Real Salt Lake to host Club America

Continuing its tradition of bringing in international competition, Real Salt Lake announced that it will host Mexican super club Club America in a 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 match begins at 6 p.m., and tickets are expected to go on sale at riotintostadium.com today.

"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 host the MLS All-Star game on Wednesday, July 29.

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).

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com