The latest round of matches in the 2025 Major League Soccer season will see playoff hopefuls Real Salt Lake and Houston Dynamo lock horns at the America First Field on Sunday.

Confidence is in abundance for both sides heading into this one off the back of enthralling wins last time out, as the hosts claimed a 3-2 win over St Louis City, while the visitors edged San Diego FC in a seven-goal contest.

Match preview

Having seen their 20 league outings produce a combined 50 goals, it was no surprise that Real Salt Lake were involved in another entertaining affair as they defeated St Louis City by the odd goal in a five-goal thriller.

Aiming to get their season back on track, Pablo Mastroeni's men have now picked up seven of the last nine points available off the back of a rough patch that saw them manage only three points from the previous 21.

Now up to 22 points for the season, the Claret and Cobalt have a four-point gap to make up in the race for playoff contention and could potentially reduce that deficit to one with a victory over Houston Dynamo.

Games involving this weekend's opponents have been evenly contested of late, with the last six meetings yielding three wins apiece, although Real Salt Lake did come out on top in the most recent encounter back in March.

Having now won consecutive home matches for the first time since September, Sunday's hosts will be keen to turn their stadium into a fortress once again, and securing all three points would be a step in the right direction.

After failing to win any of their opening six MLS matches of the campaign, Houston Dynamo needed some time to get going and still do, but their 4-3 triumph over newcomers San Diego could prove to be a turning point.

Ben Olsen's men overcame 1-0 and 3-2 deficits to secure a rare comeback victory thanks to a 100th-minute strike from Ezequiel Ponce, who had earlier levelled the game with three minutes of regulation time left to play.

Ponce is going from strength to strength in his second season in Houston, with the winner last time out being his seventh goal of the campaign, two more than he managed during the entirety of the 2024 campaign.

The Argentine's form has seen his side move back up to eighth in the Western Conference standings, but La Naranja still have work to do at both ends of the pitch.

Their 34 goals conceded are the most of any Western Conference team in playoff contention at the moment, while only Austin FC and Seattle Sounders have scored fewer than Houston's 29 in the division's top nine.

With daunting assignments against the Vancouver Whitecaps and Philadelphia Union to follow Sunday's game, the away side will need to be at their best to avoid falling off the pace in the race for a postseason berth before the Leagues Cup comes around next month.

Real Salt Lake MLS form:

Houston Dynamo MLS form:

Team News

Tyler Wolff and Javain Brown are both down with knee injuries, ruling them out of contention for Real Salt Lake.

Zac MacMath is also out for the home side due to a back issue, while fellow American Emeka Eneli is set to miss game number six on the bounce with a foot injury.

Nelson Quinones still awaits his first appearance of the season as he continues to battle with a knee problem alongside Andrew Tarbell.

Thirty-three-year-old Erik Sviatchenko has been in and out of the visitors' XI of late due to a muscle injury, and he is expected to miss this weekend's game.

Real Salt Lake possible starting lineup:

Cabral; Caliskan, Glad, Junqua, Katranis; Ruiz, Palacio; Goncalves, Gozo, Russell; Agada

Houston Dynamo possible starting lineup:

Bond; Escobar, Bartlow, Ortiz, Andrade; Ennali, Artur, Raines; Bassi, Ponce, Lingr

We say: Real Salt Lake 2-1 Houston Dynamo

Very rarely has this fixture failed to produce high-level entertainment, and we expect Sunday's game to live up to expectations.

That said, we are leaning towards a narrow win for Real Salt Lake when all is said and done.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Adepoju Marvellous

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