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City SC fell to Real Salt Lake, the team that started the night immediately ahead of it in the Western Conference standings, 3-2 at America First Field in Sandy, Utah, and fell further out of everything. City SC is closer to last place, three points up on the Los Angeles Galaxy, then it is to 13th place, where it’s six points in back of Dallas and seven back of RSL, which jumped up a spot. City SC is 11 points back of the last playoff spot with 13 games to play.

City SC has lost three in a row, is winless in five games and has one win in its past 17 games, which constitutes half the season. It’s the third time in the past four games City SC has allowed three or more goals. City SC has scored two or more goals in those three games and has just one tie to show for it.

Klauss scored his sixth goal in six games to briefly put City SC within a goal in the second half and the team threatened to tie the game, but City SC defender Josh Yaro knocked a ball into his own net trying to break up an RSL scoring chance and the lead was back to two with 26 minutes to play. Yaro got credit for a goal in the 81st minute when a corner kick by Marcel Hartel banked off him and into the net. Klauss had a chance to tie the game in the 98th minute but his header went just wide. The final whistle followed soon after.

City SC Homegrown player Tyson Pearce made his MLS debut, coming in as a substitute immediately before the third RSL goal. Pearce is five weeks shy of his 18th birthday.

For the second time in three games, City SC fell behind early. RSL had a corner six minutes in that City SC headed out, and it came to Noel Caliskan just outside the box on a bounce. Caliskan trapped it with his chest, let it drop and volleyed as it hit the ground on a line for the top left corner that was out of the reach of goalkeeper Roman Burki. In its past three games, City SC has allowed three goals in the first 10 minutes.

City SC’s best scoring chance in the first half came in the 21st minute, when Conrad Wallem crossed the ball to Cedric Teuchert in the box and took a shot that required a diving save from RSL goalkeeper Rafael Cabral. Two minutes later, RSL had three good scoring chances, but the first was saved by Burki and the next two were blocked by Jaziel Orozco and Jake Girdwood-Reich.

RSL extended its lead to 2-0 in the 43rd minute. Orozco made a pass upfield that didn’t quite get to Klauss, and RSL quickly countered. Diego Goncalves had the ball on the left wing, took it into the box, cut back and shot from 12 yards, putting the ball into the upper right corner, again just out of the reach of a leaping Burki.

The injury situation led to three City2 players – Orozco, Pearce and Mykhi Joyner – being called up for the game. For Joyner, it was his sixth callup, the limit for him as a Homegrown player who is on non-roster status; if City SC wants him to play again this season, it would have to put him on the first-team roster, which, of course, would require an open roster spot.

Orozco got a spot in the starting lineup, the first City2 callup this season to start an MLS game. (Joyner started the Open Cup game against Union Omaha.) Orozco was with RSL from 2022 to 2024, though he spent much of that time out on loan. He appeared in five games with RSL and also played with their MLS Next Pro team.

Michael Wentzel, who made his first start of the season last week against Houston, wasn’t on the game-day roster. He missed practice late in the week after feeling soreness in his hamstring. A scan didn’t find anything and he wasn’t on the league injury report, but he was held back anyway.

Tomas Ostrak returned to the starting lineup for the first time since May and Josh Yaro made his first appearance since Critchley became interim coach.