Austin FC will look for a return to form on the road when they travel to Real Salt Lake on Saturday in a Western Conference match in Sandy, Utah.

The home team has won each of the four all-time meetings between the sides.

Austin (1-1-0, 3 points) heads to Salt Lake after winning 1-0 over Montreal at home last Saturday as Maxi Urruti came off the bench in the 88th minute to produce the game’s lone goal.

Austin then went to the Dominican Republic and was trounced 3-0 by Violette AC on Tuesday in the first leg of a CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 matchup.

Austin coach Josh Wolff took the blame for the subpar showing in his team’s first-ever CONCACAF match.

“I did not get our guys wound up enough to compete and understand what this was going to be about, even as much as we talked about it,” Wolff said. “We’ll rebound. We’ve got to lick our wounds, rally and get ready for another big match.”

Austin has struggled on the road since the end of its breakthrough campaign in 2023, dropping five straight and being held without a goal in each of their last four defeats. Before that, Austin had lost just twice in its 12 previous road games, going 8-2-2 in that stretch.

Saturday’s match will be the home opener for Real Salt Lake (1-1-0, 3 points) with its most recent game a 2-0 setback at Seattle on March 4. The loss came after a 2-1 win in Vancouver in the season opener that saw Justen Glad and Damir Kreilach find the net for RSL.

Salt Lake coach Pablo Mastroeni expects an uptick in his team’s performance on its own pitch. He is glad to be on home soil for the first time this season against Austin.

“I think the feeling of coming home will be a welcome experience for us,” Mastroeni said. “It’ll be good to prepare this week and really dial in on some of the areas that we obviously need to continue to get better at.”

Real Salt Lake will play five of its next seven games and seven of its next 10 contests at home.

–Field Level Media