Real Salt Lake and St. Louis will go head-to-head this Saturday in a matchup between two teams near the bottom of Major League Soccer’s Western Conference. The game takes place at America First Field and, while it might not grab much attention from the wider MLS audience, it could end up being crucial for both clubs as they try to get their seasons back on track.
RSL comes into the weekend sitting 13th in the West with 19 points from 19 games. St. Louis is just behind in 14th, holding 15 points in 20 matches. Neither team is currently in the playoff picture, and with the second half of the season approaching, every match starts to carry more weight.
Real Salt Lake looks for a response at home
After finishing third in the conference last season, Real Salt Lake entered 2025 with plans to go further. But the results so far have fallen short. Through 19 matches, the team has just five wins, four draws and ten losses. The only win in the last five games came in a 2–0 victory over D.C. United. Outside of that, RSL drew with Sporting Kansas City, Austin and Dallas, and lost to Vancouver Whitecaps.
One of the main concerns has been turning decent performances into actual results, and the attack has clearly struggled. With only 19 goals scored, Salt Lake has the lowest-scoring offense in the Western Conference. The team has been shut out in eight matches so far, and that number is hard to ignore.
The absence of Diego Luna only makes things worse. Called up to the U.S. Men's National Team for the Gold Cup, Luna leads the team in both goals and assists. Without him, RSL loses its creative edge in midfield and a major part of its offensive identity.
Even with the setbacks, head coach Pablo Mastroeni continues to lean on the younger players in the squad. One of them is forward Zavier Gozo, a product of the club’s academy. He’s started eight of the last ten games and has been gaining experience quickly, stepping into a bigger role even as the team fights to turn its season around.
St. Louis trying to stop the slide
St. Louis is going through a rough stretch of its own. The team made headlines in 2023 when it finished first in the West during its expansion season, but that momentum hasn’t lasted. After dropping to 12th place last year, the club now finds itself at the bottom of the conference standings with just three wins and 15 points from 20 matches — the lowest total in the league.
Their latest outing was a 1–0 loss to Houston Dynamo. The team managed to keep the game level through the first half, but gave up the only goal in the 66th minute and never recovered. Struggling to respond after going behind has been a recurring problem for St. Louis, and their attack continues to look disconnected.
The head-to-head history between these two teams is still short but relatively even. They’ve met four times, with one win each and two draws. St. Louis picked up a 4–0 win in March 2023, but Real Salt Lake responded in 2024 with a 3–1 home win and a 1–1 draw. Saturday’s match will be their first meeting in 2025, and with both teams in need of a spark, the stakes feel higher than the standings might suggest.