Real Salt Lake vs. Los Angeles Football Club | 2020 MLS Match Preview

2020 MLS Regular Season – Week 11
Real Salt Lake vs. LAFC
Rio Tinto Stadium – Sandy
September 9 – 9:30 PM ET

STREAMING: MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US; MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada

LOCAL TV: YouTube TV [LA region only], EstrellaTV 62, KMYU

Two teams coming off lopsided results on the weekend meet up at Rio Tinto Stadium when Real Salt Lake host LAFC Wednesday night in a rescheduled match.

RSL (2W-2L-5D) suffered a 4-0 defeat to Minnesota United after rallying for a point in back-to-back games, while LAFC (3W-3L-3D) suffered a second consecutive El Trafico defeat to the LA Galaxy, falling 3-0 in Carson Sunday. 

Although its a small sample size, LAFC have yet to lose in Sandy, following up a shocking 5-1 victory in their second-ever MLS match with a 2-0 win last August.

Real Salt Lake

This time, there would be no comeback. The Loons erupted for four second-half goals against a rotated RSL squad where usual attacking starters Damir Kreilach, Corey Baird and Albert Rusnak came off the bench.

“Maybe I can take the blame. The thing is we have a good squad, but it’s hard when not everyone is 90 minutes fit," coach Freddy Juarez said. "So maybe I could’ve gotten fresh legs in. The guys gave what they could and did it well especially in the first half. But that’s the thing when you go through these rotations. You have to mix and match because it’s a long haul."

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: None
• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None

LAFC

The latest chapter of El Trafico produced the same result as the last one, with LAFC falling to their archrivals 3-0 at Dignity Heath Sports Park Sunday night. Cristian Pavon opened the scoring early in the second half and Sebastian Lletget added a brace to close things out. To make things worse, Mark-Anthony Kaye was sent off in the 53rd minute so Bob Bradley's side, which has lost three of its last four, will be without Kaye and the injured Eduard Atuesta and Carlos Vela Wednesday. 

"The main thing is the need for different guys to take more responsibility," Bradley said. "Those guys would be Tristan [Blackmon], that would be Eddie Segura, that would be Mark, and Diego [Rossi]. As I said, Diego’s doing a very good job, but we have to have others — Latif [Blessing] — that now understand when you’re on a good team and you go through a tough stretch, they’ve got to be the one to push the others, and I don’t think we’ve gotten from those guys in the absence of Carlos and Eduard.”

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: Carlos Vela (F) - Grade 2 MLS sprain
  • OUT: Eduard Atuesta (M) - right foot injury
  • OUT: Danilo Silva (D) - undisclosed injury
• Suspended: Mark-Anthony Kaye (M)
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None

Series Matchup at Real Salt Lake

• Real Salt Lake: 0 wins, 1 goal
• LAFC: 2 wins, 7 goals
• 0 draws

Officials

• Referee: Victor Rivas
• Assistant Referees: Jose da Silva, TJ Zablocki
• 4th Official: Elton Garcia
• VAR: Edvin Jurisevic