No teams in Major League Soccer are hotter than Real Salt Lake and Orlando City SC, who will face off on Saturday in Sandy, Utah.
Salt Lake (8-7-6, 30 points) is unbeaten over its last six regular-season MLS matches, winning four road games and drawing twice since the start of June. Seven different players have combined to score 10 goals during that run.
“You get these games when there’s pressure on the line,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “And where I feel really good about this group is that everyone understands their roles on both sides of the ball, and I think that allows us to now rotate players.”
The Utah club has done considerable damage away from home. Salt Lake is unbeaten in seven consecutive road matches and is a league-best 6-3-2 outside of the Beehive State. Ironically, home victories have been as sparse as road losses. Salt Lake has only two home wins this season and none since April.
Salt Lake could get an extra spark from the presence of Cristian “Chicho” Arango, the former Los Angeles FC striker who will make his RSL debut on Saturday. Arango scored 32 goals (regular season and playoffs) for LAFC in 2021 and 2022. He played an integral role in helping the club capture both the MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield last season.
Orlando will not make Arango’s debut easy. The Florida club is no stranger to finding ways to get results away from home.
Orlando (9-5-7, 34 points) has the best road record in the Eastern Conference entering Saturday’s match, boasting a 4-2-3 mark away from home. The club is a sterling 5-1-5 overall in its last 11 league matches.
Facundo Torres has been a huge offensive catalyst in that stretch, tallying five goals and three assists.
Four different players scored for Orlando in Tuesday’s 4-0 win over Toronto FC. Cesar Araujo opened the floodgates with a header in the 16th minute.
“The first goal gave us a lot of confidence,” Orlando coach Oscar Pareja said. “After that, what I liked was that everyone was just on their duties. It was not overconfident or different. We were winning the game the way we should do it in front of our fans.”
–Field Level Media