LA Galaxy beat RSL to snap season-opening winless streak at 16 games

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — 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 back 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 Nascimento, a 21-year-old rookie.

Paintsil ran down the left side onto a long ball played ahead by Gabriel 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.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer