SANDY, Utah — Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suárez scored one minute apart late in the second half, and Dayne St. Clair earned his second clean sheet of the season as Inter Miami beat Real Salt Lake 2-0 on Wednesday night.
Soccer legend Lionel Messi played the entire 90(+7) minutes of the game in his Utah debut, but failed to score despite late opportunities.
Miami (5-1-3) is unbeaten in its last eight regular-season games to sit in second in the Eastern Conference standings.
Salt Lake (5-1-2) had a six-game unbeaten run come to an end. RSL had secured multi-goal wins in its previous two games.
De Paul took a short corner from Telasco Segovia and curled a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal in the 82nd minute.
Suárez, who entered in the 75th, volleyed a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Rafael Cabral for his second goal of the season.
The only other meeting between the teams resulted in a 2-0 victory for Miami at home in the 2024 season opener.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
