Real Salt Lake vs. Eintracht Frankfurt match preview

It’s been a long-standing tradition for MLS teams to host big-name international clubs in friendlies during the European offseason, and Real Salt Lake has jumped in on that tradition for the past three years, first hosting Inter Milan in 2016 followed by Manchester United in 2017. This year is no different, as RSL welcomes the current German Cup champions Eintracht Frankfurt from the Bundesliga in Germany.

With some familiar names on their roster such as USMNT alum Timmy Chandler, and former RSL man and Mexican international Carlos Salcedo, Frankfurt will take the field against RSL, a team who’s currently 8-1-1 at home this season after taking down two Western Conference giants this past week. While this game is only a friendly, it’ll be a chance for Mike Petke to get some of the younger guys out on the field, playing against a very high profile club with star-calibur players.

Eintracht Frankfurt, though they finished eighth in their league last season, have won the Bundesliga title once back in 1997-98, while finishing as runners up in 2011-12. They’ve been a club since 1899, racking up five German Cup titles in their storied history.

Lineups and rotation

Since RSL just came off a stretch that saw them play three games in eight days, and especially since they have another MLS game this coming Saturday in Minnesota, we can expect most of the first team guys to play not even half of the game.

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Last year, when Manchester United came to town, Petke put out a full-strength starting XI, but subbed out the entire lineup for fresh legs in the 30th minute. It gives the preferred starters a chance to go toe-to-toe with some top flight players, but won’t completely gas them ahead of their road match on Saturday.

Petke also rotated the entire lineup one more time in the 71st minute against Man U, bringing on an even younger squad with some Real Monarchs players in the mix. On the flip side, we can also expect Eintracht to do something similar. After all, this is a preseason game for them and manager Adi Hütter will want to get as many of his guys on the field as possible ahead of the 2018-19 Bundesliga season.

Moving ahead

As previously mentioned, RSL is sitting on two wins in a row (4-2 vs. SKC, 2-0 vs. FCD) as they head out on the road this weekend against Minnesota United, looking to add a positive note to their woeful 1-7-1 record away from home this season.

Eintracht is also making one more stop on their USA preseason as they take on the Philadelphia Union this Saturday the 14th before they head back to Germany to prepare for the upcoming Bundesliga season.

Match info

When: Tuesday, July 10th, 8:00PM MT

Where: Rio Tinto Stadium — Sandy, UT

Weather: 89 degrees, partly cloudy

Broadcast: KSL TV (streaming), ESPN 700 (radio)

RSL injury report

OUT: Tony Beltran (knee), Jordan Allen (knee), Alex Horwath (achilles), Shawn Barry (knee), Demar Phillips (ankle), Luke Mulholland (back), David Horst (achilles), Ricky Lopez-Espin (knee), Connor Sparrow (knee)