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SANDY — Real Salt Lake’s 2014 season has been over for three games, but the team won more honors Sunday afternoon.
With the L.A. Galaxy’s Major League Soccer-best fifth MLS Cup title, RSL clinched the league’s final berth in the CONCACAF Champion’s League. L.A., Seattle and D.C. United had already clinched a bid in the top tournament for teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean.
“What a phenomenal accomplishment to have qualified for CCL again,” RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey said in a statement. “This tourney — extremely important to our club — helped put us on the map in 2010 when we were the first American team to win our group and again in 2011 when we were the only American team to reach the final.”
RSL (15-8-11) qualified for the 2010 CCL by way of its 2009 MLS Cup title, and advanced to the 2011 tournament with a third-place finish in the Supporters' Shield standings after the top two teams qualified via other methods — just like this season.
“We have been working to get back into CCL since we got knocked out in the fall of 2012,” Lagerwey added. “This is a great opportunity for us to take on the best teams in the region as we continue to grow the next generation of RSL.”
RSL season-ticket holders will also have tickets to home CCL matches, which begin in August 2015.
U.S. soccer is awarded four bids annually to the CONCACAF Champion’s League, allocated to the winners of the Supporters' Shield, MLS Cup, the top team in the conference opposite the Supporters' Shield winner, and the winner of the U.S. Open Cup, which pits MLS teams against teams from the North American Soccer League, USL PRO and federation-sanctioned amateur leagues around the country.
