HERRIMAN, UT (Friday, March 31, 2023) – Real Salt Lake (1-3-0, 3 pts., West 10) travel this weekend for MLS Matchday Six, visiting Columbus Crew SC (2-2-1, 7 pts., East 5) on Saturday (5:30p MT kickoff on the Apple MLS Season Pass w/ Eric Krakauer & Lloyd Sam (ENG) / Moises Linares & Jaime Macias (SPN); 5:00p MT radio pre-game w/ David James & Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM and www.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM.
Real Salt Lake heads to Ohio looking to snap a three-game losing streak – its first since 2020 – and capture its first win since Feb. 25 at Vancouver, which saw RSL reverse a 1-0 halftime deficit with goals from DF **Justen Glad** and MF **Damir Kreilach** to capture the full three points on Matchday One. RSL’s trip this weekend to Columbus is the first since 2018, and the Utah side’s first-ever visit to the Crew’s new Lower.com Field home. All-time, across all competitions, RSL is just 2W-10L-2T at Columbus, the victories coming in 2006 – RSL’s first-ever come-from-behind road win – and 2009, during the first leg of that year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals. RSL drew at Columbus in 2014, and has earned four points in the last two meetings in Utah, including a 0-0 draw at America First Field last June.
Despite dropping the last two matches at home over the last three weeks, RSL will once again look to improve upon its record in “bounceback” games under Mastroeni, RSL now 10-4-6 (W-L-T), earning a result in 16 of 20 matches following a loss and suffering back-to-back losses just four times in the former USMNT star’s 58 games at the RSL helm. Under Mastroeni’s leadership, RSL is now 13-9-5 (W-L-T) on Utah soil against MLS opponents, ahead of next Saturday’s home match against Charlotte FC, the first of a five-game span that sees three matches at home and five of the next seven.
Mastroeni and staff welcome back four players from international duty, as RSL was one of nine MLS teams last weekend to lose four or more players to international duty. FW **Rubio Rubin** (Guatemala), MF **Braian Ojeda** (Paraguay), MF **Diego Luna** (USA U-20) and GK **Gavin Beavers** (USA U-19) were away but have returned to the Club healthy and available for selection at Columbus.
Injuries suffered during the bye week and preparation for STL remain, as DF Marcelo Silva (hamstring), DF **Erik Holt** (achilles tendonitis), DF link-placeholder-2, FW **Danny Musovski** (ankle) are each questionable for this week, with FW link-placeholder-4, DF Zack Farnsworth (ankle) and DF Bode Hidalgo (hamstring) all out.
Three RSL players made their MLS and Club debuts a week ago, two of them starting against St. Louis – 24-year-old Colombian DF **Brayan Vera**, signed in early February from América de Calí as a TAM acquisition – and the versatile D/M **Emeka Eneli**, one of RSL’s three first-round draft picks in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, the former Cornell attacker, who has demonstrated great versatility on both the left and right sides, along the back line in a back four. Additionally, RSL’s first overall pick, FW Ilijah Paul from the Univ. of Washington, played the final 18 minutes against STL to become the 194th RSL player in 19 years to appear in Major League Soccer action
