Real Salt Lake Boasts Third Best Home Record In League

SALT LAKE CITY – The importance of hosting a playoff game cannot be underestimated for Real Salt Lake given their impressive record at Rio Tinto Stadium.

RSL boasts the third-best home record in the entire league only behind conference leaders LAFC and Philadelphia Union. Through 14 games, RSL has managed 8 wins, 2 losses, and 4 draws at home, 8 of the 11 wins in 2022 have come at Rio Tinto Stadium. While 7 of the 9 losses have occurred on the road.

Real Salt Lake Must Win At Home Down Stretch

For Major League Soccer junkies, those numbers may not be overly surprising. Winning soccer games away from home in this league has never been easy, rather, fighting for a point on the road is only marginally easier than trying to pick up three.

Only five games remain for Real Salt Lake in the regular season. Currently, they find themselves in the sixth position, three points from being outside of the playoff line and four points from the third position.

Naturally, the race for a playoff position will likely conclude on the final day of the regular season when RSL hosts Portland Timbers on October 9. Last year RSL waited until the final kick of the season when Damir Kreilach scored a go-ahead goal against Sporting Kansas City to book a ticket to the playoffs.

More of these two coming soon 🎥 pic.twitter.com/pbJLAbv4pJ

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 6, 2022

The remaining five games all pose various concerns. Of the five games, three will be played at home and two on the road. The home games include D.C. United, Cincinnati, and Portland Timbers while RSL will travel on the road for fixtures against Austin and L.A. Galaxy.

D.C. United and Cincinnati are both members of the Eastern Conference which adds to the intrigue. D.C. United is sitting firmly on the bottom, six points shy of 13th placed Chicago Fire, while Cincinnati is fighting for a playoff positing.

With how dominant RSL has proven to be at home, the importance of hosting a home playoff game cannot be underestimated. It is pivotal if RSL hopes to lift silverware in 2022.

Last year RSL managed to advance to the Western Conference Final despite not playing a home playoff game, but during the conference final, RSL was outplayed and outmatched against a more comfortable Portland Timbers team playing its second home playoff game.

Next Real Salt Lake Match

Following a week that included three games in eight days, Real Salt Lake will now recover and will return home in six days’ time for an encounter with D.C. United.

The match will be available to stream for free via the KSL Sports and KSL 5 TV apps or on KSL Sports dot com.