Andrew Brody scored the tiebreaking goal in the 64th minute as Real Salt Lake defeated a Western Conference rival on the road for the first time this season with a 2-1 decision against the Seattle Sounders on Sunday night.
Sergio Cordova also tallied for Salt Lake (10-8-7, 37 points), which won in Seattle for only the second time in the past decade, the other coming in 2018. RSL had won just one of its previous eight matches and was 0-4-4 away in conference play.
Albert Rusnak scored against his former team for the Sounders (10-13-2, 32 points), who are in danger of missing the MLS playoffs for the first time since entering the league in 2009.
Brody’s winner came just two minutes after Rusnak had tied the score. Jefferson Savarino dribbled the ball along the end line on the right wing before sending a cross into the middle. Two Sounders defenders converged on a striker in the middle of the field, leaving Brody alone for a run to the far post. Brody made a sliding volley to knock the ball past Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei as he scrambled across the goalmouth.
Rusnak, who played his first five MLS seasons with RSL before signing with the Sounders in the offseason, scored on a low shot from just outside the penalty area in the 62nd minute that found its way just inside the left post.
RSL opened the scoring in the 32nd minute on the counterattack following a Seattle corner kick.
Savarino put a through ball to Cordova, who had gotten behind the defense at midfield and dribbled into the penalty area. Frei saved Cordova’s initial shot, but the rebound fell right back to the forward. Cordova was able to maneuver around Frei as three defenders tracked back and put a low shot into the lower left corner of the net.
The Sounders appeared to score in the 12th minute when Raul Ruidiaz put a 17-yard strike off the crossbar and then off the back of RSL goalkeeper Zac MacMath and into the net. But a video review determined the Sounders were offside before the ball got to Ruidiaz.
–Field Level Media
