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

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

RSL – which now trails LAFC and LA Galaxy in the race for Western Conference supremacy by three points – follows this week’s home games on July 3 (Houston) and July 6 (Atlanta) with a three-game away week that begins in Portland on July 13. This week also includes trips to LAFC (July 17) and Colorado (July 20) before heading to the 2024 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus (July 24), where both captain Chico Arango and from our own cultivation Justen Glad.

The 2024 Leagues Cup begins with a home match on August 1 against Atlas before a trip to Houston on August 5. RSL and Houston faced each other six times last year – a club record – with two regular-season games followed by the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals and an intense three-game first-round playoff series, including two shootouts. The Dynamo eliminated RSL in both the Open Cup and the 2023 MLS postseason.

Real Salt Lake vs Houston Dynamo – MLS Matchday 24

America First Field – Sandy, Utah

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 – 7:30 p.m. MT

Last time, RSL lost an MLS game for the first time since March 9, losing 1-0 at home to LA Galaxy in a game marred by Chico ArangoHe suffered a head injury just 16 minutes into the game. RSL’s 15-game unbeaten streak in MLS set a new record for the club. longest season series in team history – and tied the Portland Timbers (2013, 2018) and Colorado Rapids (2016) for the second-longest regular-season winning streak in MLS history (FC Dallas’ 19-game unbeaten streak in 2010). In RSL’s 20-year history, RSL also enjoyed a 16-game winning streak from 2013 to 2014 (including a 12-game single-season streak in 2014) and a club-record 18-game unbeaten streak from July 2010 to April 2011 (2010 includes a 14-game single-season streak, RSL’s previous best).

Attack rollercoaster for RSL

RSL suffered two shutouts in its final week of play, losing 0-0 in Montreal and then losing to the Galaxy eight days later. Between the two games, however, RSL rebounded and scored four away goals for the second time this season (April 20 in Chicago) on June 19 in Kansas City. The scoreless draw was RSL’s second of the season (April 13 also saw a disappointing 0-0 home draw against a rotated Columbus team), while the doughnut against the Galaxy was only the fourth shutout RSL has suffered this season (February 21 in Miami in a 2-0 loss). On the other hand, 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 Andrés Gomez (10 goals) secured double-digit goal totals this season and RSL has two scorers with over 10 goals in a single season for the first time since 2021 (Kreilach, 16 goals; Rusnák, 11 goals). Should Julio (six goals) or another player score double figures, RSL would have a trio of scorers with over 10 goals for the first time ever.

With 40 goals scored by RSL this year, the team ranks fourth in MLS (Miami 48; LAFC/LA Galaxy 41 each), but leads the West ahead of the Galaxy’s 37 goals. RSL no longer has the best goal differential in MLS this season at plus-17, as both LAFC and Miami are now at plus-18. Only three other teams have achieved double-digit goal differentials so far in 2024, namely Columbus (plus-16), Cincinnati (plus-10) and LA Galaxy (plus-14) alongside RSL and LAFC/Miami.

DEFENSIVE VOLATILITY FOR RSL

The June 15 clean sheet in Montreal was the club’s sixth in 20 MLS regular season games this year. The veteran goalkeeper Zac MacMath four of those six goals came in the form of goals. Before the three goals conceded on June 19 in Kansas City, RSL had only allowed two goals in the previous 270 minutes of play, in Seattle (a 1-1 draw) and against Austin (a 5-1 win) before the scoreless draw in Quebec. However, RSL has now allowed three goals on three separate occasions in the last month, starting at home against Colorado on May 18 and then again on May 25 against Dallas.