Philadelphia was slated to enter Rio Tinto stadium in the spring, but they were courteous enough to postpone when Real Salt Lake was looking to lighten their April schedule, heavy with CONCACAF Champions League playoff matches.
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The June fixture between the two teams happened according to schedule, with Fabian Espíndola’s 53rd minute equalizer sneaking Real Salt Lake out of PPL Park with a road point after an early goal from Keon Daniel had put them in the hole.
RSL played without several starters in that match due to Gold Cup call-ups, and they’ll be similarly depleted when they finally face the Union at home on Saturday. Friendlies and World Cup qualifiers will take Will Johnson (Canada), Álvaro Saborío (Costa Rica), Arturo Alvarez (El Salvador) and Jean Alexandre (Haiti) away from Real Salt Lake for the match. Add a painfully long injury report (Wingert, Agorsor, Gonzalez, Morales, Reynish, Grabavoy, et al.) and Nat Borchers’s red card suspension, and the home side may not be able to dress the full 18 men allowed on their gameday roster. Practice at XANGO field looked equally sparse this week, despite the welcome presence of mending Javier Morales.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, will have to get creative with a sparse group of defensive players. Center back Carlos Valdés is out with yellow card accumulation and defensive midfielder Brian Carroll is doubtful with a foot contusion. Keon Daniel is also out representing Trinidad & Tobago.
A young RSL team, likely to feature 17-year-old FW/MF Luis Gil and solid defensive understudy Chris Schuler, will have to adapt to a dynamic Union attack featuring Sebastian Le Toux (8 assists, 3 goals) and newly signed Freddy Adu.
The Union and RSL are both in playoff position with 10 games remaining, but not comfortably. Philadelphia has 34 points (8–6–10), good for fourth place in the East, and RSL’s 39 points (11–7–6) puts them at fifth in the West. Hot-and-cold RSL (LLWLLW in their last six) look to re-fortify the Rio Tinto “Fortress” against a hungry Philadelphia, winless in league play since July 17.
In three previous meetings, Real Salt Lake holds the edge at 1–0–2.
It’s a match with big implications, and it just might be won in the locker room as both sides strategize around soft spots in the respective lineups.
(image courtesy of realsaltlake.com)
