The Seattle Sounders made another trip to the cursed site that Real Salt Lake calls home, and in an all too familiar experience they found themselves on the losing side. A 62nd minute goal from Cristian Roldan gave the Sounders their first goal on the road in Sandy, Utah since 2020, but with Seattle already trailing by two goals before that moment it was only enough to decrease the gap along the way to a 2-1 loss.
Seattle and RSL exchanged looks throughout the game’s opening minutes with the Sounders creating the better chances, but Salt Lake goalkeeper Rafael Cabral made a pair of excellent saves to deny both Yeimar and Albert Rusnák from scoring on threatening headers. Then in the 23rd minute Hassani Dotson got on the ball at the edge of Seattle’s box after some quality build-up from RSL, but his poor choice of pass went directly to midfielder Luca Moisa who played the ball out left to wingback Juan Sanabria. Sanabria sent a cross from left to right and found Aiden Hezarkhani completely unmarked; Hezarkhani took a first-time shot off of the half-volley and smashed the ball beyond Andrew Thomas to take an early lead.
Seattle continued to look for a goal of their own, but despite getting into good spots and creating a few more shots they never truly threatened RSL’s goal and the game went to halftime with RSL still leading 1-0. The game didn’t stay 1-0 for long, though, as the hosts doubled their lead less than two minutes into the second half.
Philip Quinton sent a ball over the top from deep in RSL’s half, and with Nouhou caught up the field Jackson Ragen was left trying to defend a 2-on-1 against Zavier Gozo and Ariath Piol essentially by himself. Gozo easily beat Ragen for pace, slid the ball across to Piol with Thomas scrambling to cover the back half of the goal and Piol easily knocked it home to make it 2-0.
The Sounders weren’t out of the game despite being down by two. They continued to get into good spots, and in the 61st minute Albert Rusnák forced Cabral into a save from a free kick to earn a corner. From the corner Rusnák found Cristian Roldan after the midfielder made a good run through the box, and Roldan got a fantastic redirected header that sent the ball directly into the far side netting to make it 2-1.
Both sides kept pushing for the next goal, getting plenty of looks. For a brief moment, it looked as if the Sounders had equalized when Danny Musovski scored, but Rothrock was a step offside on the buildup. Seattle continues Cabral into several more quality saves, but couldn’t manage more than that as the game finished at 2-1. Seattle continue their 5-game road trip next Saturday with a match against St. Louis City at 5:30 PM.
Lineups
Paul Rothrock starts on the left wing with Jordan Morris out injured after the season opener. With that shift to the XI and Georgi Minoungou unavailable, Cody Baker and Sebastian Gomez both make the bench.
Corrected bench: Sebastian Gomez is available.
— Sounder at Heart (@sounderatheart.com) 2026-02-28T23:54:16.832Z
Key moments
5 - Shot! Alex Roldan picks off a loose pass in RSL’s half and finds Rothrock, but his shot never tests Cabral as it misses the goal.
6 - Yellow card! Rothrock fights off Quinton to win a ball deep in RSL’s end after a big clearance from Thomas and Quinton drags him down as he heads towards goal.
8 - Chance! Rusnák sends in the free kick to Ragen at the back post and he heads it across to Yeimar whose header is headed for goal but Cabral swats it away.
12 - Block! Yeimar badly misjudges a ball over the top, leaving Ragen to defend a 2-on-1 but Ragen is able to cut off the lane and eventually block Piol’s ball to allow Thomas to collect.
14 - Chance! Rusnák goes for goal from deep on a free kick and nearly beats Cabral, but the GK is able to get a touch to put the ball out for a corner.
20 - Header! Rusnák capitalizes on a deflected cross from Ferreira and gets his head to it ahead of Cabral, but the GK is able to get a hand to the header and keep it out of the goal.
23 - Goal, RSL. Dotson’s loose pass to clear danger is picked up by RSL and two passes later Hezarkhani connects with a cross from Sanabria on the half-volley and puts it right in the top corner. 1-0, RSL
28 - Chance! Rothrock works his way around Glad and drives into the area, but his cutback for late-arriving Ferreira is too easily picked off.
47 - Goal, RSL. Gozo gets in behind the Sounders defense with just Ragen chasing and he’s able to slide the ball across to Piol for an easy finish. 2-0, RSL.
52 - Miss. Ferreira does great work to get through the RSL defense and reach the end line with the ball, but his cross is cleared and Alex Roldan’s shot from the edge of the box off of the rebound flies into the stands.
58 - Subs. Osaze De Rosario, Jesus Ferreira and Yeimar all exit the game, replaced by Snyder Brunell, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and Danny Musovski for the Sounders.
