Real Salt Lake Crumbles In Second Half, Falls To San Diego
Mar 8, 2025, 9:46 PM
SANDY, UTAH - MARCH 01: General view inside the stadium prior to the MLS match between Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders at America First Field on March 01, 2025 in Sandy, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake had countless chances but struggled to finish down the stretch in a frustrating 3-1 home loss to San Diego FC.
RSL (1-1-0, 3 points) hosted expansion San Diego FC (1-0-1, 4 points) at America First Field on Saturday, March 8.
90+6' | visitors score again#RSLvSD | 1-3
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 9, 2025
First Half
RSL opened the match with the same XII that started in the 2-0 win over Seattle. Pablo Ruiz (illness), Matthew Bell (hamstring), and Zan MacMath (shoulder) were unavailable.
Tonight’s Starting XI confirmed ✔️#RSLvSD | @Intermountain pic.twitter.com/WGEqX9dvRd
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 9, 2025
Ariath Piol opened the match with a nice run, but S.D. keeper Carlos Dos Santos booted the ball away.
San Diego had a great scoring chance after a giveaway in the sixth minute. Justen Glad came up big when he knocked the ball away near the six-yard box.
Minutes later, San Diego’s Philip Quinton found himself in open space with a head of steam. Quinton raced toward the 18, juking a defender before sailing the bail harmlessly over the goal.
Piol broke loose in the 13th minute and appeared to have an easy goal, but the offside flag went up, nullifying the play.
17' | ARI OPENS HIS @MLS ACCOUNT #RSLvSD | 1-0 pic.twitter.com/fe4uorOuym
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 9, 2025
Four minutes later, a fantastic build allowed Piol to beat the goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead. It was the expansion franchise’s first goal conceded.
RELATED: Real Salt Lake Opens Up 1-0 Lead Over San Diego FC
Diego's cross ➡️ Dom's service ➡️ BIG FINISH BY ARI 💥 pic.twitter.com/idi9RvJlsZ
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 9, 2025
In the latter part of the half, RSL began generating a series of chances, stealing the momentum away from San Diego. On the other hand, San Diego squandered several empty scoring chances during a sloppy first half for both sides.
The equalizer came in the 43rd minute when Franco Negri headed a ball past a sprawling Rafael Cabral.
Franco Negri with the header 💥@sandiegofc pull level! pic.twitter.com/GuUgVMv3H1
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 9, 2025
The whistle sounded with the match even 1-1.
Second Half
Cabral made a terrific save early in the second, extending to his right to deflect a ball ticketed for the right corner out of play.
RSL made its first change of the match, substituting Sam Junqua for Alexandros Katranis in the 55th minute.
55' | Pablo brings on Sam
1-1 | @SJ_Utah pic.twitter.com/6RKVF76Khx
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 9, 2025
Neither team could find an advantage in the middle portion of the half.
RSL head coach Pable Mastroeni went deeper into his bench, bringing Forster Ajago, Tyler Wolff, and Kobi Henry on in the 70th minute. Ajago entered, riding a two-game goal streak.
Ajago had a great chance at regaining the lead when he broke the San Diego backline in the 80th minute. It took a spectacular play from Dos Santos to keep RSL off the scoreboard.
Cabral made two highlight saves late to keep the score knotted at 1-1.
RAFAEL CABARAL YOU HERO#RSL
— RSL Show on KSL 🎙️⚡️ (@rslshow) March 9, 2025
Seven minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of the match.
Moments into stoppage, San Diego created a bouncing ball in the box that Andres Dreyer finished past Cabral.
Wheels are off. Another SDFC goal
1-3 #RSL
— RSL Show on KSL 🎙️⚡️ (@rslshow) March 9, 2025
A second stoppage-time goal gave San Deigo a 3-1 win.
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How To Watch Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake will travel to the Lone Star State on Saturday, March 15, to face the Houston Dynamo. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. MT.
All Major League Soccer games are broadcasted on Apple TV with MLS Season Pass.
For more Real Salt Lake coverage and analysis, subscribe to The RSL Show and follow them on Instagram.
You can find KSL Sports coverage of Real Salt Lake here.
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Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X and Instagram and BlueSky at @bpreece24.
