Real Salt Lake rallies from 2-down for 3-2 road win over New England

SANDY — With snow falling in the northeast and Real Salt Lake going full "stealth mode" in all-white kits, the visitors snuck 3 points away on a visit to New England late Saturday evening.

Justen Glad finished off a free kick near the end of regulation, Tate Schmitt scored the match-winner in the third minute of stoppage time, and Real Salt Lake did all its scoring after the 75th minute to rally from a 2-0 deficit and take all three points with a 3-2 win over the New England Revolution and stay unbeaten on the season at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Sergio Cordova also had a goal for RSL, which outshot the Revs 19-13 with six shots on goal.

"I was at the point where my legs were about done, so it was more just a hope," Schmitt recalled. "But I put it on frame, and good things happen when you strike the ball hard."

Down 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining in the match, things looked bleak for Real Salt Lake — especially after traveling to the defending Supporters' Shield winners.

"That is what our mentality was in the last 15 minutes, play balls into the box and we will get those bounces, get those flicks, and we had to believe in that," Schmitt said. "We had those two opportunities that went our way, and the third one continued after that. We were fortunate to have that hard work at the end and get those three points."

With the win, Real Salt Lake surged up the way-too-early look at the league table with its third-straight result and a 2-0-1 overall record, moving all the way (at least temporarily — and again, it's extremely early in the season) into a tie for first in the Western Conference with LAFC with 7 points.

Whether they stay there is yet to be seen, and isn't important for this moment. What is important, however, is that in playing two of its first three matches on the road — and two of the top teams in the league a year ago — RSL has taken 7 of a possible 9 points from the earliest start to the season in Major League Soccer history.

And the club has done it without a full compliment of players. But maybe that's the point, too, for the club entering its newest era under its third ownership group in Ryan Smith and David Blitzer.

"I think the most important thing in any club and any sport is to have a competitive environment," RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni told KMYU. "At times, you can be upset because you don't have a full selection of players and the preseason was up and down. But it really creates a standard for the group that is here and for the guys coming into the group.

"When you have that kind of environment, it only breeds success."

In the second-straight week of orange-ball weather — snow in the forecast, with flakes falling at Gillette Stadium at a higher rate than a week ago during RSL's home opener at Rio Tinto Stadium — it was a familiar face who found the back of the net against Real Salt Lake.

Not in a good way, either.

Emmanuel Boateng scored his sixth goal against Real Salt Lake — and fourth in the regular season — of his career, when the Ghanaian international finished a ball under a defensive-postured Bobby Wood and through the legs of goalkeeper Zac MacMath for the first goal surrendered by RSL in 2022.

The goal broke a 360-minute shutout streak for RSL, the fifth-longest in team history that ended 225 minutes into the 2022 season.

Former U.S. international Jozy Altidore doubled the advantage in the 62nd minute, making an immediate impact just two minutes after he entered as a second-half substitute. The 32-year-old striker headed home a close-range shot from Adam Buksa to give the host Revs a 2-0 lead, and New England never looked back.

It was the first goal for Altidore since moving from Toronto FC, joining former U.S. coach Bruce Arena in the Boston suburb to try to prolong a career that took him to Spain, the Netherlands and England's Premier League.

Cordova pulled one back in the 77th minute, opening his RSL account by rounding the goalkeeper and gingerly placing one in the back of the net after an initial attempt on goal from Bobby Wood. The Venezuela striker scored his first goal in a Salt Lake uniform with a cheeky finish after Wood went down amid two defenders, leaving Arena stunned and the Revolution scrambling to lock down "the most dangerous lead in soccer" of 2-0.

Head official Drew Fischer appeared ready to call a penalty when two defenders pulled down Wood in the box, but kept the whistle silent when he saw Cordova come from behind and finish down the chute for the away goal.

Glad scored the equalizer in the 87th minute, breaking the defensive wall on a free kick from Pablo Ruiz before settling the goal with three minutes left in regulation to save the point on the road.

Don't start on the celebration, though — whatever that was.

But RSL wasn't done with just 1 point.

Schmitt finished off the scoring in the third minute of stoppage time, hitting a right-footed shot from Jasper Loeffelsend to give Salt Lake the final advantage and send the team toward celebratory snow angels at the corner flag.

"It's a blur. I think when it was 2-0, we got one back, 2-1 and we wanted to go with four in the back so we could play with two and release our outside backs," Mastroeni said. "Tate and Jasper combined well to win that left-hand side.

"Tactics and everything else for me is expressed through the players wanting to achieve something as a group. ... When your backs are against the wall, you have nothing left to do but fight. And I couldn't be more proud of this group."

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