Depleted Real Salt Lake Limps To Season Start Against Houston

SALT LAKE CITY – The Real Salt Lake Starting XI to kickoff the 2022 campaign against Houston will likely surprise a lot of fans.

Pablo Mastroeni begins his first full season as the Club’s permanent head coach and the depletion of the roster makes for far from ideal circumstances.

Key Faces M.I.A

Five key figures are inactive ahead of the season opener. Aaron Herrera is unavailable due to red card suspension following his dismissal during last year’s Western Conference Final against Portland. Everton Luiz is unavailable as he awaits the approval of his P-1 visa. David Ochoa is unavailable as he rehabs a quad strain suffered in the team’s final preseason match while in Portland. Rubio Rubin remains sidelined as he rehabs from a recently conducted adductor surgery, and Nick Besler is unavailable as he recovers from nose surgery in which he had his deviated septum repaired following the break of his nose towards the end of last season.

Therefore, Mastroeni has been forced into making a number of significant lineup decisions.

Real Salt Lake will play in a 3-5-2 shape.

Starting XI & Bench

The guys holding it down.#HOUvRSL | #RSL pic.twitter.com/y7ZswFfO3j

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) February 27, 2022

Zac MacMath is starting in goal with Erik Holt, Justen Glad, and Marcelo Silva providing back three coverage. Andrew Brody and Tate Schmitt will act as wing-backs while Scott Caldwell will make his Real Salt Lake debut alongside Pablo Ruiz and Justin Meram in the midfield. Recently named captain Damir Kreilach and second-year U.S. international Bobby Wood are at the point of the attack.

The bench includes Tomas Gomez, Bode Davis, Johan Kappelhof, Jasper Loeffelsend, Maikel Chang, Sergio Cordova, Jonathan Menéndez, and Chris Garcia.

Game Notes

Of note, Real Salt Lake has four former RSL Academy products starting and six in total on the roster. Four players who were recently announced as Real Monarch players for 2022 are in the squad to take on Houston.

The situation is far from ideal as Real Salt Lake opens its 2022 campaign.

Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. and will be available to stream via the KSL Sports and KSL 5 TV apps or on KSL Sports dot com.