CARSON, Calif. — Lucas Sanabria scored his first goal in MLS, Joseph Paintsil added his first goal of the season and the LA Galaxy beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 on Saturday night to snap the longest winless streak to start a season in MLS history.
The Galaxy (1-12-4) – the defending MLS Cup champions – were winless in 16 straight and had a minus-23 goal differential during that span.
Novak Micovic finished with four saves and the 23-year-old had his – as well as the Galaxy’s – first shutout of the season.
RSL (4-10-3) is winless in seven consecutive games dating to a 3-1 win at San Diego on April 26.
The 21-year-old Sanabria put away a one-touch finish – set up perfectly by Matheus Nascimento‘s feed – into a wide-open net to open the scoring in the 17th minute. It was the first goal contribution in MLS for the Nascimento, a 21-year-old rookie.
Paintsil ran down the left side onto a long ball played ahead by Gabrial Pec, cut inside to evade a defender near the corner of the area and then slipped a shot inside the back post to make it 2-0 in the 55th.
LA is unbeaten (5-0-4) in nine straight home matches against Real Salt Lake since 2017.
Salt Lake outshot the Galaxy 20-9.
