RSL announces friendly with Club America

Real Salt Lake announced today that it will host Mexican super club Club America in an international friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium on July 11.

The match fills a void in the schedule for RSL, which doesn't play a league game between July 3 and July 18.

The friendly is part of a continued tradition by Real Salt Lake to bring in international competition for exhibition games. The match begins at 6 p.m., and tickets go on sale soon at riotintostadium.com.

"The arrival of Club America as our summer international friendly opponent continues the spectacular lineup of world-class soccer at Rio Tinto Stadium this year," said Real Salt Lake president Bill Manning in a press release statement. "We have promised our fans delivery of the best soccer the world has to offer on an annual basis, and the 2009 lineup continues the storied progression of teams that have visited Utah."

Last season RSL played three exhibition games at Rice-Eccles Stadium before moving to Rio Tinto Stadium. It beat Tigres (Mexico), while losing to Santos Laguna (Mexico) and Saprissa (Costa Rica).

In 2007 Real Salt Lake hosted Everton (England) and Boca Juniors (Argentina), and in 2006 RSL took on Real Madrid and David Beckham in front of 45,511 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

In addition to the Club America match later this summer, Rio Tinto Stadium will also host the MLS All-Star game on Wednesday, July 29.

For Club America, the friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium is a tune-up for an even bigger stage for the Mexican club. Club America, Chelsea, Inter Milan and AC Milan will be in the United States from July 19-26 to participate in the World Football Challenge.

In the most recent season in Mexico first division, Club America finished 13th in the first half of the season (Apertura) and eighth in the second half (Clausura).