Real Salt Lake will have a short turnaround after knocking off the Houston Dynamo 3-1 in the Lonestar State on Saturday. The Claret and Cobalt head down to El Salvador to face Santa Tecla in the first of two meetings between these clubs in CONCACAF Champions League Group G play. In CCL group play, there are 3 teams and they play each other twice (once at home and once on the road). RSL already played Municipal in Guatemala on August 4th and came out with a 1-0 win off of a goal from Joao Plata. The winner of the group will move on the CCL Quarterfinals in February 2016. RSL is 1-0-0 (3 points). Santa Tecla and Municipal squared off in El Salvador and played to a 1-1 draw on August 19th. The two teams faced each other again in Guatemala 6 days later as Municipal came away with a 2-1 win. RSL controls their destiny in CCL right now as Municipal is 1-0-1 (4 points) and Santa Tecla is 0-1-1 (1 point). If RSL can pick up at least 1 point tonight and one win at home out of a possible two matches (Santa Tecla on 9/24, Municipal on 10/20) they will secure Group G and advance to the knockout round in February. RSL is the only American team to have advanced all the way to the CCL final where they lost in the second leg 1-0 to Monterrey in 2010 at Rio Tinto Stadium. There has only been 2 MLS teams to advance to the final (RSL in 2010 and Montreal in April this year).
RSL is also in the middle of an important stretch in MLS play as they are 6 points behind the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 6 more games left in the regular season (3 home, 3 away).
You can listen to the match on ESPN 700 beginning with pregame coverage at 7pm with kickoff at 8pm.
