SANDY, UT – (Friday, May 30, 2019) – Real Salt Lake will host Major League Soccer Western Conference rival LAFC on Tuesday, June 11 at Rio Tinto Stadium in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The match is slated to kickoff at 8:00 p.m. MT as the club begins its venture in the 106th edition of the tournament.
This year's early-round matches are included in the club's 2019 RSL Season Ticket Memberships. Additionally, Utah Royals FC and Real Monarchs SLC season ticket members will have the option to access tickets for this date, while general public sale for the June 11 contest kicks off on Monday, June 3. The game will be carried LIVE on ESPN+.
Real Salt Lake has an 11-13-3 record in the tournament since 2005, appearing in the Open Cup final in 2013 against fellow MLS side D.C. United. RSL has reached the semifinal on two occasions in 2013 and 2015.
After a dramatic third-round of the tournament, the remaining 32 teams in the Fourth Round were split into eight regions and drawn randomly against another team from their own region. RSL was selected to face LAFC out of a four-team pool of the LA Galaxy, LAFC and NPSL Cinderella side Orange County FC. RSL holds an 0-3-0 record against LAFC in MLS regular season play across the 2018 and 2019 seasons, but holds an undefeated, 1-0-0 record against LAFC from the 2018 MLS Cup playoffs after famously eliminating the California side from cup contention.
The First Round featured 38 amateur and USL League One teams from across the United States, with 25 US-based USL Championship teams entering in the Second Round. The 11 teams that remain after the Third Round on Tuesday and Wednesday will now be joined by the 21 US-based MLS teams in the Fourth Round, which opens on June 11.
The Houston Dynamo are the reigning Open Cup champions; MLS teams have won every Open Cup since the league’s debut in 1996 with the exception of the 1999 edition, where the Rochester Rhinos mounted an improbable run to the trophy.
The Open Cup is a single-elimination knockout tournament open to teams across the US soccer pyramid, and one of the oldest extant soccer tournaments in the world, having first been played in 1914.
