Real Salt Lake remains at home on Saturday against Atlanta United

SANDY, Utah (Friday, July 5, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (11-3-7 / 40 points / 2^nd The West team stays at home for the second of its two games this week, now hosting Atlanta United on Saturday night after Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Houston. The back-to-back home games kick off a five-game July 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 improve on its 7-2-1/22-point home mark so far in 2024. Kickoff Saturday in Sandy is at 7:30 p.m. MT, available on Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass, with Max Bretos And Brian Dunseth (FR) and Diego Pessolano And Daniel Chapela (SPN) on the call of America First Field.

RSL – now three points behind LAFC but three points ahead of the LA Galaxy in the race for Western Conference supremacy – follows up this week’s home games with a three-game road week beginning July 13 at 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), with both captains Chicho Arango and the terroir Justen Glad.

On Wednesday, RSL saw a dynamic young Colombian Andres Gomez lead the charge, scoring a first-half equalizer and assisting on goals in both Diego Luna And Braian Ojeda. Gómez is now in the top 10 in MLS with 11 goals and nine assists, while Luna has added four goals and nine assists on the year. Ojeda’s game-winning goal marked his first goal in 63 games with RSL since joining in late summer 2022.

Real Salt Lake vs Atlanta United – MLS Matchday 25

America First Field – Sandy, Utah

Saturday, July 6, 2024 – 7:30 PM MT

On June 22, 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 suffered two shutouts in mid-June, a 0–0 draw in Montreal and a loss eight days later to the Galaxy. In between, however, RSL bounced back by scoring four away goals for the second time (April 20 in Chicago) this season on June 19 in Kansas City, while scoring three times last time out against Houston. The 0–0 draw in Montreal was RSL’s second of the season (they had also recorded a disappointing 0–0 at home against a rotating Columbus team on April 13), while the doughnut against the Galaxy was just 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 the 5-3 comeback against Colorado, and two weeks later on June 1 in the 5-1 against Austin FC, RSL’s last home appearance before the Galaxy disappointment.

With Chicho (16 goals) and Andres Gomez (11 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 the same 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 43 goals this year rank second in MLS (Miami’s 50) but ahead of the West with LAFC’s 43 goals. RSL no longer has the best goal differential in MLS this season at +18, with LAFC and Miami now at +19. Only three other teams have accumulated double-digit goal differentials so far in 2024, as Columbus (plus-18), Cincinnati (plus-11) and LA Galaxy (plus-13) 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 21 MLS regular-season games, with the veteran GK 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.