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SANDY — Fresh off its big weekend 3-1 win over Major League Soccer Western Conference rival the Los Angeles Galaxy, Real Salt Lake will return to Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup action as it hosts the Charleston Battery in a fourth-round match and continuing its aggressive approach to win the tournament this year.
“We really, really want to set the tone in the tournament and get the results,” RSL defender Nat Borchers said following last Saturday’s match. “We’ve been very poor in Open Cup, and I think we haven’t taken our opponents as seriously as we needed to and this is just another chance. It’s just a great opportunity for us to get something else and put it in the trophy case and be proud of something.”
RSL advanced in Open Cup play with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Atlanta Silverbacks on May 28. The Battery advanced the same day with a 1-0 win over MLS club the San Jose Earthquakes.
The match will be the second the Claret and Cobalt has played in its pursuit to the Cup, and it's been able to host both matches. With more luck in the U.S. soccer coin flips for the tournament that determine the hosting rights for the matches, a victory on Wednesday night over Charleston would put RSL through to the quarterfinal round on June 26. The Salt Lake club would either host MLS opponent Chivas USA or the Carolina RailHawks in that match.
We really, really want to set the tone in the tournament and get the results. We've been very poor in Open Cup, and I think we haven't taken our opponents as seriously as we needed to and this is just another chance. It's just a great opportunity for us to get something else and put it in the trophy case and be proud of something.
–Nat Borchers
If the Salt Lake club advances to the quarterfinal round, the club will have a chance to make history, as it has never advanced past that stage in its past years of U.S. Open Cup action.
“We’re all very much aligned in it this year with a little bit of a different approach to it this year,” RSL head coach Jason Kreis told the media following last Saturday’s match.
RSL will be without a number of regulars in Wednesday’s match due to international duty call-ups. Goalkeeper Nick Rimando (USA), forward Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica) and Abdoulie Mansally (The Gambia) will all remain with their national teams until June 18. RSL midfielder Luis Gil will be with the U.S. Soccer Under-20 team until at least July 3 as it preps and participates in the U-20 World Cup in Turkey.
The Claret and Cobalt will take a bit of a break following U.S. Open Cup action Wednesday night with a bye week in MLS action this weekend. RSL will return to MLS action June 22 as it hosts the Seattle Sounders. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
