+ Show 1 more video Austin FC Breaks Top 10 in Power Rankings
SANDY After only three weeks of the 2021 MLS regular season, Real Salt Lake sits in an unexpected spot in the Western Conference standings: on top.
And while three weeks and two matches, based on an opening week bye is hardly enough time to draw sweeping conclusions for any team, for good or bad, it s hard not to notice that something is different about RSL than the past few seasons.
There s the offense that has opened with back-to-back multi-goal games, behind new forward Rubio Rubin, who has accounted for four goals more than nine teams in MLS to sit in third place in the conference and first in points-per-game.
SANDY, Utah (Wednesday, May 5, 2021) – The
U.S. Men’s National Team will return to Rio Tinto Stadium for the first time since 2017 and will play its first friendly on U.S. soil during a FIFA window since 2019 when it faces Concacaf rival Costa Rica on June 9.
“It is such an incredible opportunity for the state of Utah to welcome U.S. Soccer to Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake has a legacy of U.S. National Team players wearing our crest – from
Eddie Pope and
Nick Rimando and
Kyle Beckerman and the new generation of players that have come through the RSL Academy,” RSL Interim President
Following Tuesday’s announcement that the U.S. Men’s National Team will be returning to Rio Tinto Stadium to face Costa Rica this summer (June 9; ESPN2, Univision), we wanted to recap the history of the USMNT’s matches on Utah soil since Real Salt Lake’s inception in 2005.
When the team steps onto the field against Costa Rica this June, it will be the first time since 2017 that the USMNT has hosted a match at Rio Tinto Stadium, bringing an end to a four-year hiatus for the federation. The team’s match against Costa Rica this year will be the second time the two countries have faced one another in Utah after the first match between the sides came via a 2006 World Cup Qualifying Final Round match at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City that drew over 40,000 fans in early-June 2005.
On This Day in RSL History: RSL falls just short of international glory
Share this story
This was the biggest game in Real Salt Lake history.
Without a doubt - by far.
Sure, other US teams had won an earlier version of the Concacaf Champions Cup, but the competition was much different - played entirely in the US, and over a short period of time. But in 2008 the Confederation restructured the competition into something much more challenging.
To date (2021) no team outside of Mexico has won the CCL, and only 4 MLS teams have made it to the final. Liga MX teams have won the competition every. single. year. And most years it hasn’t even been close for MLS teams. Toronto FC would be the next closest losing in a PK shootout in 2018.