61 - Subs. Lukas Engal and Luca Moisa come off as RSL bring on Sam Junqua and Pablo Ruiz.
61 - Shot! Rusnák has another look from a free kick in a dangerous spot and nearly finds the goal, but Cabral denies him once again!
62 - GOAL! Cristian Roldan makes a darting run through the box to get on the end of a Rusnák corner and he snaps his header into the far side netting to pull one back! 2-1, RSL
Back within striking distance 👊 CR opens his 2026 account!
— Sounders FC (@soundersfc.com) 2026-03-01T02:08:43.359Z
66 - Clearance! RSL get out on a counter following a Seattle corner, but as Brunell and Alex Roldan race back to defend Roldan is able to gain position and slide to clear the ball out for a throw.
72 - Subs. RSL take off Zach Booth and Aiden Hezarkhani, bringing on Morgan Guilavogui and Sergi Solans.
74 - Shot! Rothrock picks up a loose headed clearance at the edge of the box and elects to shoot rather than play in a runner, but he doesn’t get much power on the shot and it’s easily saved.
75 - Miss! RSL beat Seattle’s back line as Alex Roldan reads a through ball late, but Solans just misses the far corner with his shot.
77 - Offside! Musovski appears to equalize for the Sounders off of a fantastic cross from Rothrock, but Rothrock is offside on the initial pass from Rusnák.
81 - Sub. Paul Arriola comes on as Seattle take off Hassani Dotson.
82 - Sub. Ariath Piol comes off injured for RSL and is replaced by Dominik Marczuk.
83 - Block! Nouhou comes sliding in to smash away a ball from Marczuk, sending it out for a corner.
84 - Shot! Cristian Roldan finds Musovski with an incredible through ball and Musovski is able to cut the ball back to create enough space for a shot, but Cabral makes another good save!
87 - Save! Nouhou makes no attempt to defend Guilavogui as he runs towards goal, allowing him to go 1-v-1 with Thomas but the GK comes up with an important save!
90 - Sub. Seattle swap Albert Rusnák for Nikola Petkovic for the final substitution as Petkovic makes his Sounders debut.
90+9 - Shot! Brunell has an acrobatic attempt off of a Musovski flick that’s headed for goal, but yet again Cabral is there to deny the chance.
Quick thoughts
The Sandy Curse: The long-running troubles that the Sounders have endured when visiting RSL’s home stadium are documented well enough that I don’t think we need to run through them here. Suffice it to say that whatever curse happens to be upon that place and this team, it once again reared its ugly head. Hassani Dotson’s evening is probably the best example, although he was hardly the only player to struggle. His yellow card for a completely unnecessary challenge in the 10th minute was an ominous start, and his unbelievable misread of the situation in front of him as he passed the ball directly to Moisa for the opening goal was the kind of thing that even the most inexperienced player should be able to avoid. He was hardly the only player to misplace a pass, but his was the most impactful. Maybe the winless run will end some day, but it wasn’t today and the curse continues for a while longer.
Defensive difficulties: Seattle had their defensive struggles last game against the Colorado Rapids, but managed to limit the total number of chances they gave up and Andrew Thomas was able to make the saves he needed to. Against RSL the Sounders allowed themselves to get opened up too easily and too often, and with Nouhou frequently not in position to help with RSL’s speedy attackers the backline lacked the pace to really contend for much of the match. With the team struggling to control the game with possession and lacking the pace to shut down counters, this defense needs to play nearly perfect – particularly on the road – to be competitive in games, and in this game they just weren’t. None of the starting back-four are going to get any faster, and it seems unlikely that another top-end defender is joining any time soon, so Seattle’s defense really needs to tighten things up if they’re going to improve on the performances from last season.
A spark on the wing: Paul Rothrock wasn’t able to have the kind of impact that he had against Colorado, but he frequently looked like the player most likely to make something happen. He got the better of Philip Quinton on the left wing and worked his way into dangerous positions multiple times, showing the grit and willingness to work for chances that we’ve all come to love, but the final pass just wasn’t there either as a product of execution or pass choice. His one shot lacked the power or placement required to beat Cabral and came with a runner in space that he either didn’t see or looked off. It was still clear why he got the chance he did, and why he played the full 90 minutes, but the Sounders will need more from everyone going forward and with a new contract and a great opening game performance Rothrock has plenty to build on and plenty to prove.
Notable quote
"The story of this game is we just needed to make plays in the game – both offensively and defensively – and we came up short." - Brian Schmetzer
Player spotlight
Cristian Roldan – The captain scored Seattle’s first goal in Utah in a decade, created a couple of chances, and helped to drive the team forward, but struggled as much as anyone to control the middle of the field.
