Brazilian RSL goalkeeper and Captain Rafael Cabral has earned selection to this week's MLSSoccer.com "Team of the Matchday" for his Saturday heroics, as Real Salt Lake earned a 1-0 win this weekend over Rocky Mountain Cup rival Colorado.
Improving to seven wins and two draws against just three losses at home since June 1, Cabral and RSL registered back-to-back wins for the first time since mid-July and vaulted itself above the MLS Western Conference playoff line with its third win in the last five games, controlling its 2025 postseason destiny with upcoming road matches at Seattle and St. Louis on Oct. 11 and 18.
Cabral and the RSL rearguard blanked the opponent for the ninth time in 37 games this season, the first-year MLS 'keeper also denying three of seven PK attempts faced in regulation this year. Late in Saturday's win, Cabral was active, coming off his line to deny Rapids danger and repeatedly saving multiple point-blank chances to hold the zero and secure the three points.
In support of Cabral and the clean sheet, RSL Designated Player Diogo Gonçalves slotted home the game-winner in the 39th minute, assisted by newcomer DP Rwan Cruz, for his first goal contribution of 2025.
Throughout the 2025 season, RSL's lone “Iron Man” has been Cabral, the Club’s only player to have played all 3,330 minutes across 37 games all competitions this season - with the former Copa Libertadores 2011 winner donning the Claret-and-Cobalt Captain’s armband for a 20th consecutive contest.
The Gonçalves goal – his third of the season – gave RSL the distinction of scoring first for the 22nd time in those 37 games across all competitions this year, RSL now winning 11 and tying four against seven losses when drawing first blood. In five seasons under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni’s 178 games managed, RSL has dropped just 10 games when scoring first, with 46 wins and 17 draws.
This week, RSL travels to Seattle for its penultimate MLS reg. season match of 2025, without USA playmaker Diego Luna and Paraguayan midfielder Braian Ojeda, both of whom are away on national team duty during this FIFA international break. RSL will also be without centerback Kobi Henry, who will participate in 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifying for Trinidad and Tobago. All three players will return for RSL’s 2025 MLS “Decision Day” on Sat., October 18 at St. Louis.
RSL can clinch its Conference-best fifth-consecutive MLS Cup Playoff postseason berth with a win in either of its two remaining matches at Seattle or at St. Louis, as it battles Dallas, Colorado and San Jose for one of the final two postseason berths in the West. Amazingly, both Austin and Portland are in RSL's sights as the sixth and seventh seeds, if they stumble while RSL wins out in its final two matches.
