Salt Lake City Real Salt Lake traveled to Colorado for the inaugural Rocky Mountain Cup in 2022 for Real Salt Lake’s second straight game after losing last week to SKC on the road.
Last week’s loss was the first of the season for Real Salt Lake, who suffered a 1-0 defeat to Johnny Russell and SKC at Mercy Park. This weekend’s game against Colorado will be the first time this season that Real Salt Lake has played back-to-back road matches.
Forget worrying about injury and extreme hardship
Real Salt Lake’s injury fears have been exacerbated by last week’s loss to SKC. Manager Pablo Mastroini and the club currently have nine players listed as “outside” and two more listed as “suspicious”.
The list of injuries includes; David Ochoa (right quadruped), Aaron Herrera (left calf), Zach Farnsworth (right ankle), Brett Halsey (ankle), Justin Gladd (hamstring), Eric Holt (left foot), Johan Kappelhoff (left calf), Jonathan Menendez (close-up), and Bobby Wood (hamstring). While Jasper Lovensend (hamstring), and Nick Besler (nose) are mentioned as suspect.
Because of the long list of injured players, Real Salt Lake received an “extreme hardship waiver” from Major League Soccer. Allow defender Bobby Pierre and midfielder Pierre Reddy to join the Real Monarchs first team.
MLS “extreme hardship” rules dictate that once a team has fewer than 16 players off the field, temporary solutions can be found.
Strong Rapids Main Line
The Rapids under head coach Robin Fraser are on the cusp of a very impressive club record. From March 12, 2016 to March 18, 2017, the Rapids went 19 games unbeaten at home. Currently, Colorado has not lost at Dick Sporting Goods Park in its previous 18 games.
The last time Real Salt Lake defeated Colorado on the road was in 2020 when RSL scored four goals in the second half to beat the Rapids 4-1 at Dick Sporting Goods Park.
“This is a really interesting rivalry,” said Rapids coach Robin Fraser. “I’ve been on both sides and no matter how either team plays in the year, in a way these games are just really tough matches. We know that, and going into that, yeah, it’s good to play first at home and try to raise Your foot is at home. But wherever we play it, whether it’s here or there, it’s always a real fight. We know that’s what it takes to compete with them and to be able to reach the top in the end.”
So far this season, Colorado has played four games, setting a record 2-1-1 with wins over Atlanta and SKC. They are currently sitting sixth in the Western Conference with a game in hand over Real Salt Lake.
Close contacts
Coach Pablo Mastroini will return to the club he once captained to the only MLS Cup. Mastrowini’s number 25 kit is the only retirement shirt in Rapids history. He is widely regarded as one of the most missionary players to ever wear a burgundy ensemble. Furthermore, Mastrowini also spent three and a half seasons managing Colorado, during which time he led the Rapids to the best regular season record ever with 6 franchise low points and 58 points in 2016. That same year he finished second in the league’s Coach of the Year vote American football.
Goalkeeper Zach McMath, who was fantastic at the start of the 2022 season, also spent a lot of time on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. MacMath was with Rapids between 2016 and 2018 where he made 28 appearances prior to the arrival of American legend Tim Howard.
game info
The Real Salt Lake and Colorado club will start at 7 p.m. from Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The match will be available to stream for free via the KSL Sports & KSL 5 TV apps or on KSL Sports dot com.
Unlike previous seasons, Real Salt Lake and Colorado will play each other on only two occasions in 2022, with Real Salt Lake scheduled to host the return leg on July 9.
