Real Salt Lake earn playoff spot with comfortable win over San Jose Earthquakes

Oct 12, 2014 at 2.30am UK

FT(HT: 2-0)

Goals from Ned Grabavoy and Sebastian Velasquez fire Real Salt Lake to the MLS playoffs as they defeat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0.

Published: October 12 2014 | 04:42

Last updated: October 12 2014 | 14:32

Real Salt Lake secured their place in the MLS playoffs for the seventh straight season by defeating the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 in their match on Saturday.

The home side started the game strongly and could have take the lead when Sebastian Jaime collected a through ball into the box, but Jon Busch got enough on his chipped effort to divert the ball wide.

Busch kept his side level minutes later when he stretched to punch Sebastian Velasquez's powerful effort from the edge of the box over the bar.

From the resulting corner, San Jose failed to clear their lines as the ball fell to Ned Grabavoy on the edge of the box, and he placed his right-footed shot past Busch into the bottom corner.

Salt Lake doubled their lead in the 30th minute when Luke Mulholland lifted a corner into the six-yard box and Velasquez was unmarked in the area and on hand to poke the ball home from close range.

In the second half, Mulholland advanced forward and reached the edge of the box before firing an effort towards the net, which went inches over the bar.

Adam Jahn tried to drag the visitors back into the match when he received the ball inside the box. The forward beat his man with a neat turn, but he could only send his shot wide of the target.

Yannick Djalo should have got San Jose a goal back minutes later when he latched onto a cross at the back post, but he lost his footing at the vital moment and blasted the ball wide.

The home side had chances to kill the game off, but the two-goal advantage was enough for them to seal the three points and earn their place in the post-season.

Share this article now:

Eastern Conference

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Inter Miami Inter Miami	34	22	8	4	79	49	30	74
2	Columbus Crew	34	19	9	6	72	40	32	66
3	FC Cincinnati Cincinnati	34	18	5	11	58	48	10	59
4	Orlando City	34	15	7	12	59	50	9	52
5	Charlotte FC Charlotte FC	34	14	9	11	46	37	9	51
6	New York City FC NY City	34	14	8	12	54	49	5	50
7	New York Red Bulls NY Red Bulls	34	11	14	9	55	50	5	47
8	CF Montreal Montreal	34	11	10	13	48	64	-16	43
9	Atlanta United Atlanta	34	10	10	14	46	49	-3	40
10	DC United	34	10	10	14	52	70	-18	40
11	Philadelphia Union Philadelphia	34	9	10	15	62	55	7	37
12	Toronto	34	11	4	19	40	61	-21	37
13	Nashville SC Nashville	34	9	9	16	38	54	-16	36
14	New England Revolution New England	34	9	4	21	37	74	-37	31
15	Chicago Fire	34	7	9	18	40	62	-22	30

Western Conference

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Los Angeles FC Los Angeles	34	19	7	8	63	43	20	64
2	Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy	34	19	7	8	69	50	19	64
3	Real Salt Lake Salt Lake	34	16	11	7	65	48	17	59
4	Seattle Sounders Seattle	34	16	9	9	51	35	16	57
5	Houston Dynamo Houston	34	15	9	10	47	39	8	54
6	Minnesota United Minnesota Utd	34	15	7	12	58	49	9	52
7	Colorado Rapids Colorado	34	15	5	14	61	60	1	50
8	Portland Timbers Portland	34	12	11	11	65	56	9	47
9	Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver	34	13	8	13	52	49	3	47
10	Austin FC Austin	34	11	9	14	39	48	-9	42
11	Dallas	34	11	8	15	54	56	-2	41
12	St Louis City	34	8	13	13	50	63	-13	37
13	Sporting Kansas City Kansas	34	8	7	19	51	66	-15	31
14	San Jose Earthquakes Earthquakes	34	6	3	25	41	78	-37	21