SANDY, Utah (Friday, April 15, 2016) – Real Salt Lake – Major League Soccer’s lone remaining unbeaten squad and points-per-game leader with 2.20 – continues its first true homestand of the 2016 MLS campaign tomorrow against Western Conference rival Vancouver Whitecaps at 8:00 p.m. MT. Head Coach Jeff Cassar’s team ranks second overall with a 3-0-2 (11 points, West 2nd) mark, with RSL seeking to capitalize on April’s home stretch. The Claret-and-Cobalt kicked off a stretch of three out of four games at home this month with a 1-0 win over Rocky Mountain Cup contestant Colorado last Saturday, as GK Nick Rimando extended his all-time MLS record with his 124th career shutout (88 in an RSL uniform), now turning attention to a Vancouver team that has defeated RSL in each of the clubs’ last four meetings.
While last week’s RSL win was the club’s 100th on Utah soil since 2008 – averaging an impressive 2.10 points per game while posting an impressive 100-22-40 mark across all competitions in that time – the club has not defeated Vancouver since September, 2013, when a shock 1-0 win at BC Place occurred three days prior to that year’s Open Cup Final. RSL is 0-4-2 against the Whitecaps since that time, including a 0-1-2 mark at Rio Tinto Stadium which includes last season’s 0-1 home loss that saw red card ejections to DF Jamison Olave and FW Sebastian Saucedo, as well as the Whitecaps’ stoppage-time equalizer in 2014. Last April’s Whitecaps win was the first for a Canadian team in Utah, as RSL is 11-1-5 at home all-time / all-comps against Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.
Saturday’s game will be televised in Utah via KMYU (English, David James & Brian Dunseth) or heard via RSL outlets ESPN700 AM (English, Bill Riley, Jay Nolly, Spencer Warne & Jeremy Horton) & 102.3 FM / 1600 AM (Spanish, Fernando Hortal & Nelson Moran). Pre-game coverage airs live locally on ESPN700 AM at 7:00 p.m. MT, while KMYU’s three-hour window kicks off at 7:30 p.m. MT live from Sandy.
How to Follow Real Salt Lake vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
- Coverage Begins: 7:30 p.m. MT
- TV: KMYU (2.2 air / 12 satellite / 643 Comcast HD) – David James & Brian Dunseth
- English Radio: ESPN700 AM (7:00 p.m. MT) – Bill Riley, Jay Nolly, Spencer Warne & Jeremy Horton
- Spanish Radio: 102.3 La Gran D FM / 1600 AM – Nelson Moran & Fernando Hortal
- Online: The @RealSaltLake Twitter feed provides updates
Game Guide for Saturday’s RSL vs. Vancouver Matchup Available Online
The link to the Adobe PDF version of the MLS Game Guide in advance of Saturday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Vancouver is available by clicking HERE.
2016 REAL SALT LAKE NOTES –
RSL vs. VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC – Sat., April 16, 2016 – 8:00 p.m. MT
PLATA REMAINS ON FIRE: RSL FW Joao Plata continued his assault on the league statistic leaderboards, adding another game-winning goal against Colorado – just one week after providing an assist in Kansas City on the Justen Glad goal – to bring his 2016 total to 4 goals / 3 assists on the young season … The diminutive Ecuadoran was also robbed of another assist as FW Yura Movsisyan’s legitimate goal that would have given RSL a 2-0 scoreline was disallowed … Plata – now in his fourth season with RSL – has now scored or assisted on eight of RSL’s 10 goals in CONCACAF and MLS play this season, with only FW Yura Movsisyan’s “strip-streak” past Nat Borchers 3/19 at Portland and the long-range Luke Mulholland seeing-eye blast in Kansas City outside Plata’s influence …
BELTRAN JOINS EXCLUSIVE 200 CLUB: RSL DF Tony Beltran made his 200th career MLS regular-season appearance Saturday vs. Colorado, becoming the fifth active player and sixth man overall to join a select group to have reached 200+ games played for the Claret-and-Cobalt … Beltran joins Nick Rimando (253), Kyle Beckerman (235), Javier Morales (214) and Chris Wingert (209) amongst active players, with former DF Nat Borchers (205) logging 200+ MLS games for the Utah side ... DF Jamison Olave is next on the active list, with 145 career appearances in MLS reg. season contests … Beltran – who has started all but 21 of the club’s last 178 games across all competitions since the start of 2012 – is one of only three (4) all-time MLS players to have made his first 200 appearances with just one team, joining Chicago Fire legends CJ Brown (a former RSL assistant coach) and Logan Pause, as well as former San Jose/Houston DF Wade Barrett …
RIMANDO #124 COMES AGAINST COLORADO – WHO ELSE?: While RSL GK Nick Rimando’s career MLS shutout #124 nearly came in Orlando on opening day – the final 65 seconds obviously changed that – it was finally added to the record books Saturday against Colorado, against whom the Wall of the Wasatch has amassed 17 of his 124 career shutouts, his highest total vs. one team ... In descending order: Colorado (17), Chicago/Chivas/San Jose (10 each), Los Angeles / Red Bulls (9 each), New England (8), Columbus & D.C. (7 each), KC and Seattle (6 each), Dallas/Houston/Portland/Toronto (5 each), Philadelphia/Vancouver (2 each), Montreal, NYCFC and Tampa Bay (1 each) ...
RSL’s RECENT RED CARD EPIDEMIC STARTED LAST APRIL AGAINST VANCOUVER: In the March 19 2-2 draw at Portland, RSL saw MF Kyle Beckerman and DF Jamison Olave each ejected, RSL’s second and third red cards in the young MLS season … Following DF Demar Phillips’ ejection 22 minutes into the March 6 opener at Orlando, the ejections continue a disturbing trend, as 2015 saw the club set a dubious new mark for RSL with 9 red cards in 34 games, surpassing the club’s season-record 7 set in 2013, 2011 and 2009 ...
Outside MLS competition last year, FW Olmes Garcia was shown a straight red for a late tackle behind play Aug. 12 at Kansas City in the 1-3 elimination from the Open Cup, while on Sept. 15 in the CCL, MF John Stertzer was ejected in the 81st after receiving his second yellow card just 6 minutes after his first, causing RSL to play with 10 men the final 10’ and forcing Stertzer out of the home Santa Tecla tilt ... Additionally, RSL head coach Jeff Cassar was dismissed in two games last year (Aug. 4 at VAN and July 11 at COL, post-game) ...
RSL has now played 425 games across all competitions in its 12-year history – 359 MLS reg. season, 21 MLS Cup Playoff, 23 Open Cup and 22 CONCACAF Champions League – and has been reduced to nine men in a game just 5 times, but only once at home – last April’s 0-1 loss to Vancouver (44 games overall, 34 in MLS play) ...
The list:
Feb. 22, 2011 (CCL) @ Columbus - 0:0 T (Beltran/Borchers)
April 21, 2012 (MLS) @ San Jose - 1:3 L (Olave/Espindola)
April 18, 2015 (MLS) v Vancouver - 0:1 L (Olave/Saucedo)
June 24, 2015 (MLS) @ Red Bulls - 0:1 L (Morales/Phillips)
March 19, 2016 (MLS) @ Portland – 2:2 T (Beckerman/Olave)
