Austin FC recorded a 2-1victory at Real Salt Lake on March 11, the first road victory by either side in the history of the series. The three meetings in Austin ended with a pair of Austin FC wins and a penalty shoot-out win for the Austin FC Verde after a 2-2 draw in last season’s playoffs.
Austin FC has followed an eight-match winless run in league play with three wins in its last four (L1), including consecutive wins at home. Austin FC has never won three straight home matches in a single season.
Real Salt Lake has managed just five wins in 44 all-time MLS matches in Texas(D12 L27, including playoffs). Real Salt Lake has managed to earn draws in nine of its last 14 visits to the Lone Star State since 2018 (W2 L3), including in last season’s playoffs at Austin FC, before losing in a penalty shoot-out.
Sebastian Driussi came off the bench to score the winning goal in Austin FC’s 2-1 victory on Wednesday in his first match in a month. Driussi has recorded at least one goal contribution in 16 of his last 19 home MLS appearances (17 goals, 3 assists, including playoffs), though one of the three he didn’t was against Real Salt Lake.
Pablo Ruiz scored Real Salt Lake’s second goal against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday on a direct free-kick, the first direct free-kick goal for Real Salt Lake since April 2018 (Albert Rusnak vs the Colorado Rapids). Every other MLS team had recorded at least one direct free-kick goal since the beginning of the 2019 season.
