Danny Musovski and Albert Rusnak scored after halftime as the Seattle Sounders snapped a franchise-record 13-match league winless run with a 2-0 win over visiting Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.
Paul Arriola assisted both goals for the Sounders (8-9-8, 32 points), who moved up three spots into 10th place in the Western Conference, beneath ninth-place Portland and the playoff line on the first tiebreaker of total wins.
Andrew Thomas made two saves to keep his seventh clean sheet for Seattle, which had drawn five in a row after losing eight straight from May 16 to Aug. 19.
Real Salt Lake (8-13-5, 29 points) dropped to 13th in the West while seeing their own MLS winless run extend to 13 matches (0-9-4).
Between injuries and national-team callups, the Claret and Cobalt were short 10 players for the first of two matches they will play during the September-October international window.
Yet RSL leading scorer Sergi Solans had an excellent chance to give the visitors the lead when he was played into a 1-on-1 against Thomas in the 47th minute. Thomas pushed the ball off Solans’ foot with his outstretched right arm before the Spaniard could get his shot away.
One minute later, Musovski put Seattle in front.
First he combined on three passes with Arriola through the middle channel. Then Musovski looked up and drove a low, right-footed shot from about 20 yards out that beat diving goalkeeper Rafael Cabral to the bottom right corner.
It was only Musovski’s second goal in 20 MLS appearances this season after he led Seattle with 14 tallies in 2025.
Seattle put the game out of reach 25 minutes later on a counterattack that echoed some of their best moments during the last decade under head coach Brian Schmetzer.
Rusnak took Arriola’s pass from the right about 40 yards from goal near the midfield circle and surged forward. With Jordan Morris in the middle and Sebastian Gomez wide on the left asking for a pass, Rusnak instead struck his own low shot from a position similar to Musovski’s opener. This time, Cabral was beaten to the bottom left corner.
–Field Level Media
