Real Salt Lake Dismantles Minnesota United In Return To Rio Tinto Stadium

SALT LAKE CITY – Real Salt Lake picked up its first victory at home with an emphatic 3-0 win against Minnesota United on Wednesday evening.

Manager Pablo Mastroeni made one change from four days ago when RSL drew 1-1 against FC Dallas as Scott Caldwell started for Pablo Ruiz who was not selected on the bench. It remains unknown why Ruiz was not available.

Adrian Heath and Minnesota United also made wholesale changes ahead of the contest as star player Emmanuel Reynoso did not make the trip. Robin Lod and Luis Amarilla, two prolific attacking threats, were on the bench.

Sergio Score-dova

Real Salt Lake began the fixture in impressive form and quickly opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Sergio Córdova scored after dancing around United defenders in the box before slotting his shot past Dayne St. Claire.

After their team's first goal, Real Salt Lake fans flooded the field with teddy bears which will be donated to children with cancer 👏

(via @MLS)pic.twitter.com/e0FAQ9gamM

— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 1, 2022

The club was honoring childhood cancer with “Kick Childhood Cancer Night” at Rio Tinto Stadium and following the Córdova goal fans threw teddy bears onto the pitch. All teddy bears will now be donated to local charities fighting childhood cancer.

If the league fines Real Salt Lake for its stunt, the RSL ownership group has pledged to match the fine with a donation to 5 For The Fight.

Super Savarino

Real Salt Lake was in complete control of the game and doubled their lead in the 23rd minute when Jefferson Savarino got on the end of a brilliant cross provided by Aaron Herrera.

It went from bad to worse for Minnesota as St. Claire was forced off with a finger injury at halftime. Back-up goalkeeper Tyler Miller took his place between the sticks.

With a road game upcoming this Sunday evening against LAFC, Mastroeni unsurprisingly went to his bench throughout the second half.

The first two substitutions came in the 60th minute as Bryan Oviedo debuted at home and Rubio Rubin replaced Maikel Chang and Justin Meram, respectively.

Julio Makes It A Treble

Anderson Julio then replaced Córdova in the 71st and in the 79th minute scored the game’s third goal when Andrew Brody fed Julio in on goal, Julio then clipped the ball around Miller before passing the ball into the back of the net.

Oh Mr. Julio you amazing amazing man. pic.twitter.com/c6Nu7kCLYA

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 1, 2022

It was a dominant display for Real Salt Lake who failed to pick up all three points at home in their previous three matches.

With the win, RSL remains in the sixth position in the Western Conference and tied on points with Nashville SC, who currently occupies the fifth position.

Justen Glad and Jasper Löffelsend both picked up first-half yellow cards which will now rule them out of the upcoming fixture against LAFC due to yellow card accumulation.

Next Match

Real Salt Lake will travel to Banc of California Stadium for a fixture against Supporter Shield leaders LAFC on Sunday evening.

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