Zavier Gozo’s brace helps Real Salt Lake bounce back 3-0 over Houston

SANDY — If U.S. men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t want to give Zavier Gozo a call before the start of the men’s World Cup next month, someone with a European phone number probably will soon enough.

Gozo showed why (again) Wednesday night.

The 19-year-old forward who grew up in Eagle Mountain scored two goals just seven minutes apart as Real Salt Lake turned a 0-0 draw into a 3-0 win over the Houston Dynamo in front of a sellout crowd of 20,429 fans at America First Field.

Stijn Spierings and DeAndre Yedlin each had an assist for RSL, which also benefitted from an own goal in addition to Gozo’s first career MLS brace.

Rafael Cabral made four saves to earn the shutout for Real Salt Lake (7-4-1, 22 points), which improved to 13-1 in Houston’s last 14 trips to the Wasatch Front.

But on a night when Gozo became the youngest brace scorer in RSL history (19 years, 52 days), the teenager showed a little more of what he can become — and established more reasons why he probably won’t be with Salt Lake (or in MLS) before Europe comes calling.

And yet, he also has even more growth ahead of him.

“He’s really impressed me with his growth,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni. “Some of the decisions in the first half weren’t going his way, and then he doubled down on it, went again, and even lost a little of confidence in himself.”

First-half frustrations spawn Real Salt Lake rout

Real Salt Lake made three changes to Saturday’s 3-1 road loss to FC Dallas, including bringing in Victor Olatunji up top and giving Dominik Marczuk his first start of the season at right wing back.

But the heavily rotated Dynamo didn’t make things easy less than three days removed from a 4-1 win over LAFC.

Houston out-shot the hosts 10-2 in the first half, including the only four shots on target.

But Cabral made the most of his 52nd consecutive start since arriving in MLS two years ago, making three saves including back-to-back punch clearances in the 39th minute to keep the two sides level at the break.

Shortly after Diego Luna entered for RSL as a halftime substitute, the hosts took a lead — with help from the visitors.

Houston’s Duane Holmes tried to clear a ball off the line following DeAndre Yedlin’s long throw-in around the 49th minute, but the Dynamo midfielder pushed the ball inside his own far post to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead.

First MLS brace for our homegrown kid 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Zs0uos6H0Z

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) May 14, 2026

That was all Gozo needed.

“Playing 0-0 and playing 1-0 is a whole different game,” Gozo said. “I felt like it just gave us more confidence to take risks and play our game.”

The third-year pro doubled the advantage 10 minutes later, finishing a well-played through-ball from Yedlin for his second goal in three matches.

Gozo did it again in the 64th minute, finding his sixth goal of the year from Stijn Spierings that stretched the home side’s lead to 3-0.

“I think at halftime, it was a really good reset for him,” Mastroeni said of Gozo. “What’s more impressive is the mentality to be a young player and not get down on yourself — and then to go out and do what he did in the second half. That speaks volumes for me.”

Luna nearly added a fourth in the 85th minute, but the Salt Lake talisman was ruled offside. But RSL held Houston without a shot on target in the second half to pull away for good.

Next up

Real Salt Lake moved up to fourth in the Western Conference with 22 points, six points clear of ninth-place Colorado.

Salt Lake hosts the Rapids in Saturday’s latest edition of the Rocky Mountain Cup (7:30 p.m. MT, Apple TV).