SANDY, Utah (AP) — Andrés Gómez had a goal and two assists, the second on Braian Ojeda’s first career goal to rally Real Salt Lake to a 3-2 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night. Houston (8-7-6) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 8th minute when Ibrahim Aliyu used the first assists this season from Sebastian Kowalczyk and defender Franco Escobar to score his sixth goal of the campaign. Gómez pulled Real Salt Lake (11-3-7) even in the 22nd minute with his 11th goal this season. Bode Hidalgo notched his first assist of the season and the second of his career on the score. Rookie Matt Crooks and Gómez set up Diego Luna for a goal in the 42nd minute to give Real Salt Lake a 2-1 lead at halftime. It was the fourth netter of the season for Luna and the fifth assist for Crooks. The Dynamo got some help to even the score in the 55th minute on an own goal by Real Salt Lake defender Andrew Brody. Ojeda took passes from Gómez and Cristian “Chicho” Arango in the 67th minute and scored the winner. It was the ninth assist this season for Gómez and

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Utah Royals first-year coach Amy Rodriguez was fired after less than a season leading the revived NWSL club. The move on Sunday was part of an organizational shakeup for the struggling team, which is 2-11-2 and in last place in the league. Rodriguez, a former U.S. national team member, is the Royals all-time career goal scorer with 16 when she played there from 2018-20. Along with Rodriguez, the Royals released goalkeeper coach Maryse Bard-Martel and said that team president Michelle Hyncik is moving into a new legal role with the Blitzer Family Office. Jimmy Coenraets was appointed Utah’s interim head coach. Real Salt Lake president John Kimball will oversee business operations for the Royals during the search for a new club president. He thanked Rodriguez, Bard-Martel and Hyncik for their efforts. “While we have faced adversity this season, we are focused on building a team off and on the field that can compete at the highest levels for years to come,” he said in a statement. Utah plays at Seattle on Sunday. The Royals played in the NWSL from 2018 to 2020 before halting operations. Real Salt Lake owners Ryan Smith and David Blitzer re-established the

Chicho Arango’s recent goal from the halfway line is symbolic of the statement that Real Salt Lake has made with its play so far this season. RSL (9-6-2) is off to its best start in team history and sits atop Major League Soccer’s Western Conference at the halfway point of the season with a 13-game unbeaten streak. It’s the first time Salt Lake has been atop the conference standings since April 2016. They’ll have a chance to match the club’s record unbeaten run when they face Montreal on June 15 after soccer’s international break. “I think every game from here on out is going to be very difficult,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “I think teams are going to prepare for us differently than they used to in the past. And so the onus is on us to be one step ahead.” At the heart of RSL is Arango, the team’s 29-year-old Colombian captain who leads the Golden Boot race with 16 goals, as well as nine assists. That’s three more goals that D.C. United’s Christian Benteke and four more than Lionel Messi at Inter Miami. Arango joined the team last June after a short stint with Pachuca in Liga

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Cristian Arango scored twice in the first half on the way to his second hat trick of the season, Anderson Julio added two goals with an assist from Arango on one of them and Western Conference-leading Real Salt Lake continued the best start in franchise history with a 5-1 rout of Austin FC on Saturday night, upping its unbeaten streak to 13. Arango used Chukwuemeka Eneli’s first career assist to score in the 16th minute and give Real Salt Lake (9-2-6) the lead. Julio followed with back-to-back goals — his fifth and sixth of the season — for a 3-0 advantage. He took a pass from Braian Ojeda and scored in the 24th minute and added another goal in the 31st with assists from Andrés Gómez and Arango. Defender Andrew Brody’s first assist of the season set up Arango’s second netter in the fifth minute of stoppage time to put Real Salt Lake up 4-0 at halftime. Arango polished off his second three-goal effort of the season when he scored unassisted in the 71st minute. The 29-year-old forward, in his fourth season in the league, took over the top spot in the race for the Golden

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Cristian “Chicho” Arango and Andrés Gómez each scored two goal to help Real Salt Lake rally from a two-goal deficit and beat the Colorado Rapids 5-3 Saturday night. Real Salt Lake (8-2-4) is unbeaten in 10 consecutive games since a 2-1 loss to the Rapids on March 9 and leads the Western Conference with 28 points. Arango, who went into the game tied with Christian Benteke and Luis Suárez, leads MLS with 13 goals this season. Chukwuemeka Eneli blasted a shot from just outside the area that ricocheted off the crossbar and bounced high off the ground before Chicho headed home the putback to make it 3-3 in the 85th minute and then fed Gómez for the go-ahead goal moments later. Gómez, on the right side, tapped a pass to Chicho and immediately darted toward the goal as Chicho played a one-touch pass back to Gómez for the finish from the corner of the 6-yard box to give Real Salt Lake the lead for good at 4-3 in the 88th minute. Cole Bassett, a 22-year-old midfielder in his seventh MLS season, stole a pass near midfield and, with goalkeeper Zac MacMath off his line, scored from

