April 19, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release
HERRIMAN, Utah – Real Salt Lake (3-2-3, 12 pts., t-3rd West MLS) resumes its 2024 MLS regular season – the Club’s 20th and Major League Soccer 29th – this Saturday evening in Chicago, Ill., at historic Soldier Field with a 6:30p MT kickoff against the Chicago Fire (2-3-3, 8 pts, 11th East MLS). RSL enters Matchday Ten of the 2024 season unbeaten in its last four matches – last losing on March 9 to Colorado – and seeking a fourth consecutive road result, with Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s team posting a 1-1-2 (5 pts) record away this year, losing only the season kickoff at Miami on Feb. 24.
Last week’s 0-0 home draw against visiting Columbus saw RSL Captain / FW Chicho Arango – Major League Soccer’s top goal contributor with six goals and four assists on the season – snap his three-game streak of appearing on the scoresheet, although the defensive clean sheet by GK Zac MacMath and company was the Club’s second in eight games this season.
Arango had recorded four of his six goals in consecutive weeks vs. St. Louis and at Minnesota in an eight day span from March 30 – April 6, providing a three-goal explosion in a 21-minute span in the Utah side’s come-from-behind 3-1 home win over St. Louis, the Club’s first hat trick since September 17, 2018 (Damir Kreilach). Chicho’s three-goal performance is just the seventh in RSL’s 622-game MLS history, the Colombian joining Alvaro Saborio (three hats – two in 2012, one in 2013), along with Robbie Findley (2009), Javier Morales (2014) and Kreilach. Former Captain, head coach and current Club director Jason Kreis also had a hat trick, albeit in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup.
Arango now has two hat tricks in his MLS career – his first was for LAFC in late 2021 against Dallas – and boasts 105 goals as a professional, including 49 goals in 83 games across all competitions since arriving in MLS for LAFC and RSL. Since appearing on the Wasatch Front last July, Chicho boasts 14 goals and six assists in 26 MLS appearances for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with those numbers increasing to 16 goals and eight assists in 31 RSL games across all competitions (incl. Leagues Cup, Open Cup, Playoffs).
RSL boasts a 1-1-2 record away from home this year, winning on the road in Vancouver on March 23, while settling for draw at St. Louis on Feb. 24 and at Minnesota two weeks ago, on April 6, following a season-opening loss at Miami on Feb. 21. A year ago, Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s…
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