Braian Ojeda and DeAndre Yedlin both scored over an eight-minute stretch bridging the first and second halves and Victor Olatunji added a late insurance goal as Real Salt Lake defeated Austin FC 3-1 on Saturday in a key, late-season Western Conference match in Sandy, Utah.
The Claret and Cobalt (11-16-4, 37 points) leapt Houston in the conference standings and inched closer to the postseason with three MLS matches remaining. RSL snapped a two-match losing streak and won for just the second time in its past seven league contests.
Austin opted to rest a handful of its regular starters for the first 62 minutes in anticipation of its appearance in the U.S. Open Cup final set for Wednesday at home against Nashville SC. In that match, the Verde will look to capture their first trophy of any kind in its fifth season.
While doing so, Austin (12-11-8, 44 points) missed out on clinching a spot in the MLS postseason for the first time since 2022, yet they still have three league matches remaining to get that done.
Real Salt Lake finally broke through in the 45th minute. Ojeda was outside the box when he took a pass from Justen Glad and lobbed a shot toward the net that was deflected off Austin’s Besard Sabovic before knuckling past Verde goalkeeper Brad Stuver and into the bottom left corner of the net.
That goal seemed to wake the Verde out of its collective slumber; two minutes later, Austin’s Diego Rubio recorded the visitors’ first shot on target.
Yedlin added to the lead in the 49th minute, making a spirited run from the back to the right edge of the box to receive a pass from Diogo Goncalves and blitz a shot off Stuver and into the lower right corner of the box. Diego Luna got an assist on the goal for his pass that began the scoring play.
Olatunji put the match on ice in the 82nd minute, making the most of another assist by Luna to get in the clear long enough to bang a shot off the Austin keeper before it bounced across the goal line.
Sabovic beat RSL goalkeeper Rafael Cabral two minutes into second-half stoppage time after an assist from Dani Pereira.
–Field Level Media
