Diogo Goncalves scored late during the first half to lift Real Salt Lake to a 1-0 victory over the visiting Colorado Rapids on Saturday night, a result that saw the teams trade places in the Western Conference standings.
Rafael Cabral made two of his three saves late to keep his seventh clean sheet as Salt Lake (12-16-4, 40 points) moved into the ninth and final West playoff place, above the Rapids (11-15-7, 40 points) on the tiebreak of total wins.
The Claret-and-Cobalt also have two regular-season matches to play while Colorado has one on Oct. 18 with RSL making up the game in hand next weekend at Seattle while most MLS teams are idle for the October international window.
Zack Steffen made three stops for the Rapids, who have only one win in their last six matches but could have ended the night in eighth place above RSL and Dallas with a win or draw.
Both teams reached the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, with Salt Lake on a run of four consecutive postseason appearances.
Salt Lake started brightly, and Steffen twice reacted well to prolong an early scoreless draw. He lunged to deny Goncalves’ ferocious shot from just beyond the box in the 25th minute and swooped to take the ball off Rwan Cruz’s feet in the box a few minutes later.
But Cruz and Goncalves combined to give the hosts the lead in the 39th minute.
Noel Caliskan won a ball in midfield and found Alex Katranis on the left, and Katranis played a clever angled pass to Cruz further up the flank.
Cruz then dragged a low cross back toward the penalty arc, and Goncalves met it in stride with another powerful strike that sailed beyond Steffen’s reach and into the top left corner.
After the break, Steffen somehow pushed Victor Olatunji’s knuckling effort onto the crossbar in the 53rd minute.
On the other end, Rapids substitute Ted Ku-DiPietro struck the right post in the 62nd minute only moments after entering the game.
Colorado finally got some sustained pressure on Cabral’s goal in second-half stoppage time. But the goalkeeper reacted well at his near post to deny Darren Yappi, then made an even better sprawling stop to thwart Cole Bassett’s close-range effort.
–Field Level Media
