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In what is certainly an excellent respite from the miserable cold of Salt Lake City winters, Real Salt Lake will be taking another trip to Arizona this year for preseason.
With Phoenix Rising acquiring FC Tucson, the club who hosted the Desert Diamond Cup every year in Tucson, Arizona, a new preseason tournament is underway: the 2018 Mobile Mini Sun Cup.
The cup will take place in Tucson again, but it lasts for a very significant amount of time — Feb. 3 to Feb. 24 — which is almost certainly a way to keep the tournament vibrant while giving teams the flexibility to travel to other locales during preseason as well.
There’s no word yet on who Real Salt Lake will face, or when the team will be there. Last year, Real Salt Lake also traveled to Portland for preseason, and we’ll have to see if something similar happens again.
The press release announcing the tournament includes the following teams: Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, LA Galaxy, New England Revolution, Portland Timbers, New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders FC, and Sporting Kansas City. They’ll be joined by Phoenix Rising.