Columbus, Ohio • Gyasi Zardes and Eduardo Sosa scored first-half goals and the Columbus Crew held on to beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 on Saturday night.
Zardes sent the penalty kick into the lower right corner to open the scoring in the sixth minute. Danilo Acosta brought down Luis Argudo in the area to set up Zardes for his 11th goal of the season.
Sosa finished Pedro Santos’ cross with a right-footed shot from the top right corner of the penalty box to double the Columbus (8-5-6) lead in the 23rd minute.
Albert Rusnak finished Joao Plata’s low cross with a left-footed shot from the middle of the area to pull Real Salt Lake (7-8-2) within one.
Kyle Beckerman made his 300th start for Real Salt Lake, the most by a field player for a single club in MLS history.