Major League Soccer owners voted Thursday to shift the league’s season to a summer-to-spring calendar in 2027, bringing it more in line with its international counterparts. The move aims to put MLS in a more competitive position for player transfers, while also freeing up players for national team duty during the summer, when many major international tournaments take place. This season the league started play in late February, with a break for the Club World Cup over the summer. The MLS Cup championship game is set for Dec. 6. The vote came at the Board of Governors meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. Under the new calendar, league play will begin in mid- to late July 2027, with the final day of the regular season in April 2028. The playoffs and championship will take place in May. The league would go on an extended break during the winter, with just a few games played in early December and no games in January before resuming in early to mid-February. The league is working with the Major League Soccer Players Association to finalize the transition. MLS Commissioner Don Garber told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon that the move was “one of

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diogo Goncalves scored a goal, Rafael Cabral had three saves, and Real Salt Lake beat the Colorado Rapids 1-0 on Saturday night. Real Salt Lake (12-16-4) has 40 points and moved into a tie with Colorado (11-15-7) for the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. San Jose, which has 38 points, plays Vancouver on Sunday. Salt Lake has won back-to-back games following consecutive 4-1 losses, both to Los Angeles FC. Goncalves opened the scoring in the 39th minute. Rwan Cruz rolled a no-look pass from the left side of the area back to Goncalves for a first-touch finish from just inside the 18-yard box that slipped under to crossbar and inside the left post to make it 1-0. Cruz, a 24-year-old designated player signed Aug. 1, had his first career goal contribution in MLS. Zack Steffen stopped three shots for the Rapids. Colorado has one win in its last six games. The Rapids beat RSL 1-0 on May 17. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Source link

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Braian Ojeda scored his first goal of the season Saturday night to help Real Salt Lake beat the Earthquakes 2-1 and extend San Jose’s winless streak to six games. Ojeda received a pass about 30 yards out and darted toward goal before blasting a low shot from just outside the area the bounced off goalkeeper Daniel De Sousa Britto — known simply as “Daniel” — into the net to cap the scoring in the 81st minute. Reid Roberts was shown a yellow card in first-half stoppage time and then another in the 84th minute, which resulted in a red card and Earthquakes (7-9-8) played a man down the rest of the way. After the teams quickly traded turnovers, Josef Martínez opened the scoring in the 51st. Cristian Espinoza played a pass to the right end line, where Cristian Arango — as he was falling out of bounds — flicked a first-touch centering pass and Martínez put away a diving header from point-blank range. Salt Lake (9-11-4) made it 1-1 in the 57th on an own goal when, the counter-attack, Diogo Gonçalves played a low cross the was redirected into the net by San Jose’s Jamar Ricketts.

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Noel Caliskan scored his first career goal in MLS, Diogo Goncalves added his first goal of the season and Real Salt Lake beat St. Louis City 3-2 on Saturday night. Rafael Cabral had four saves for Real Salt Lake (6-10-4), which won for just the second time in its last 10 games. St. Louis (3-12-6) has four losses during it’s five-game winless streak. Pablo Ruiz played a corner kick into the area that was redirected by defender Jake Girdwood-Reich’s but the 24-year-old Caliskan blasted a shot from just outside the area into the net to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute. Goncalves, on the left side of the area, cut inside to evade Girdwood-Reich and then bounced a shot off the back post and into the net to make it 2-0 in the 43rd minute. João Klauss scored on a header off a corner kick by Marcel Hartel in the 51st that made it a one-score game but an own goal by St. Louis City’s Josh Yaro gave RSL a 3-1 lead in the 64th minute. Yaro redirected another corner kick played in by Hartel into the net in the 81st to

