Real Salt Lake

The club

Real Salt Lake were awarded a Major League Soccer expansion franchise on July 14, 2004, becoming the league's twelfth club, and began play in 2005. The founding owner, Dave Checketts, chose the name "Real," Spanish for "royal," a title used since the early twentieth century by Spanish clubs granted royal patronage, partly in the hope of fostering a relationship with Real Madrid. No such partnership was documented in the sources read here, and Real Salt Lake has no organisational connection to Real Madrid: the shared naming convention is stylistic, not a link between the two clubs. Ownership passed from Checketts (2004-2013) to Dell Loy Hansen (2013-2020), then to Ryan Smith and David Blitzer (2022-2025), and in 2025 to Miller Sports + Entertainment, led by Gail Miller, in a deal reported at 600 million dollars.

The club played its first three seasons at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus, capacity 45,071, before moving to its own stadium in Sandy, Utah, when it opened on October 9, 2008, as Rio Tinto Stadium. Capacity is 20,213. The ground was renamed America First Field in September 2022.

The head coach is Pablo Mastroeni, in his fifth full season in charge as of 2026.

Recent seasons

As of August 23, 2026, Real Salt Lake sit eighth in the Western Conference with a record of 8 wins, 8 losses and 4 draws from 20 matches, 28 points and a goal difference of plus two, level on points with Colorado Rapids but behind them on total wins. In the 2025 MLS season the club finished ninth in the Western Conference and 19th overall, reaching the playoffs through the wild card round. Fuller detail on league finishes before 2025 was not established from the sources read here.

Honours and landmarks

Real Salt Lake are MLS Cup champions once, in 2009, their only major domestic trophy to date. They finished runners-up in the 2013 MLS Cup, losing to Sporting Kansas City, and runners-up in the 2013 U.S. Open Cup, losing to D.C. United. They finished runners-up for the Supporters' Shield in 2010, a season in which the club put together a run of 25 games unbeaten.

The club's most significant continental achievement came in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League, where they became the first American club to reach the final under the tournament's group-stage format, before losing to Mexico's CF Monterrey. They also reached the group stage of the 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League and the quarter-finals of the 2015-16 edition.

Notable scorelines

Real Salt Lake's 2009 MLS Cup final win over LA Galaxy is the club's landmark result: a 1-1 draw after extra time at Qwest Field in Seattle on November 22, 2009, in front of 46,011 spectators, settled by a 5-4 penalty shootout. Mike Magee had put Galaxy ahead in the 41st minute and Robbie Findley equalised for Real Salt Lake in the 64th. In the shootout, Clint Mathis, Robbie Findley, Ned Grabavoy, Chris Wingert and Robbie Russell all scored for Real Salt Lake, with Russell's the winning kick, while Kyle Beckerman and Andy Williams missed; for Galaxy, David Beckham, Gregg Berhalter, Mike Magee and Chris Klein scored, while Jovan Kirovski, Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle missed. The referee was Kevin Stott.

The 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League final was lost 3-2 on aggregate to Monterrey. The first leg, at the Estadio Tecnológico in Monterrey on April 20, 2011, finished 2-2, Aldo de Nigris and a Humberto Suazo penalty scoring for Monterrey against goals from Nat Borchers and Javier Morales for Real Salt Lake, in front of 30,247. The second leg, at Rio Tinto Stadium on April 27, 2011, was lost 1-0, Suazo scoring in first-half stoppage time in front of a home crowd of 20,378.

In the current 2026 MLS season the club has recorded wins including a 4-2 win over San Diego on April 18 and a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on April 4, against defeats that have included a 2-3 comeback loss suffered on the road at Atlanta on March 7 turned into a win, and a 2-0 home defeat to Inter Miami on April 22. A full list of the club's biggest-ever wins and defeats was not established from the sources read here.

Head-to-head notes

Real Salt Lake's principal rivalry is with Colorado Rapids, contested for the Rocky Mountain Cup since Real Salt Lake's entry into MLS in 2005. The cup is awarded by a fan committee to whichever club accumulates more points across their regular-season meetings that year, with goal difference as the first tiebreaker and the defending holder retaining the cup if the tie persists. As of October 4, 2025, Real Salt Lake lead the all-time series 30 wins to 18, with 13 draws, and currently hold the trophy after winning the 2025 edition on goal difference following a 3-3 aggregate tie. In the 2026 meeting on May 16, Real Salt Lake won 2-1. The clubs were scheduled to meet again on August 29, 2026.

Right now (2026/27)

Pablo Mastroeni remains head coach, in his fifth full season with the club. As of August 23, 2026, Real Salt Lake sit eighth in the Western Conference on 28 points from 20 matches, level on points with Colorado Rapids but trailing them on total wins. The 2026 season is Real Salt Lake's 22nd in MLS and the final one played under the league's spring-to-autumn calendar before a move to a summer-to-spring schedule beginning in 2027. Current transfer activity for the club was not established from the sources read here, and the club's playoff position for 2026 is not yet determined.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Salt_Lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_MLS_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_CONCACAF_Champions_League_Final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Real_Salt_Lake_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Major_League_Soccer_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_Cup

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.