Real Salt Lake vs. Sporting Kansas City | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

Real Salt Lake vs. Sporting Kansas City
2018 MLS Regular Season — Week 19
Rio Tinto Stadium — Sandy
July 4 - 10 pm ET
WATCH: ESPN+, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

After three consecutive victories, Real Salt Lake are winless in three straight games following a 2-1 loss at Columbus Crew SC and host a Sporting Kansas City side that had a seven-match unbeaten streak snapped with a 2-0 loss at Montreal.

Since the start of the 2014 season, Real Salt Lake have lost just one MLS match to Sporting Kansas City (5W-4D), per Opta.

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake (7-8-2) conceded a pair of goals in the opening 23 minutes on a Gyasi Zardes penalty kick and Eduardo Sosa’s first MLS goal to trail 2-0 at the break. Albert Rusnak pulled Real Salt Lake to within a goal in the 74th minute, but couldn’t find an equalizer to extend a winless streak to three consecutive games.

Captain Kyle Beckermann started his 300th match for RSL, the most with one franchise for any non-goalkeeper in MLS history.

“That’s been the story for us a lot of games this year. We’ve created a lot of chances, but we’ve had our issues converting enough of them,” head coach Mike Petke said. “Tonight, again we had chances, it was a good goal we had. I thought there was a questionable PK perhaps, not only the one they called for them [Columbus Crew SC] but maybe we could have had one as well. But again, we had our opportunities and we just didn’t put it away.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: D - Marcelo Silva, M - Kyle Beckerman
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: D - Tony Beltran (right knee surgery), M - Jordan Allen (knee surgery), GK - Alex Horwath (Achilles surgery), D - Shawn Barry (knee injury), D - Demar Phillips (ankle injury), M - Luke Mulholland (back injury), D - David Horst (Achilles surgery), F - Ricky Lopez-Espin (knee surgery)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Nick Rimando — Brooks Lennon, Marcelo Silva, Justen Glad, Danilo Acosta — Kyle Beckerman, Sunny — Jefferson Savarino, Albert Rusnak, Sebastian Saucedo — Damir Kreilach

Notes: Real Salt Lake are averaging 2.4 points and 1.9 goals per game in league home matches this year (average 0.4 points and 0.7 goals per game in league road matches). … Real Salt Lake followed up a three-game winning streak in MLS play by going winless in their last three league games (2L-1D). They have not gone four straight MLS games without a win since April-May 2017.

Sporting Kansas City

A little more than two months since their last loss, Sporting Kansas City (9-3-5) fell to the Montreal Impact, 2-0, Saturday night at Stade Saputo. It snapped a six-game winning streak vs. the Impact.

Ignacio Piatti opened the scoring in the 54th minute and Alejandro Silva converted a 70th-minute penalty after Ike Opara fouled Daniel Lovitz in the box.

“If we look at the first goal, we made two big mistakes on the clearance and tackles that should have been easily routine,” SKC manager Peter Vermes said. “And then Piatti finishes off a great chance. It’s a layup for him to hit that ball. Second one as well. We easily had it under control and then we don’t clear correctly again. They score their second. They felt good.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Roger Espinoza
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: M - Felipe Gutierrez (sports hernia surgery), D - Jimmy Medranda (knee injury), M/D - Cristian Lobato (knee injury), M - Gianluca Busio (hamstring injury); QUESTIONABLE: D - Matt Besler (hamstring injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-3-3, right to left)
GK: Tim Melia — Graham Zusi, Ike Opara, Matt Besler, Jaylin Lindsey — Roger Espinoza, Ilie Sanchez, Yohan Croizet — Johnny Russell, Daniel Salloi, Gerso Fernandes

Notes: Salloi has scored four of Sporting Kansas City’s 11 goals since May 1. … Sporting saw their seven-game unbeaten run in league play come to an end in their 2-0 loss to Montreal last weekend, the third time in five games they have been shut out. They were shut out three times in the previous 14 games.

All-Time Series

Overall: Real Salt Lake 10 wins, 32 goals … Sporting Kansas City 9 wins, 32 goals … 7 draws
At Salt Lake: Real Salt Lake 7 wins, 20 goals … Sporting 3 wins, 15 goals … 3 draws
Last meeting at Salt Lake: Real Salt Lake 2, Sporting Kansas City 1 (Oct. 22, 2017)