Real Salt Lake hosts Vancouver on Saturday in the MLS “Decision Day” playoff seeding

HERRIMAN, Utah (Thursday, October 17, 2024) – Real Salt Lake (15-7-11, 56 points, t-3^approx West MLS) concludes its 2024 Major League Soccer regular season on Saturday night at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps (13-12-8, 47 points, 8th).^Th West), with RSL head coach Pablo MastroeniThe club's team is just one win away from setting a new all-time club record (59) for points in a single season, the best in 20 seasons. Saturday's MT Kickoff at 7:00 p.m. is available via Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass Mark Rogondino & Heath Pearce (ENG) provide the call Francisco X. Rivera And Max Cordaro(SPN).

RSL returns from the recent FIFA international break with an active five-game unbeaten streak, buoyed by a controlling, if not dominant, 1-0 win in San Jose on October 5, in which the Bay Area native and former San Jose Academy junior Diego Luna scored 78^Th-Minute game winner to help the club's ninth clean sheet of the year. This victory improved RSL's away record in 2024 to 5-4-8 / 23 points, allowing RSL to achieve its second-highest away points total in 20 MLS seasons, trailing only last year's 28-point mark.

With a guaranteed top-four spot in the 2024 MLS Western Conference final standings and home-field advantage in the first-round best-of-three series, Real Salt Lake can set a new all-time points record with a win on Saturday against the Whitecaps , this season's 59-point total may exceed the 2012 season's 57 points. A 16^Th The 34-game win would equal the club's second-highest win total in its 20 MLS seasons (2013, 2019), trailing only the 17 wins in 2012.

This is already the highest-scoring season in Real Salt Lake's 20 MLS seasons, with 63 goals in 33 games, surpassing the 57 goals scored in 2013. RSL needs three goals in its final home game on Saturday, October 19 against Vancouver to set a new club all-time home mark and break the 2018 mark of 38 goals on home soil.

Pending further results on Saturday between Cincinnati (at Philadelphia) and Seattle (against Portland), an RSL result could see the Claret-and-Cobalt finish in one of ten MLS places in the continental for the first time since 2015-16 Return to competition The 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup would go to the Utah team based on their overall performance in the regular season.

RSL has already secured a spot in the MLS Cup playoffs for the 14th season^Th Time in the last 17 seasons and for the fourth consecutive time under the direction of the head coach Pablo Mastroeni. The current campaign represents RSL's eighth 50-point season in club history – and first since 2019 – with the 2024 edition of the Claret-and-Cobalt awaiting the unveiling of the full 2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs schedule on Sunday.

Real Salt Lake vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC – MLS Matchday 39

America First Field – Sandy, UT

Saturday, October 19, 2024 – 7:00 p.m. MT

Apple TV+ / MLS Season Pass / KSL Sports Zone Radio

HONORING KING KREILACH, CELEBRATING THE “DAMIRACLE” 2021 ::

During a short pre-match ceremony on Saturday, RSL will take a moment to honor and recognize the former captain Damir Kreilach for his contributions to the club from 2018-23. Although his last two seasons have been marred by injuries, the Croatian star remains the third-highest goalscorer (47 goals) in the club's history, behind only Alvaro Saborio (63) and Javier Morales (49).

Saturday's visit to Vancouver marks Kreilach's first return to the Wasatch Front. The Decision Day event reminds RSL fans of the 2021 “Damiracle,” in which Kreilach scored the needed goal at 94:36 of stoppage time in Kansas City, qualifying RSL for the postseason, knocking out the LA Galaxy and shattering Sporting's hearts -Fans in the “Blue Hell”.

For more information on Damir's legacy of red wine and cobalt, read The Return of the King by Daniel Obinyan here: https://www.rsl.com/news/the-legend-of-damir-kreilach-the-return-des King's.

SEATS AT MATCH FOR THE 2025 CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP SATURDAY ::

RSL now sits in either third or fourth place in the Western Conference standings, tied with Seattle Sounders FC on 56 points. First-place LA Galaxy (19-7-7, 64 points) and second-place LAFC (18-8-7, 61 points) are out of reach. While RSL has already secured home-field advantage in the first round of the best-of-three opening series of the MLS Cup Playoffs, a potential spot in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup is at stake on Saturday, with RSL, Seattle and Cincinnati last in contention two non-MLS Cup slots.

Should all three teams win on Saturday – Seattle hosts Portland in the Cascadia Cup and Cincinnati visits Philadelphia – 59-point tailback RSL would be eliminated due to the MLS win tiebreaker that CONCACAF uses for the 2025 Cup tournament let… However, RSL could still qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup if one of the teams that have already qualified through this season's mechanisms – LA Galaxy, LAFC, Miami, Columbus, Colorado, Seattle or Cincinnati – wins the MLS Cup win and the double place would be lost to RSL due to the reg. Season performance.

RSL has not been able to compete in continental competition since the 2015/16 season, in which RSL lost a quarter-final series against Tigres (LIGA MX).

