Earthquakes beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 in home finale, climb to third in the West

Ousseni Bouda scored on a free kick in the second minute, and Benji Kikanović added the winner.

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Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026In the Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026 edition

Fans gather on a grass lawn at night outside the stadium where the San Jose Earthquakes play, under a lit scoreboard reading Quakes vs. FC Dallas. — Fans on the lawn outside the Earthquakes' stadium, then called Avaya Stadium and now PayPal Park, before a 2017 game. File photo. — Photo: Daniel J. Prostak / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (shared under the same license)

SAN JOSE - The San Jose Earthquakes beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 on Saturday, Oct. 31, at PayPal Park in their last regular-season home game, according to the team. The win moved San Jose into third place in Major League Soccer's (MLS) Western Conference.

Ousseni Bouda scored on a free kick in the second minute, and Benji Kikanović made it 2-0 in the 17th minute. Juanma Sanabria scored for Real Salt Lake, the team from the Salt Lake City area, in the 23rd minute.

San Jose has 52 points, its most in a season since 2013, when it had 51, the team said. In MLS, a win is worth three points and a tie one.

The top four teams in each conference host their first-round series in the MLS Cup Playoffs, the league's postseason tournament. San Jose closes the regular season at Minnesota United FC at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 4 p.m. Pacific time.

Source: San Jose Earthquakes match recap

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Sources and documents

San Jose Earthquakes match recap: Earthquakes 2, Real Salt Lake 1