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Cristian “Chicho” Arango scored his ninth goal of the season to help Real Salt Lake beat Sporting Kansas City 1-0 on Saturday night. Chicho is tied with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi for most goals in MLS this season. The 30-year-old striker has scored or assisted on 16 of RSL’s 19 goals in 2024. Real Salt Lake (6-2-3) has won three consecutive games and is unbeaten in its last seven. Brayan Vera played a free kick from the right side to the back post, where Chicho bounced a header off the pitch and over the outstretched arm of goalkeeper John Pulskamp to open the scoring in the 81st minute. Zac MacMath had one save for Real Salt Lake. RSL has allowed just nine goals this season, tied with FC Cincinnati and the Columbus Crew for fewest in MLS. Kansas City (2-4-5) has surrendered 12 goals during its current five-game winless (three losses, two ties) streak. John Pulskamp, 23-year-old Homegrown, had three saves in his first appearance of the season for Sporting. Kansas City defender Tim Leibold slid to deflect a shot by Diego Luna from near the penalty spot that rolled just outside the post in the

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Rookie defender Alexandros Katranis scored in the 89th minute and Real Salt Lake rallied to beat the Philadelphia Union 2-1 on Saturday night. Real Salt Lake (5-2-3) knocked off the league’s last unbeaten club, handing Philadelphia (3-1-4) its second loss in the last 40 league matches at home under manager Jim Curtin. The Union had outscored their opponents 88-23 in the previous 39 home contests. Real Salt Lake took a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute when second-year midfielder Andrés Gómez used an assist from Cristian “Chicho” Arango to score for a second straight match and for the fourth time this season. Arango notched his seventh assist after entering play in a three-way tie for the league lead with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi and Dante Vanzeir of the New York Red Bulls. Philadelphia evened the score early in the second half on a goal by Dániel Gazdag in the 50th minute. Quinn Sullivan earned an assist on Gazdag’s left-footed shot from close range. It was the fifth goal of the season for Gazdag with four scores coming in the last five matches. Katranis used Maikel Chang’s first assist of the season to score the second goal

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Zac MacMath saved five shots for Real Salt Lake and Evan Bush and Nicholas Hagen combined for eight saves for the Columbus Crew in a scoreless draw Saturday night. MacMath notched his second clean sheet of the season for Real Salt Lake (3-2-3). Bush made his second start of the season in goal for the defending-champion Crew (3-1-4), but he was injured in the 31st minute and replaced by Hagen. Columbus held Real Salt Lake’s Cristian “Chicho” Arango in check. Arango entered play with a league-high 10 goal contributions — six goals, four assists — through seven matches. Arango has totaled 14 goals and six assists in 26 appearances since joining the club last July. The Crew again played without Cucho Hernández, who has missed the last two matches for an unspecified violation of team policy. Hernández has three goals and an assist in six starts this season. It was the first of three straight matches against Eastern Conference opponents for RSL. Columbus returns home to play the Portland Timbers on Saturday. Real Salt Lake travels to take on the Chicago Fire on Saturday. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Tani Oluwaseyi scored late in the second half to help Minnesota United earn a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. Real Salt Lake (3-2-2) scored first when Cristian Arango used an assist from Andrés Gómez in the 24th minute to send a header to the top left corner of the net. It was the sixth goal of the season for Arango, who was coming off a second-half hat trick in RSL’s 3-1 victory over St. Louis City. He is tied with Lewis Morgan of the New York Red Bulls for the league lead. Oluwaseyi pulled Minnesota United (3-1-2) even in the 87th minute when he took a pass from Robin Lod and scored his second goal of the season — and career. Minnesota United was forced to play a man down just two minutes later when midfielder Joseph Rosales was hit with a red card. Dayne St. Clair finished with four saves for Minnesota United. Zac MacMath saved six shots for Real Salt Lake, which improved to 1-1-2 on the road this season. Real Salt Lake returns home to play the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Minnesota United will host the Houston Dynamo

Now that the National Women’s Soccer League has effectively distanced itself from the turbulence of two years ago, Commissioner Jessica Berman is extolling the league’s momentum heading into Season 12 and beyond. The NWSL has two new teams in Bay FC and the Utah Royals, a new media rights deal that will provide fans greater access to games and an infusion of international talent. “Really this is the table being set for the future of the league,” Berman said Thursday. “We believe that we reset the league in 2022, 2023 we established the foundation and this is the point we really feel like the league is going to take off.” It kicks off Friday with the Challenge Cup, a match at New Jersey’s Red Bull Arena between defending league champion Gotham FC and the San Diego Wave, who won the NWSL Shield for the best record last year. The regular season opens on Saturday, with the Portland Thorns visiting the Kansas City Current in the first NWSL game to be broadcast on ABC. The NWSL was marred by scandal in late 2021, when then-North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley was accused of sexual coercion and misconduct. He was immediately dismissed