Are Real Salt Lake ACTUALLY contenders for the Supporters' Shield in 2024?
Are Real Salt Lake ACTUALLY contenders for the Supporters' Shield in 2024?
Chicho Arango leads the Golden Boot race by three goals, and RSL can still add a Designated Player in the summer transfer window as it chases hardware in 2024.
Everything’s trending up for Real Salt Lake — way, way, way up, after a 5-1 win over Austin FC that propelled the club 3 points clear of LAFC atop the Western Conference and just 2 points off Inter Miami for the top club in Major League Soccer after Matchdays 17 and 18.
Chicho Arango leads the Golden Boot race by three with 16 on the year, and he’s the third-fastest player in MLS history to reach 25 goal-contributions in a single season (Lionel Messi did it in 12 earlier this year, and Carlos Vela made it in 16 games with LAFC in 2019).
RSL’s regular-season scoring record is 17 goals set by Alvaro Saborio in 2012. To quote Matt Doyle from the league website: “I think he’s gonna get it!”
By now, Real Salt Lake have to be considered contenders in the Western Conference. Unbeaten in their last 13 matches, a run that goes back nearly three months, the club could still sign as many two DPs during the upcoming summer transfer window, with only some minor financial wrangling.
But is RSL a contender for the Supporters’ Shield, the trophy given to the regular-season champion in MLS each year?
Up until now, that’s remained a question. Not anymore.
“In the West, I think it’s a little bit simpler path for them: they have six of nine games at home after Leagues Cup,” MLS Season Pass’ Andrew Wiebe said on MLS Wrap-Up. “But the test for RSL is going to be: 1. Keep Chicho Arango healthy. Last year, when he wasn’t they fell off. And 2: Get your work done on the road before Leagues Cup. If they do that, they will be in the running — and perhaps even favorites — for the Shield.”
For as good as Arango has been — from two hat tricks to 16 goals with nine assists — he’s also done most of his damage without a true No. 10 backing him up. That is, of course, until Saturday night when the Colombian striker did much of his damage floating behind Anderson Julio with Matt Crooks sidelined due to yellow-card accumulation.
In that role, he also assisted on one of Julio’s two goals on the night and played a role in the other.
In other words, maybe Chicho Arango is the No. 10 that RSL has been craving? Or at the very least, imagine the damage that Salt Lake could do with their $6 million striker and floating 10 in the mold of Hany Mukhtar of Nashville SC?
(That’s only a comparison, and in no way an implication that Real Salt Lake may even be interested in signing Mukhtar, the Nashville attacking midfielder under contract through the 2026 season with an option for 2027.)
That will be the challenge as the summer transfer window opens in a month for a team that will look to be as audacious as the midfield goal scored by Arango against a hapless Brad Stuver.
“It was audacious and inventive from the Colombian striker,” wrote MLS’ Sacha Kljestan of Arango, who was named MLS Player of the Matchday for the third time in 2024, “who has been among the best players in the league this year.”
Not only are Real Salt Lake leading the West — though just 3 points up on LAFC and 5 on Minnesota United and the LA Galaxy, which visit America First Field in Sandy on June 22 after a June 15 trip to Stade Saputo and CF Montreal — but the club also boasts a league-high +17 goal differential.
That’s 36 goals scored with just 19 goals allowed on the year, meaning Arango has scored or assisted on 25-of-36 goals in 2024.
RSL is also the only club in Major League Soccer to score at least 30 goals with 20 or fewer conceded.
It’s still early, and the club hasn’t won anything yet. But if the trends keep up, Real Salt Lake could be on the verge of a special season.