Some rivalries are born of regional proximity. You learn to love-to-hate your neighbors, hopefully in a friendly way. Other rivalries are born because one team seems to block the other’s ambitions. For the Sounders, RSL are in that second category. Two teams that dominate the other when playing at home face off today, now with an undercurrent of “stop stealing our staff.”
Real Salt Lake dominates this series at home. Seattle Sounders only have a single regular season win at the near-mile-high stadium of Rio Tinto with an all-competitions record of 16-15-6, +1. Maybe the trick is to play against Salt Lake when their captain and short-list best player returns for the first time?