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Johnny Russell scored his first goal of the season, 18-year-old Zavier Gozo also scored a goal and Real Salt Lake beat D.C. United 2-0 on Saturday night to snap their seven-game winless streak. Rafael Cabral finished with a save and had his fourth shutout of the season for Salt Lake (5-10-3). Russell, who signed with Salt Lake in April after he scored 60 goals across seven MLS seasons for Kansas City, scored in the 23rd minute. Russell ran down the right side onto a long ball-ahead played by Diogo Goncalves, cut back to evade a defender near the right corner of the area and rolled a shot into the net to give RSL a 1-0 lead. The 35-year-old Russell, who made his first start for the club, was replaced at halftime by Aiden Hezarkhani, the 17-year-old rookie’s second MLS appearance. Gozo slipped behind the defense, ran onto a long ball-ahead played by Alexandros Katranis and beat goalkeeper Luis Barraza to make it 2-0 in the 77th. Salt Lake had 58% possession and outshot D.C. United 19-8, 7-1 on target. Barraza finished with five saves. D.C. United (4-9-6), coming off a 7-1 loss to Chicago last Saturday,

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Brian White scored two goals — his second multi-goal game in his last three and third this season — and Pedro Vite scored from just outside the area in the 90th minute to help the Vancouver Whitecaps rally and beat Real Salt Lake 3-2 on Saturday night. Vancouver (10-1-4) is unbeaten in nine consecutive games dating to a 3-1 loss to Chicago on March 22. Vite bent a shot inside the back post to give the Whitecaps their first lead. Zavier Gozo scored his first career goal in the first minute. The 18-year-old in his third MLS season ran onto a ball played ahead by Diego Luna and, from the left side of the area, slipped a shot between the legs of defender Tristan Blackmon and inside the near post. Luna made it 2-0 when he scored his fifth goal in the last six games in the 4th minute. Dominik Marczuk played a cross from the right side that was deflected by goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, but Luna was there to put away the rebound with a one-touch finish to make it 2-0. Salt Lake scored two goals in the first five minutes of a match for

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Rafael Cabral made two saves in the final minute of regulation and Sam Junqua blocked the final attempt, preserving Real Salt Lake’s 0-0 draw with Portland on Wednesday night. Portland nearly scored with the late push but Cabral came out to make two saves and Junqua made the final defensive stop on Omir Fernández. Portland was coming off a 1-0 shutout win at home over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. Portland (6-3-4, 22 points) had four shots on goal and Salt Lake (4-7-2, 14 points) had one, which came in the first half. For RSL, young stalwart Diego Luna nearly scored on a free kick but his attempt hit the crossbar. In his previous three matches, Luna had registered four goals. Portland hosts Seattle on Thursday and RSL visits Colorado. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Source link

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Theo Corbeanu scored his first MLS goal in the ninth minute Saturday night to help Toronto FC beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 and snap a eight-game winless streak to open the season. Corbeanu dispossessed Salt Lake’s Bode Hidalgo near the penalty arc, cut back to evade a defender and the rolled a shot from just inside the penalty area that slipped inside the post to make it 1-0. Diego Luna was shown a straight red card in the 61st minute for violent conduct and Salt Lake (3-6-0) played a man down the rest of the way. Sean Johnson, who had six saves for Toronto (1-4-4), has back-to-back shutouts and three in the last four games. Real Salt Lake had 61% possession and outshot Toronto 23-2, 6-1 on target. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Source link

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored two goals five minutes apart in the first half and Real Salt Lake kept the defending-champion Los Angeles Galaxy winless with a 2-0 victory at America First Field on Saturday. Luna staked Real Salt Lake (3-4-0) to a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute with assists from defender Alexandros Katranis and Diogo Gonçalves. Luna made it a two-goal lead unassisted in the 26th minute with his third netter of the season and his 16th in 73 appearances for the club over four seasons. Katranis notched his first assist this season and his sixth in 34 appearances. Gonçalves’ helper was his second of the campaign and third in 16 career appearances. Luna becomes the youngest player in Real Salt Lake history to reach 15 goals and 15 assists in a career, doing so at 21 years, 210 days of age. Rafael Cabral needed to make just one save to earn the clean sheet for Real Salt Lake and that came in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time off the left foot of Tucker Lepley. It was the second shutout for the 34-year-old in his first season in the league. John McCarthy did not