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Real Salt Lake clinches home-field advantage for first round of playoffs

RSL beats San Jose 1-0 on Diego Luna’s 78th-minute goal.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Real Salt Lake midfielder Diego Luna, shown during a match against Atlanta United on July 6, scored in the 78th minute of RSL's 1-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night.

Real Salt Lake beat the host San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 on Saturday night, earning home-field advantage for the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

Diego Luna scored in the 78th minute with assists from Braian Ojeda and Diogo Gonçalves to lift RSL (15-7-11) to the victory.

Real Salt Lake’s win — combined with losses by Colorado and Houston on Saturday — means RSL will finish no worse than fourth in the Western Conference, thereby earning home-field advantage for a three-game series in the first round of the postseason.

Seattle beat Colorado 1-0, and St. Louis topped Houston 3-0 on Saturday.

RSL will wrap up the regular season at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Oct. 19. Salt Lake and third-place Seattle each have 56 points with one game left to play.

RSL had a 14-6 advantage in shots against San Jose, including a 6-1 edge in shots on goal.

Goalkeeper Zac MacMath made one save to earn the shutout for RSL, while San Jose’s Daniel had five stops.

The last-place Earthquakes fell to 6-24-3 with the loss.

With the victory, RSL avenged a 2-0 loss to the Earthquakes on Aug. 24 at America First Field.


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