REAL SALT LAKE LINCHPIN AND PARAGUAYAN INTERNATIONAL BRAIAN OJEDA RECOGNIZED WITH MLS MATCHDAY 37 “TEAM OF THE MATCHDAY” BEST XI SELECTION
HERRIMAN, UT (Monday, Sept. 29, 2025) – Utah Soccer history was made this weekend, with all three of the Club’s professional teams – Real Salt Lake, Utah Royals FC and Real Monarchs – winning each of its three games, across a three-hour span Saturday night in three different states (Utah, California and Texas). Apart from one 2019 occasion and the Sept. 12-14 weekend earlier this month, this marks just the third time the Claret-and-Cobalt compendium has amassed a nine-point weekend since the Monarchs and Royals joined RSL in 2018.
Additionally, RSL midfielder Braian Ojeda has been recognized by Major League Soccer with his selection to the Matchday 37 “Team of the Matchday” XI, with teammate Diego Luna appearing on the fictional bench.
Saturday night, Ojeda opened the scoring with a clinical strike just before halftime, capping off a dominant first-half and sending RSL into the halftime break rewarded for its assertiveness and attacking quality. The slightly-deflected shot from distance gave Ojeda his fifth overall goal of 2025 across all competitions, with his second goal of the 2025 MLS campaign to go with three in this year’s Leagues Cup. Overall, the 25-year-old 2026 FIFA World Cup hopeful from Paraguay now has seven goals in 120 games across all competitions with the Utah side since his August, 2022, arrival on the Wasatch Front.
RSL star and burgeoning U.S. Men’s National Team icon Diego Luna notched two assists Saturday, both on RSL’s second-half strikes by newcomers DeAndre Yedlin and Victor Olatunji. Luna’s pair of assists give him a team-high seven in MLS reg. season action this year, to go along with his RSL-leading nine MLS goals. Diogo Gonçalves and Justen Glad also registered assists on the night, before a sold-out crowd of 20,332 at America First Field in Sandy.
The complete Matchday 37 results for MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Matchday can be found below.
F: Dor Turgeman (NE), Son Heung-Min (LAFC), Joseph Paintsil (LA)
M: Indiana Vassilev (PHI), Nectarios Triantis (MIN), Braian Ojeda (RSL), Dante Sealy (MTL)
D: Andrew Gutman (CHI), Thiago Martins (NYC), Alex Freeman (ORL)
GK: Sean Johnson (TOR)
Coach: Pascal Jansen (NYC)
Bench: Pedro Gallese (ORL), Artem Smolyakov (LAFC), Andy Najar (NSH), Albert Rusnák (SEA), Diego Luna (RSL), Milan Iloski (PHI), Mikael Uhre (PHI), Petar Musa (DAL), Josef Martínez (SJ)
Fresh off a dominant 3-1 home win Saturday over visiting Austin FC, Real Salt Lake (11-16-4, 37 points, 11th West / 21st Shield) continues its 2025 MLS reg. season at home Saturday (7:30p MT kickoff) in a must-win Rocky Mountain Cup match against Colorado Rapids. With just three 2025 MLS reg. season matches remaining, RSL sits one point outside of the final MLS Western Conference playoff spot, and just three points behind eighth-seeded Colorado.
In order to reclaim the fan-created Rocky Mountain Cup – the annual series between RSL and Colorado – the Utah side must win by multiple goals to reverse the 0-1 loss in suburban Denver in mid-May. Most importantly, RSL will seek back-to-back wins for the first time since mid-July, vaulting itself into a potential hosting scenario for the No. 8 v No. 9 Western Conference “play-in” game pending an Oct. 11 trip to Seattle and the Oct. 18 “Decision Day” 2025 reg. season finale at St. Louis.
