Ousseni Bouda and Benji Kikanovic scored in the opening 17 minutes as the host San Jose Earthquakes recorded a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday afternoon.
San Jose (14-9-10, 52 points) moved one point ahead of Houston, which plays Sunday, into third place in the Western Conference. The Earthquakes also moved one point ahead of St. Louis, which lost at home to San Diego on Saturday.
San Jose moved within three points of second-place Dallas, which has one more win with one game remaining in the regular season.
In the second minute, Bouda scored on a free kick for his seventh goal this season and second over his past 23 matches. In the 17th, Kikanovic scored his first MLS goal since June 22, 2024, as San Jose stopped its five-game winless skid (0-1-4).
Juan Manuel Sanabria scored in the 23rd minute for Salt Lake (12-15-6, 42 points), which had a three-game winning streak stopped and dropped from ninth to 10th place thanks to the LA Galaxy beating Austin. Salt Lake trails the seventh-place Galaxy by two points. RSL also sits one point behind Colorado and Seattle, but those two have one additional match to play.
San Jose goalie Earl Edwards made four saves as Salt Lake attempted 15 shots. He highlighted the win with a stop on Justin Glad in the 47th and denied Saba Lobjanidze’s right-footed try in the 37th.
Salt Lake goalie Rafael Cabral made three saves as San Jose had 14 shot attempts.
San Jose went ahead from the outset following a set piece. After Jamar Ricketts was fouled by Dominik Marczuk, Bouda released a shot off a sharp angle from the end line past two defenders and into the bottom right corner.
San Jose doubled its lead when Kikanovic raced into the middle of the box, took a pass from Bouda and scored while sliding on the grass.
Following a turnover, Sanabria eluded Dave Romney and Daniel Munie and flipped in a header from the center of the box after getting a feed from Sam Junqua.
–Field Level Media
