Diego Luna scored a brilliant second-half equalizer before Real Salt Lake took the lead thanks to a bizarre own goal en route to a 2-1 win over the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night in both teams’ regular-season finale.
Alexandros Katranis’ cross from the left in the direction of Anderson Julio led to the match-winner, credited to goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer after it caromed off his shoulder and across the line.
The strange finish helped Salt Lake (16-7-11, 59 points) secure the third seed in the Western Conference and home-field advantage in a round one playoff series against sixth-seed Minnesota United.
Substitute Ryan Gauld scored for Vancouver, which backed its way into the playoffs after going winless in its last seven games and losing its last four.
The eighth-seed Whitecaps (13-13-8, 47 points) will be officially the home side in their West wild-card game against ninth-seed Portland, but will have to play the game in Oregon because of a venue conflict in Vancouver.
Boehmer started over regular Vancouver starting goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, who was healthy and on the bench.
And though Boehmer made five saves, it was one lapse in judgment that ultimately cost his side the match.
Katranis ran down the left, then struck a high-arcing cross toward the top of the 6-yard box in search of Julio.
The ball sailed slightly beyond its intended target, but as Boehmer came off his line to push it clear of danger, he timed his attempt poorly and reached the spot before the ball did.
As his momentum carried him forward, the ball struck his right shoulder and then bounded into an empty goal.
There was nothing fortunate about Luna’s classy equalizer. Braian Ojeda picked out Luna with a gorgeous cross-field diagonal pass. Then Luna cut in from the left on the dribble before firing a low effort past Boehmer into the bottom right corner for his eighth goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
