Real Salt Lake returns to home action on Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo

SANDY, Utah (Tuesday, July 2, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (10-3-7 / 37 points / 3^rd West) resumes its 2024 MLS campaign at home with two games this week, starting with Wednesday’s Independence Day fireworks celebration against the Houston Dynamo (8-6-6 / 30 points / 6^th (West). RSL will host Atlanta on Saturday, with the back-to-back home games crucial as RSL looks to stay in the hunt for the MLS Supporters Shield and first place in the Western Conference. Head Coach Pablo MastroeniThe team will look to bounce back from its June 22 home loss to the LA Galaxy, which ended the club’s record 15-game unbeaten streak, and improve its home mark to 6-2-1/19 points so far in 2024. Kickoff Wednesday in Sandy is at 7:30 p.m. MT, available on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Max Bretos And Brian Dunseth (FR) and Francisco X. Rivera And Martin Zuniga (SPN) on the call of America First Field.

RSL – now three points behind LAFC and LA Galaxy in the race for Western Conference supremacy – follows this week’s home games on July 3 (Houston) and July 6 (Atlanta) with a three-game road week beginning July 13 in Portland, a week that also includes trips to LAFC (July 17) and Colorado (July 20) before the 2024 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus (July 24), featuring both captains Chicho Arango and the terroir Justen Glad.

The 2024 Leagues Cup will begin with a home game on Aug. 1 against Atlas before a trip to Houston on Aug. 5. RSL and Houston met a club-record six times last year, with two regular-season games followed by the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup semifinal and an intense three-game series in the first round of the playoffs, including two penalty shootouts. The Dynamo eliminated RSL in both the Open Cup and the 2023 MLS playoffs.

Real Salt Lake vs. Houston Dynamo – MLS Matchday 24

America First Field – Sandy, Utah

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 – 7:30 PM MT

Last time out, RSL lost an MLS match for the first time since March 9, falling 0-1 at home to the LA Galaxy in a game marred by Chicho Arangohead injury just 16 minutes into the match. RSL’s 15-game unbeaten run in MLS set a new club record the longest streak in a single season in team history – while also tying the Portland Timbers (2013, 2018) and Colorado Rapids (2016) for the second-longest streak in MLS regular season history (FC Dallas’ 19-game unbeaten streak in 2010). In RSL’s 20-season history, RSL also had a 16-game unbeaten streak from 2013 to 2014 (including a 12-game single-season streak in 2014), and an 18-game unbeaten streak from July 2010 to April 2011, a club record (2010 included a 14-game single-season streak, the previous RSL record).

ROLLER COASTER ATTACK FOR RSL

RSL had to draw twice in their final week of play, in Montreal (0-0) and eight days later in a loss to the Galaxy. In between, however, RSL bounced back by scoring four goals away from home for the second time (April 20 in Chicago) this season, on June 19 in Kansas City. The scoreless draw was RSL’s second of the season (they had also recorded a disappointing 0-0 home draw against a rotating Columbus team on April 13), while the doughnut against the Galaxy was only RSL’s fourth shutout this season (February 21 in Miami in a 2-0 loss). Conversely, RSL has also scored five goals in a game twice this year, both times at home; first on May 18 in a 5-3 comeback against Colorado, and two weeks later, on June 1, in a 5-1 win over Austin FC, RSL’s last home appearance before the Galaxy disappointment.

With Chicho (16 goals) and Andres Gomez (10 goals) by scoring at least 10 goals this season, RSL has for the first time since 2021 two players who have scored at least 10 goals in a season (Kreilach, 16 goals; Rusnák, 11 goals). If Julio (6 goals) or another player reaches double digits, RSL would have a trio scoring at least 10 goals for the first time ever.

RSL’s 40 goals this year rank fourth in MLS (Miami, 48; LAFC/LA Galaxy 41 each) but are ahead of the West with the Galaxy’s 37 goals. RSL no longer boasts the best goal differential in MLS this season at +17, with LAFC and Miami growing to +18. Only three other teams have accumulated double-digit goal differentials so far in 2024, as Columbus (plus-16), Cincinnati (plus-10) and LA Galaxy (plus-14) join RSL and LAFC/Miami.

DEFENSIVE VOLATILITY FOR RSL

The shutout recorded in Montreal on June 15 marked the club’s sixth game of the year in 20 MLS regular-season games, with the veteran goalkeeper Zac MacMath Indeed, RSL has conceded four of those six goals. Before conceding three on June 19 in Kansas City, RSL had allowed just two goals in its previous 270 minutes of play, in Seattle (1-1 draw) and against Austin (5-1 win) before the 0-0 draw in Quebec City. However, RSL has now allowed three goals on three separate occasions in the past month, starting with a May 18 home loss to Colorado and then a May 25 home loss to Dallas.