Home Excellence, Road Resilience Hallmarks of the 2024 campaign ::

RSL returns home on Saturday looking to extend its active winning streak to six games. The current run of five games sees two wins and three draws, highlighted by two consecutive goals conceded. While the current streak of five games pales in comparison to the 15-game unbeaten streak from March to June that began with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory in Vancouver on March 23, the current five-game streak is the second-longest of that streak Season.

At America First Field in Sandy, the Claret and Cobalt have excelled this season, with 10 wins and three draws to just three losses in MLS play, in addition to an 11th^Th Home win in the League Cup tournament in August against LIGA MX star Atlas FC.

With the away win in San Jose earlier this month, RSL – currently 5-4-8 / 23 points away – secured the club's second-highest points total in an away season, surpassing the penultimate point total of 2013 with 22 points for the year of 8-5-4 / 28 points.

Despite a volatile last 90 days, RSL can still set a new season record of 59 points with a win on Saturday and go into the postseason as the team no one wants to face at any venue or stage.

We regret lost points in the last draws ::

While RSL remains on track to potentially surpass the 57 points it accumulated in 2012, it needs three points against Vancouver to set a new 20-year high for the club's MLS reign. Although recent setbacks have seen the Claret and Cobalt side lose points this season that are important to their playoff positioning. Two 2-0 leads in Austin on September 28th and at home to Portland on September 21st are the most recent examples, while RSL also failed to defend a 2-0 lead at LA Galaxy on May 11th , and only conceded a very late injury-time equalizer on the last kick-off of the game.

Earlier this season, RSL also managed to pick up late points from losing positions, scoring three goals in the final half hour to force a 3-3 win in Dallas at the end of May, just weeks after scoring one at Dallas They evened out a 2-0 deficit at home against Colorado with a 5-3 win. Just three days after the heroics in Dallas, RSL equalized at the death in Seattle to a 1-1 draw at Lumen Field.

Goalless draws at home – like the one against Minnesota on October 2nd – against a heavily rotating Columbus team in mid-April and away at Montreal in mid-June also fall off the schedule, in a season in which opportunities to improve points have been lost. Also out of points has seen RSL lose just six away games in three competitions this season, while the team is close to that in Sandy, where the team has historically won 70% of its games over the last 15 seasons stands to set a new home standard.

LAST PART OF THE SEASON / PLAYOFF PUSH FOR PABLO ::

During the Pablo Mastroeni Era – Qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs in each of the four seasons – RSL has endured a rollercoaster ride in the final 10 games of each season… One game remains to improve the 3W-3L-3T record as of July 20 – the is present in MLS competitions.

In 2021, RSL split its 10 games under Pablo, winning five and losing five, securing a dramatic Decision Day win in Kansas City and qualifying for the postseason, ultimately advancing to the West Finals and being eliminated in Portland.

In 2022, RSL went 3-3-4 / 13 points, suffered unexpected home draws/losses, but secured another Decision Day win, this time a dominant 3-1 home win over Portland. This year's RSL team took an early 2-0 lead in Austin Sergio Cordova Double in a single-elimination first-round MLS Cup playoff game, but a 53rd^approx-Minute Rubio Rubin The ejection ended with RSL falling in PKs after 120 minutes.

Last season, RSL went 4-5-1/13 points in its last ten games as it learned to play without an injured Metronome Pablo Ruiz after his non-contact injury in the Round of 16 of the Leagues Cup at LAFC. RSL won three of its last five games last year, including its only win against LAFC late in the game Chicho Arango Goal and a 1-0 win on Decision Day in Colorado, one that saw Diego Luna stepped forward and announced his presence with authority, scoring four goals in his final five games of 2023, including the three-game series against Houston. In the postseason, however, RSL was eliminated again by a narrow margin, as both games two and three of the first round series with Dynamo were decided by PKs.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM ::

If the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs presented by Audi began now, RSL would face the Houston Dynamo for the second straight year. RSL would be looking to recover from two years of struggles with Houston, a venue where it has not won since the 2018 season and has beaten Dynamo in just three of their last 14 meetings in all competitions. RSL has seen Houston finish in three different competitions in the 2023/24 seasons, as RSL lost 3-1 to Houston in a 120-minute affair in last year's Lamar Hunt US Open Cup semi-final before losing in the first round of the Audi The 2023 MLS Cup playoffs were a three-game series with the final two games decided by penalty shootouts. On August 5th of this year, RSL lost 3-0 in Houston and was eliminated from the 2024 League Cup, although almost any other result would have seen the Utah team win their group, which also included Atlas FC (Liga MX ) belonged.

Earlier this year, RSL managed a 3-2 clean sheet home win against Houston on July 3 to break their recent losing streak; prior to last year's regular season loss, RSL remained undefeated in 11 consecutive games against Houston since 2017, including five straight in South Texas. RSL holds a record of 3W-14L-6D in Houston, with the Dynamo having a goal difference of +16 in all competitions, boosted by last weekend's 4-1 win over RSL.