Sounders Continue to Struggle in Sandy, Suffer First Loss of 2026 vs. RSL

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Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan dribbles the ball during a game against Real Salt Lake on Saturday, Feb. 28, 202 at America First Field in Sandy, Utah. (Sounders FC Communications) [/caption]

The Seattle Sounders ran into a familiar wall in Real Salt Lake on Saturday night, losing 2-1 against a short-handed young squad in Sandy.

Standing out for RSL was 18-year-old Zavier Gozo, who had a definitive hand in each goal, and keeper Rafael Cabral, whose six saves placed the 35-year-old firmly atop man-of-the-match conversations.

Cristian Roldan opened his 2026 scoring account for the Sounders with a header off a corner from Albert Rusnák, but his score started what turned out to be a doomed comeback attempt. By the end of the night, the Sounders extended arguably the most notorious current club streak — Seattle is now 0-13-3 at America First Field since 2011.

"Giving them the lead is kind of the common thread in our miseries here. They score goals, they put us behind, we have to press," Sounders skipper Brian Schmetzer said postgame.

How did the seemingly annual disappointment in Utah unfold this time around?

Gozo Makes His Mark

With talent like Diego Luna and DeAndre Yedlin sidelined, a young outfield including a 17-year-old Luca Moisa, Gozo, 18-year-old Aiden Hezarkhani, and a 21-year-old Ariath Piol had every chance to shine on Saturday night.

Gozo made the most impact of them all despite being at the forefront of the scouting report for his slick passing and tight dribbling. And in the 23rd minute, Gozo did the unthinkable.

The 18-year-old weaved through some of Seattle's finest in Nouhou and Cristian Roldan to collapse the defense. Though he was dispossessed after penetrating the box, new Sounders addition Hassani Dotson quickly gave the ball away trying to find Roldan. With the defense still scattered from Gozo's run, Juan Sanabria was able to find a streaking Hezarkhani for a strong strike to draw first blood.

"(Gozo) wiggled around three of our guys, which shouldn't happen, and then that puts us under pressure," Schmetzer said of the mishap.

As the second half got underway, the Sounders came out looking for blood. The backline and wingers were noticeably higher, and Gozo wasted no time taking advantage.

As RSL's backline pairing of Justen Glad and Philip Quinton probed the field, Gozo took off down the right side. Rothrock was late to close on Quinton, who launched a ball to Gozo. The winger, who has been with RSL since age 15, outpaced Jackson Ragen to find himself one-on-one with newly minted starting keeper Andrew Thomas.

Instead of trying to force a decently tough angle, Gozo left the ball for Piol for an easy tap-in.

2-0 RSL.

"We come out of halftime, and you know, I've got to hold my hand up there. Coming out of halftime, I said, 'Look, we're going to press higher up the field,'" Schmetzer said, placing a share of the blame on Rothrock afterwards.

Seattle was down 2-0 in its house of horrors with 43 minutes to play.

Chances on Chances

By the end of the first half, Seattle had led RSL 1.41-0.47 in terms of expected goals. By the end of the 2-1 match, Seattle maintained a 2.7-2.3 advantage.

A set-piece chance in the seventh-minute exposed RSL's biggest weakness of the night: marking at the posts. Ragen had an uncontested header go straight to Yeimar, but Yeimar’s attempt went straight at Cabral for a jumping save. Yeimar would have another deep curving shot narrowly miss the left side of the net midway through the first 45, while a faulty deflection led to a near tap-in header from Rusnák. But Cabral made the correct call to come off his line to swallow it up as the Sounders couldn't find any luck early.

The second half saw more strong chances after, as Dotson put it postgame, RSL got "complacent" with a 2-0 advantage.

Rusnák, a former RSL man, put a free kick right over Cabral to force a quick-twitch save in the 61st.

In the 62nd, Rusnák delegated a corner to Roldan, whose glancing header to the right side had no chance of being saved to make it 2-1 and truly start what felt like a rousing comeback.

With this sudden onslaught of chances, Seattle seemingly had a real chance to equalize. Schmetzer could feel it ahead of time — he subbed on Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, Snyder Brunell and Danny Musovski on in the 59th to go with a more attack-oriented XI.

In the 77th, the Sounders broke through as Rusnák played a ball ahead to Rothrock on a counter. Rothrock then put it ahead for Seattle's 2025 scoring leader in Musovski for a 77th-minute equalizer.

Except Rothrock was a step offside.

"Those are the margins in our league, but I thought (Rothrock) did a good job," Schmetzer said.

The final big chance came in the ninth minute of stoppage, as Musovski headed a ball toward Brunell in the box. Brunell leapt off his feet for a sweeping one-touch shot with force — but it went directly at Cabral to end the game.

"I feel like the way the team was taking it was like, 'We're almost there, we can almost score,'" Brunell said. "We were getting our chances, just like the final piece we were missing is just putting the ball in the back of the net.

"If that Musovski chance we're onside, or I place it a little to the right, but it's just the little details."

Don't Panic, Yet

Again, this game has an almost mythical feel to it at this point.

The Sounders hadn't even scored in Sandy in their last five tries, much less pulled away with three points. With four more games left on this World-Cup-renovation-induced road trip, some may be ready to sound the alarm.

But this game was there to be had. Poor touches in close and an apparent underestimation of the young talent — Gozo in particular — cost Seattle big.

Fans should feel a measure of concern in a familiar place: cheap goals.

The Sounders were a poor pass from Dotson in the defending third and a faulty high press coming out of the locker room away from a road clean sheet, and finished with an xG number any coach can be pleased with. But the fact that the issue of being able to pin a loss on singularly costly mistakes is a late-season trend from 2025 no Sounder wanted to continue in 2026.

"I pin it down to us shooting ourselves in the foot because we're a better defensive team than those two goals that we gave up," Schmetzer said.

Up Next

The Sounders will play a St. Louis City squad that has missed the playoffs two straight years on the road next Saturday. With road dates against San Jose and a Spokane Concacaf match against Vancouver on the horizon, it'll be a critical get-right game for the Rave Green.