For the first time since 2013 Real Salt Lake will be playing in the CONCACAF Champions League looking to make it back to the CCL final after falling at the hands of Mexican side Monterrey in the 2010-2011 final. This is a broken down first look at RSL’s CCL opponents.
The initial draw for the tournament took place Monday night and RSL was placed into group G with Guatemala’s CSD Municipal and El Salvador’s Santa Tecla FC.
Here is a look at both of RSL’s CCL opponents including their history, how they qualified for the tournament, as well as other fun facts about the clubs and their players.
Club Social Y Deportivo Municipal
Nickname: Los Rojos (The Reds)
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
League: Liga Nacional de Futbol (Guatemala)
Stadium: Estadio Manuel Felipe Carerra (7,500)
Manager: Enzo Trossero
Rival: Comunicaciones
Municipal is one of the oldest clubs in North/Central America with its inception dating back to 1936 when the club was founded by city hall employees of the Guatemala City municipality. Since then the club has won 29 league titles, eight Copa de Guatemala’s, the 1974 CONCACAF Champions Cup and have never been relegated from the Guatemalan premier division.
Municipal qualified for the 2015-2016 CCL by earning the most points across the 2013 Apertura and 2014 Clausura seasons of the Guatemalan premier division.
In 22 CCL appearances, Municipal has a combined record of 7-6-9 and has never made it out of the group stage in the tournament’s current format.
Municipal’s arch-rival is Comunicaciones which was the original club of current RSL defender Elias Vasquez. RSL technical director Craig Waibel told the Salt Lake Tribune that Vasquez will aid in the scouting of Municipal.
Municipal has one American player on its roster in 21-year-old Jeffery Payeras who was a LA Galaxy academy player in his youth.
Santa Tecla Futbol Club
Nickname: Formerly “Quequeisque”
Location: Santa Tecla, El Salvador
League: Primera Division (El Salvador)
Stadium: Estadio Las Delicias (10,000)
Manager: Osvaldo “El Pichi” Escudero
Rival: CD Aguila and CD FAS
Unlike Municipal, Santa Tecla has a very small history with the inception of the club coming back in 2007 after the Teclena citizens of El Salvador had no club to root for since the demise of the Quequeisque club. Santa Tecla FC was born when they acquired the license from Telecom FC which dissolved after the 2006-’07 season.
Santa Tecla has since made a rapid rise to the Salvadoran Premier Division by winning the 2012 Apertura title in the country’s second tier, defeating clubs like Brasilia and Titan.
Santa Tecla will be making its first ever CCL appearance after winning the 2015 Clausura title in a 3-1 (1-1) shootout over Isidro Metepan.
Like Municipal, Santa Tecla has one American player on its roster in 27-year-old GK Derby Carrillo who played with the NASL’s Atlanta Silverbacks before moving to Santa Tecla in 2014.
For RSL’s four possible home and away dates for CCL play, there are six possible windows between MLS regular season and possible U.S. Open Cup play: August 5, 19 or 26; September 16 or 23; or October 21.
