One week after a blast of snow swept the Wasatch Front, Real Salt Lake is set to open the 2018 home slate at Rio Tinto Stadium to blue skies and an optimistic fanbase on Saturday against LAFC.
“I’m feeling wonderful,” Real Salt Lake Head Coach Mike Petke said on Friday after the team’s final training session before the first home contest of the season. “It’s going to be a beautiful day, a great crowd and the guys are excited.”
Petke – and Real Salt Lake’s fans, for that matter – has plenty of reason for enthusiasm heading into the home opener. RSL has always shown well at Rio Tinto Stadium, posting an all-time record of 105-26-44 since the stadium opened in October of 2008. That record is bolstered by an eight-match unbeaten streak capped by five straight victories to close out the 2017 season.
“We’re excited and ready to make the RioT our fortress again,” RSL defender Justen Glad said. “We want to show our fans something good. We want to get them excited for the season and we want to show them what we’ve been working on.”
Added midfielder Albert Rusnák, “The fans always turn up and we feel great at home. We did much better at home than we did away last year and that goes to the fans. We have to just build up where we left off last year.”
As of Friday afternoon, tickets were still available, but the numbers were limited as the match approaches a sellout. That bodes well for RSL, who has never lost a home opener, going 5-0-8 in the previous 13 lid-lifters.
In the other locker room will be a hungry LAFC team led by Mexican National Team standout Carlos Vela After posting a 1-0 road win over Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday, they have plenty of confidence heading into their second ever match. With so much talent on the roster, RSL isn’t about to overlook their latest Western Conference foes.
“LAFC is a very good team so we have to show up,” Petke said. “That’s the most important thing. We have to show up and we have to be the aggressors.”
Kickoff for Saturday’s match is slated for 1:30 p.m. MT, with live television coverage locally on KMYU, nationally on Univision and on the KSLTV app.
