St. Louis City suffers first loss of season at Real Salt Lake

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Cristian Arango scored three goals from the 70th minute on and Real Salt Lake rallied for 3-1 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night, handing the defending Western Conference regular-season champions their first loss of the season.

Indiana Vassilev gave St. Louis City (1-1-4) the lead in the 3rd minute when he scored unassisted off a set piece by sending a left-footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner of the net. It was his first goal of the season.

Arango scored the equalizer in the 70th minute with an assist from Alexandros Katranis. He gave Real Salt Lake (3-2-1) the lead in the 84th minute on a penalty kick and finished off his hat trick with an assist from Diego Luna in the first of 13 minutes of stoppage time. Arango already has five goals and four assists this season. His PK goal followed a handball on St. Louis City’s Chris Durkin.

Zac MacMath finished with one save for Real Salt Lake. Roman Bürki saved two shots for St. Louis City.

St. Louis City is the first team in league history to start its first two seasons unbeaten in its first five matches. The club is one of five all time to go unbeaten through the first five matches in back-to-back seasons. SLC started 5-0-0 last season, becoming the first expansion team to win its first five matches. The team rallied from behind to earn draws in its first two road matches this season.

The two clubs split a pair of matches last season with both teams winning on the road.

St. Louis City returns home to play FC Dallas on Saturday. Real Salt Lake travels to play Minnesota United on Saturday.