Major League Soccer continues to play its regular season through the March FIFA window. FC Dallas will be one of the 26 clubs in action this weekend as they take on long-time rivals Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Utah.

Real Salt Lake comes into Saturday's match with a 2-2-0 record to begin the new season. Last weekend, they picked up a rare win away in Texas as they downed the Houston Dynamo 2-1.

Outside of league play, RSL also competed in the Concacaf Champions Cup this year. Their run in that competition came to an early end as they lost in the opening round to Costa Rican side Herediano.

Let's dive into Saturday's opponent a bit to see what RSL brings to the match and how FC Dallas could come away with some points as they look to end a two-game losing streak.

Key Player: Diogo Goncalves

With Diego Luna out on international duty this weekend, RSL will possibly have to turn to Goncalves to lead the way against FCD. So far in 2025, Goncalves has one goal and one assist to his name.

Key Matchup: Anderson Julio vs Sam Junqua

I want to say that a year ago, this was the match up between these two squads but on the FCD side it was how Junqua would defend someone like Julio. Now, it is the opposite as the offseason trade pieces will face off against one another again in Julio's return to Utah.

Availability Report1:

Suspended: none
Out: Matthew Bell (hamstring), Zac MacMath (shoulder)
Questionable: none
On Loan: none
International duty: Zavier Gozo (US U20), Aiden Hezarkhani (US U18), Diego Luna (US), Dominik Marczuk (Poland U21), Gio Villa (US U17)

Quick Notes:

Last season against FCD: The Western Conference rivals met twice last season. The first meeting in Frisco was a wild 3-3 match that saw RSL come from three goals down to tie the game up. The lone Utah meeting came later in the season as RSL picked up a 3-2 win.

Recent run against FCD: Since 2020, the last ten meetings between the two clubs have been fairly split, as RSL holds a 3-3-4 record.

Last year’s record for RSL: RSL was a bit of a surprise for most people, as they raced out to a solid record early on in the regular season before cooling off in the summer. RSL ended with 59 points, good for 3rd in the Western Conference.

Potential Lineup: Pablo Mastroeni will have to do a bit of rotating with his attacking group with key players on international duty. He loves to use a heavy-possession oriented group with a focus on controlled passing in the build up play.

Cabral, Junqua, Vera, Glad, Quinton; Eneli, Ojeda; Wolff, Goncavles, Brook, Ajago

Keys To Three Points over RSL

  1. Get back to basics: Defensively, FC Dallas was better in the 1-0 loss to Vancouver. They'll need to continue that defensive mentality on the road here that they've already been able to establish this season. On the other end, getting everyone on the same page offensively as Lucho Acosta is going to be massive in this one. If he can go 90 minutes without being frurtrated like we saw against Vancouver, they'll return to Texas with points.
  2. Guard the box: With Maarten Paes out on international duty this weekend, we're going to see a Homegrown keeper earn a starting role (likely Michael Collodi). RSL does very well at getting in and around the penalty area. The Dallas defense is going to need to find ways to limit their chances on goal and more importantly, limit their passing within the penalty area.
  3. Counter attack, baby: When the build up play is struggling, it is time to find ways to stretch the opposing defense with long balls over the top to guys like Julio, Logan Farrington or Bernard Kamungo and their speed.
đź’µ
This story is available for free to everyone. If you’d like to support us but don’t want to commit to a full subscription, you can leave us a tip of any amount (this helps keep our coffee/beer mugs full).

1 Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the day before each game. I will put last week’s report in these scouting reports and update where I can ahead of the weekly release from the league.