Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Real Salt Lake lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Whitecaps, who lead MLS.
- Jayden Nelson and Tristan Blackmon scored for Vancouver, while Diego Luna scored for RSL.
- RSL's William Agada aims for match fitness and Johnny Russell has yet to debut.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Real Salt Lake traveled to face the best team in the league, record-wise, on Saturday, and came away with a predictable result.
The MLS-leading Vancouver Whitecaps earned their eighth win in 11 matches with a pair of quality goals in a 2-1 result over RSL to hand the Claret and Cobalt their seventh loss in 11 games.
The first goal came in the 20th minute when Canadian native Jayden Nelson carved up the RSL defense to send one past Rafael Cabral, while the second came on a brilliant one-timer from Tristan Blackmon in the 70th minute.
To Cabral's credit, he saved a penalty kick minutes before the second goal, but the collective effort was not enough to stop a Vancouver team firing on all cylinders. Cabral expressed frustration over the penalty call, which was the fourth one called on RSL this season.
"They're giving everything, and for us, every time there is something," Cabral said of the penalties. "So we are upset on that, as well, but thank God I saved another one."
WILD sequence of events here for RSL in Vancouver
— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) May 4, 2025
Penalty called on Rafael Cabral, he saves the Daniel Rios shot, but then Tristan Blackmon hits an unreal one-timer seconds later for a 2-0 lead in the 70th pic.twitter.com/t5hnOzrKvO
RSL's lone goal came on a penalty from Diego Luna in stoppage time to give the Salt Lake star a team-best six goals in 11 matches.
The gap between Luna and the rest of the team is widening, however, with no other player scoring more than one goal as RSL approaches the one-third mark in the season.
Newcomer William Agada made his second appearance as a striker off the bench for RSL in Vancouver, but head coach Pablo Mastroeni said the 25-year-old is still trying to get his fitness up to speed. Fellow former Kansas City player and new RSL signee Johnny Russell has yet to appear in the game day roster.
"The idea is to get William up to speed as quickly as possible," Mastroeni said, "so that he's in position to start a game, hopefully next week."
RSL finishes its three-game road trip in Dallas next weekend before returning home to take on Portland in the first midweek matchup of the season on Wednesday, May 14.
