against David Villa and NYCFC …
22 – CAREER GOALS SCORED by returning RSL FW Yura Movsisyan in MLS action, the Armenian international scoring in five of his last six MLS starts to surpass Jason Kreis and Jeff Cunningham to move into 7th all-time in the RSL golden boot race … Yura’s 22 league goals for RSL (15 from 2007-09, prior to a six-year career in Denmark and Russia that saw him score another 77 across all competitions, including the Armenian National Team) ranks him fourth overall amongst active RSL players, behind Javier Morales (45), Joao Plata (25), and Kyle Beckerman (25) …
24 – STARTS MISSED BY RSL “IRON MAN” DF TONY BELTRAN, OUT OF THE LAST 192 MATCHES ACROSS ALL COMPETITIONS … Beltran was suspended Saturday due to yellow card accumulation, as the club’s 2008 draft pick picked up his fifth caution of the year July 1 against DCU …
60 – GOALS ALLOWED IN LAST 28 ROAD GAMES BY RSL, an astonishing 2.11 goals per game, three times more than its 0.80 GAA over same period at home … On 12 occasions – nearly half of the last 27 road games – RSL has allowed 3 or more goals, posting a 6-18-3 mark away dating back to last Easter …
103 – HOME WINS since 2008, as RSL has amassed a 103-22-45 mark on home soil in all competitions in its last 170 home matches, during which it has outscored opponents by 173 goals (298-125) … Last Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Montreal marked RSL’s most recent match at Rio Tinto Stadium, the club amassing an all-time home 82-17-39 record in MLS reg. season games (242-101 goals), and an 8-1-2 CCL mark (21-7), a 5-2-2 playoff resume (11-4), and an 8-2-2 ledger in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (24-13) …
128 – players to have represented the Claret-and-Cobalt in MLS ACTION in the club’s first 12 seasons, as MF Omar Holness – who became #128 on June 25 in Dallas in his MLS debut – addeds himself to the list … The #5 overall pick from North Carolina made his Rio Tinto Stadium debut in the RSL XI Saturday night, and now makes his 3rd career MLS start tonight in Vancouver, adding depth options to Jeff Cassar’s midfield crew that includes Morales, Beckerman, Mulholland and Stertzer as well as Sunday Stephen, out another 5 weeks after surgery to repair broken bones in his face suffered on June 22 v NYRB …
