RSL En Fuego: Chicho's 1st-half brace lifts Salt Lake to 4-0 win over Chicago

Chicho Arango secured a first-half brace, Salt Lake scored 3 goals before the break, and RSL left Chicago with a dominant 4-0 win over the Fire at Soldier Field.

The type of game like what Real Salt Lake did in its first half on the road against Chicago doesn’t happen often.

For just the third time in club history, RSL scored three goals on the road before halftime as Chicho Arango secured a first-half brace en route to a 4-0 win over the Fire at Soldier Field.

It’s the first time Salt Lake has scored a triplet before heading to the locker room since last May’s 3-2 win over the Colorado Rapids, as first noted by RSL PR manager and club historian Trey Fitz-Gerald. Prior to that, RSL last netted three on the road in a half during a 5-2 win over Houston, when Javier Morales had a brace.

With Fidel Barajas rotating in for Diego Luna on the wing, Gavin Beavers replacing Zach MacMath in goal, and the center back tandem of Bryan Oviedo and Bode Hidalgo making its first start together in MLS play, RSL started aggressive and never let up.

“One of our strengths as a group has been to be on the front foot and put pressure on the ball,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “I think our center backs stepping hard when it’s appropriate and our pivots back pressing, then between Gavin, Bode and Brody tonight, they did a good job.

“We didn’t know that J-Glad and/or Vera wouldn’t be available until Thursday. But their mindsets to be ready when the opportunity came is fantastic. I thought it was a great collective performance.”

Andrés Gómez opened the scoring in the 24th minute, finishing a chance from Alex Katranis before Arango doubled the advantage less than 10 minutes later. The Colombian assassin savagely picked apart a poor backward pass and made the Fire defense pay with his first goal of the match.

Arango finished his eighth goal of the 2024 campaign in the 37th minute, finishing a header from Oviedo in the center of the box to lift the visitors to a 3-0 halftime advantage.

In his first full season with RSL, Arango has eight goals and six assists for the West-leading Salt Lake through 10 matches.

“Everything is part of the job. Without my teammates, none of this would be possible, those numbers,” Arango said in Spanish after the match. “If it weren’t for each of my teammates, obviously there wouldn’t bet be goals or assists. It’s part of my job, and I love to go to work every day. Practice makes perfect, so I’m just going to keep practicing and working to be a better player and person that my teammates can trust in.”

Gavin Beavers made five saves to earn the first MLS clean sheet of the 18-year-old U.S. youth international’s career, and Diego Luna added the final marker in the third minute of second-half stoppage time to help RSL take all three points with a dominant road win.

“The back line was massive tonight. Getting a shut out was great here,” Beavers said.

“I think we’re just a bunch of dogs. We’re willing to go out there for 90 minutes every day, ready to go and ready to play. I think having the right mindset throughout the week, whether you’re playing or not, you have to be ready to go … Having a good group does everything well for you.”

Saturday was also the debut of new RSL center back Philip Quinton, who played against RSL last week in the Crew’s 0-0 draw at America First Field, flew back to Columbus, and then flew to Chicago to join up with his new team Friday — just in time to get feedback from his new coaching staff about game plan on a laptop in the team hotel.

“Obviously, he has a bunch of quality and we know what he can do on the field; we just played him last week,” Beavers said. “It’s great to have him with the squad. I told him, if you’re not comfortable with a ball, no worries. We’ll get it up and in. But he did great to come in and finish the game off.”

With the win, Real Salt Lake improved to 4-2-3 for 15 points, tied for first in the Western Conference. It’s early, but it’s a solid start, Mastroeni said.

“I think it’s just a barometer of where we’re currently at,” he added. “I don’t think it’s anything more than that. I’m excited about what we can do as a group, but the onus is on us to get better … I think we’ve established a decent standard, we know when we’re at our best, and we know where we still are lacking.”