Anderson Julio recorded his second brace of the season to lead Real Salt Lake to a 3-2 victory over FC Dallas on Wednesday night at Sandy, Utah.
Brayan Vera had a penalty-kick goal for Salt Lake (14-7-8, 50 points), which passed Los Angeles FC for second place in the Western Conference. LAFC drew 1-1 with Austin FC on Wednesday.
Jesus Ferreira and Alan Velasco scored for FC Dallas (9-13-7, 34 points), who reside in 11th place in the West. The goal was the first for Velasco since his recent return from the torn ACL in his left knee that he sustained in last season’s playoffs.
RSL star Cristian “Chicho” Arango (17 goals) missed the match while serving a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumulation.
FC Dallas pulled within one goal on Velasco’s right-footed penalty kick in the 88th minute. The kick was awarded after a handball in the box was called on RSL’s Braian Ojeda.
But Dallas struggled to create chances over the final 12 minutes, including 10 in stoppage time, while falling to 1-9-5 on the road.
Maarten Paes had four saves for Dallas. Gavin Beavers had three stops for RSL, which improved to 2-4-1 over their last seven matches.
Dallas had a 16-13 edge in shots but RSL held a 7-5 advantage in shots on target.
Salt Lake got on the board in the 11th minute of a penalty kick by Brayan Vera, his second goal of the campaign. Vera easily sent a left-footed boot past Paes.
The kick was awarded when Dallas’ Sebastien Ibeagha knocked down Julio two minutes earlier.
Paes made a mistake 13 minutes later as he crept up away from the net. Julio had the ball just inside the center line and sent a right-footed liner that cleared the hand of Paes to give RSL a 2-0 lead.
Dallas cut its deficit in half on an odd sequence in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.
Dallas was awarded a free kick and Ferreira quickly grabbed the ball and set it down. The quick start surprised Salt Lake, which had yet to set up a wall, and Ferreira kicked the ball past Beavers and into the right corner of the net for his fifth goal of the season.
Julio scored his second goal of the game and ninth of the season in the 62nd minute. Dominik Marczuk raced down the right sideline and sent a cross toward a running Julio, who knocked the ball into the net.
–Field Level Media
