Real Salt Lake enjoyed a crucial late winner courtesy of captain Chicho Arango to secure an important 1-0 victory against Sporting Kansas City (2-4-5, 11 points, 10th West) in a thrilling Major League Soccer encounter at America First Field on Saturday.

The win extends the Claret-and-Cobalt’s active unbeaten run to a league-high seven games and places the team clear now at the top of the MLS Western Conference standings, pending Sunday’s LA Galaxy result.

RSL’s new innovative and exciting tactical approach this season was on display throughout the encounter for all to see.

The principle of the approach saw the team set up and start out in a 4-2-3-1 structure before morphing into a 3-2-4-1 formation in possession, with Alex Katranis lodging up higher-up on the left wing and having the freedom of the entire left flank.

That allows Fidel Barajas to tuck inside as a second attacking midfielder, and Andrew Brody moving more central from right full-back to form a back three alongside Justen Glad and Brayan Vera.

The system allowed the Claret-and-Cobalt to dominate possession for the entirety of the contest, with the team accounting for over 60 percent of possession by halftime. However, despite its monopoly of possession, the team seemed to lack a crucial penetrative edge, struggling to breakdown a resolute Kansas City defense that looked content to mainly sit back and try to hit the hosts on the counter attack through its skillful and powerful attackers.

The second half sparked the game into life and brought about a change of fortunes for the Claret-and-Cobalt, with the team finally finding the penetrative spark that had evaded it throughout the first half.

RSL this time created a barrage of clear chances after the break with Chicho Arango, Anderson Julio, and substitute Nelson Palacio all coming close, and Andrés Gómez even hitting the post in the 78th minute, but the pivotal finishing touch still seemed to elude the team in its desperate search for a winner.

RSL eventually got the goal from a perfectly-taken set piece in the 81st minute. A ball floated into the box from a Brayan Vera freekick found Arango at the far post. The striker guided a powerful header off the ground and into the back of the net to establish a Claret-and Cobalt lead.

Having taken the lead, the team fought back against a minor onslaught from its opponents as Sporting Kansas City tried desperately, with the clock ticking down towards full time, to find an equalizer.

However, anchored by the impressive center back partnership of Glad and Vera, RSL managed to keep its opponents at bay in the final minutes to record an important victory.

Saturday’s win brings the RSL season record to 6-2-3 and 21 points, catapulting the Claret-and-Cobalt clear at the top of the Western Conference league table.

Next up for RSL is a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take on New Mexico United in the Open Cup on Wednesday at Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. MT.

Royals drop another close home game, falling to Angel City

Utah Royals FC endured its fifth defeat of the season in the club’s maiden NWSL campaign in a 2-1 home defeat to Angel City at America First Field Stadium on Friday.

In a game URFC mostly dominated, the team struggled to make its superiority count when it mattered most and consequently was made to pay the ultimate price.

Despite the Royals’ early dominance and monopoly on the game, the team struggled to create clear cut chances to go in front and was punished midway through the first half with an Angel City goal against the run of play.

Capitalizing on a turnover in midfield, the Angels worked the ball down the left to attacker Alyssa Thompson who subsequently delivered a sublime lofted cross into the area. It was headed home by Sydney Leroux to establish a lead for the visitors.

Things went from bad to worse for URFC in the 40th minute when fullback Olivia Griffitts was judged to have brought down her opponent in the box.

Claire Emslie stepped up to take the penalty for Angel City and the forward made no mistake, sending Mandy Haught the wrong way with a low powerful effort to the bottom right corner to double the visitors lead.

URFC came out in the second half with renewed vigor and determination and was belatedly rewarded for its positive start to the game with a fine consolation goal.

A well-worked move found Paige Monaghan with acres of space to drive up the field and release a pass to Ally Sentnor, who subsequently cut inside and drilled a low ball across the area.

Dana Foederer got to the cross and placed a strike into the bottom right corner, beyond the reach of Dijana Haračić, to pull one back for the hosts and put them within a striking distance.

The game saw a flurry of chances late on as the Royals pressed on for an equalizer but struggled to score past a resolute Angel City defense for a second time in the game and consequently succumbed to the narrow defeat.

The loss puts the early 2024 Utah Royals season record at 1-5-1.

Next up for the Royals is an away clash against San Diego Wave on Wednesday at Snapdragon stadium. Kickoff is at 8 p.m. MT and can be streamed on CBS Sports.

The Royals return to America First Field on May 25 against Kansas City Current at 8 p.m. MT. Tickets can be found at https://www.rsl.com/utahroyals/tickets.

Utah Warriors lose hard-fought match to Houston

Moral victories are tough to take at this stage of the Major League Rugby season, and Utah Warriors certainly weren’t accepting any after they finished out on the losing end of a tough 29-24 loss to the Houston Sabercats on Saturday.

Utah outplayed the Sabercats, who entered the match with MLR’s best mark of seven wins against just a single loss, for much of the match, but a positive final result proved elusive.

“We were confident that we could beat these guys,” Cooper said. “Houston is a good side, there’s no question about that, but there’s no reason we couldn’t have won the game today. We didn’t come to compete against a good side. We came in to beat a good side.”

There were several critical moments Utah was unable to capitalize on, but perhaps the most notable came in the game’s 61st minute.

With the home crowd proving loud and raucous after Utah pulled to within 22-17 after a try from Matt Jensen, Houston snatched the momentum right back, intercepting an ill-timed off-load off of a ruck situation for a long, uncontested run-out and subsequent try. Throw in the fact that Houston scored the try to go up 29-17 down two players who were sitting out with yellow cards, and the error gets compounded considerably.

“We made too many mistakes at crucial teams,” Cooper said. “We had way too many penalties and errors.”

Despite the palpable deflation that came with what proved to be Houston’s final try of the evening, Utah fought back. The game’s final 19 minutes saw Utah maintain good possession and then cut the lead to 29-24 off of a try from Phil Bradford the 76th minute.

But that’s as close as Utah would come, after a failed line-out in the final minute ended its final possession and gave Houston the win.

While Cooper was again proud of how his team competed, he emphasized the need to couple that elevated competition with positive results.

“It was again one of those games where we put ourselves under pressure, and then had to fight back,” Cooper said. “So we did fight back, which was great, but we shouldn’t put ourselves under that pressure. So (my mind) just goes back to the errors and the penalties, which proved costly.”

What also proved costly was Utah’s inability to score a single try during the game’s first 20 minutes despite dominating possession. At four different stages Utah entered inside the 5-meter line, only to come up just short of the try line due to untimely penalties and errors, along with Houston’s defense simply proving tough to get through.

‍”It would have been a big thing for us if we could have scored those points,” Cooper said. “We didn’t take advantage of the wind we had in that first half, and it came down to too many penalties and mistakes (made) at crucial times.”

Houston grabbed some momentum during the final 20 minutes of the first half, scoring a penalty kick in the 27th minute and then a try in the 32nd, shortly after Warriors forward Nic Souchon was issued a yellow card.

Joel Hodgson made sure Utah didn’t go into the half scoreless, however, converting on a penalty kick in the 39th minute to cut Houston’s lead to 10-3 at the break.

‍The Sabercats came out very strong in the second half, scoring tries in the 43rd and 47th minutes to extend the lead to 22-3 before Utah fought back strong, only to again lose out by another slim margin.

With the loss Utah drops to 4-5 on the season and will next travel to take on Miami a week from Saturday. Houston improves to 8-1 with the win.

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