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Sandy • Real Salt Lake's longstanding rivalry with the Seattle Sounders will receive a new injection. For the first time in the history of both clubs, they'll meet in the U.S. Open Cup tournament. On Thursday morning, U.S. Soccer announced the match-ups for the fifth round of the 2016 U.S. Open Cup. RSL drew the Sounders at Rio Tinto Stadium on Tuesday, June 28, at 8 p.m. in Sandy.

"It's going to be a good game," said RSL coach Jeff Cassar after training. "[Seattle has] done well in the Open Cup in the past. We're taking it very seriously. You can see by the lineups [this week], a lot of teams were taking it serious where it wasn't quite that way before. It should be an entertaining game. I love that it's at home — that's important."

The winner of the RSL-Seattle match on June 28 will advance on the road to face the winner of the fifth-round match between the Portland Timbers and L.A. Galaxy in Portland, Ore., likely on Wednesday, June 29. The quarterfinal stage is scheduled for July 19 and 20.

This week, RSL was one of four MLS clubs to participate in penalty-kick shootouts in its fourth-round match against the Wilmington Hammerheads of USL. Despite going down 2-0 in the second half Tuesday, RSL rallied behind goals from Joao Plata and Burrito Martinez to take the match into extra time and eventually penalty kicks. RSL topped the Hammerheads 3-1 in penalties, thanks to a save by goalkeeper Jeff Attinella and the game-winning kick delivered by defender Chris Wingert.

The match against Sounders adds to RSL's already-hectic summer schedule. RSL now has five games in 14 days: At home vs. Portland (June 18), at home vs. New York Red Bulls (June 22), at FC Dallas (June 25), at home vs. Seattle (June 28) and at home vs. D.C. United (July 1).

"I think it's great obviously that we're playing at home and it'll be fun playing Seattle," said right back Tony Beltran. "We've had a lot of meaningful match-ups against them over the years, and whether it was an MLS opponent or as we saw another lower-league opponent, it was never going to be easy. These games are always pretty wild. We've got a lot of games between then and now, and it'll be a tough task."

Cassar didn't mince words following the win over Wilmington Tuesday, saying it took his team 45 minutes, "to get our heads out of our butts and start to take this game seriously." He echoed that sentiment once again Thursday.

"At the end of the day, it looked like we took [Wilmington] too lightly," he said. "That was not the message being portrayed at all during the week. Collectively, we just have to make sure we're starting games better and having the same urgency in the last 45 [minutes] as we did in the first 45. I think it's correctable, but it's going to have to happen as a group, not just individually."

» RSL awaiting the return of Beckerman

Should Ecuador defeat the U.S. men's national team tonight in the Copa America Centenario quarterfinals in Seattle, RSL captain Kyle Beckerman already has his plane ticket back to Utah, Cassar said. If the U.S. advance to the semifinal round, RSL will be without the defensive midfielder for at least another six days as the U.S. would advance to face either Argentina or Venezuela on June 21 in Houston.

"Obviously we want the U.S. to do well and advance, but if Kyle comes back, it's not a bad thing for us either," Cassar said.

Beckerman has yet to start a match at the Copa America, but has been a late substitute in the team's back-to-back wins over Costa Rica and Paraguay in the group stage. Cassar said the plan entering the match against Portland Saturday was to start the rotation of players billed during this busy stretch.

"It was a plan to have several fresh guys enter this game," he said. "We'll do that, and depending on how the U.S. game goes tonight, we'll be adding another player there."

» Sunny still day-to-day

Midfielder Sunday Stephen trained fully Thursday, but is still considered day-to-day with an ankle injury, Cassar said. The 27-year-old Nigerian was not in the RSL game-day 18 Tuesday, but according to Cassar, is getting better ahead of the match against the Timbers.

"He's always putting himself in right there in consideration," he said. "A lot of the times its day-to-day. We need to get past that day-to-day thing and make sure if he takes a knock, it's not going to set him back."

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani