CHICAGO / SANDY, Utah (Friday, April 8, 2022) – Real Salt Lake (3-1-2 / 11 pts / 2nd West) today learned the first steps of the Club’s 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup pursuit, entering this year’s single-elimination tourney in the third round alongside 63 other U.S.-based teams. On Wednesday, April 20, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team will host Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC from the USL League One at Rio Tinto Stadium, with a 7:30 p.m. MT kickoff in Sandy.
All early-round 2022 LHUSOC matches will stream via ESPN+, while additional RSL coverage will occur via ESPN700 AM (English radio), 104.3 La Gran D (Spanish radio) and www.RSL.com.
2022 Real Salt Lake Season Ticket Members will receive their tickets to the match as BONUS GAME A – labeled appropriately with the opponent, date and time – in their AXS account. General public purchasers can access tickets for this match beginning Tuesday, April 11 at 10:00 a.m. MT via www.RSL.com/tickets, by calling 844.Real.Tix or by visiting the Rio Tinto Stadium Box Office from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The third-round Open Cup match is one of 17 involving Major League Soccer sides at this stage, with the eight “higher-seeded” U.S.-based MLS teams entering in the Round of 32, to be played on May 11 of this year (draw on April 22). This year’s tourney resumes after the 2020 and 2021 versions were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ending 106 years of consecutive play.
Real Salt Lake has advanced to the Final Four twice in its previous Open Cup forays, dropping the 2013 LHUSOC Final at home, 0-1, succumbing to a hapless D.C. United side, winners of just three regular-season MLS matches that year. In 2015, RSL fell at the Semifinal stage at Sporting Kansas City, despite leading that match early.
All-time, Real Salt Lake owns an 11-14-3 (W-L-T) record in the 109-year old tournament, the United States’ longest-running competition, regardless of sport. On Utah soil, RSL is 11-5-1 against visiting teams, including a dominant 6-1-1 mark against those from lower divisions. The lone Rio Tinto Stadium loss to a lesser-heralded visitor came in 2012, when the Minnesota Stars arrived to stun a then-record LHUSOC crowd of 17,212 in a 1-3 RSL result.
On three occasions, RSL has needed a penalty-kick tiebreaker to determine LHUSOC advancement, winning twice. The first time came away in San Jose in 2010, as former DF Nat Borchers scoring the equalizer in extra time to force the shootout, then burying the game-winning kick against the Earthquakes in an MLS qualifier for the tournament proper. In 2016, RSL both lived and died by the PK shootout sword; needing the tiebreaker to eliminate the lower-division Wilmington Hammerheads at the RioT, then falling victim in the Round of 16 to the Seattle Sounders, riding an impenetrable Tyler Miller in goal.
ABOUT REAL SALT LAKE
During the first week of January 2022, the RSL compendium of properties was acquired by global sports entrepreneur David Blitzer – who boasts interests in the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the New Jersey Devils (NHL), and six European soccer entities, including Crystal Palace (England), FC Augsburg (Germany), Estoril (Portugal), ADO Den Haag (Netherlands), Alcorcón (Spain) and Waasland-Beveren (Belgium). The Blitzer group also has partnered locally with Utah-based Smith Entertainment Group, which owns the Utah Jazz (NBA), led by Ryan Smith.
Real Salt Lake continues its 18th Major League Soccer season throughout this Spring, its first full season under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, who led the Utah side for the final 100 days last year, advancing to the 2021 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the 11th time in the last 14 years.
The club's MLS Cup 2009 victory marked the state of Utah's only major professional championship in nearly 40 years, the title preceding an historic run to the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League Final. Buoyed by a passionate base boasting several thousand season ticket holders, RSL has enjoyed a prominent home-field advantage – posting a dominant 147-43-46 (Win-Loss-Draw) record across all competitions at home (2.06 points per game for a 0.771 win pct.) – since building its permanent Rio Tinto Stadium home in Sandy 13 years ago.
In 2015, the club expanded its development pyramid with the addition of Real Monarchs SLC, one of several MLS-operated clubs playing in the USL Championship, the United States' Division II setup. The Monarchs boast a pair of titles in its brief history, as the 2017 USL regular-season champions, later winning the USL Final in 2019. For the 2022 season and beyond, Real Monarchs compete in the newly launched “MLS NEXT Pro” as part of a joint United States and Canada endeavor to complete the professional player pathway by connecting youth academies in MLS NEXT to first teams in Major League Soccer.
The entire RSL development pipeline, which includes the RSL Academy’s U-15 and U-17 teams, calls the expansive Zions Bank Training Center in Herriman, Utah their daily training home. With five world-class grass fields, two indoor turf fields, a residential dormitory, the STEM-based RSL Academy High School and the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium located on a 42-acre campus, Utah’s sporting future is bright.
The RSL Community Foundation was established in 2016, created with the goals of being active in the community year-round, utilizing the popularity and reach of RSL and the Monarchs in promoting health and wellness in children throughout the region, engaging supporters of soccer to raise funds and volunteer time for various local initiatives.
Early in 2021, the Claret-and-Cobalt unveiled “The RSL Way,” a document which publicly informs the Club’s core cultural values of Pride, Industry, Harmony, Community and Integrity, with the intention of stating the RSL’s founding principles and holding each employee accountable to both collective and individual missions.
