Colorado Rapids vs Real Salt Lake Picks and Predictions May 17th 2025

Rapids-RSL Match Shaping Up to Be Low-Scoring Affair

The Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake are bracing for a gritty, defensive battle on Saturday night in the latest chapter of the Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry, hosted at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.

Rapids Looking to End a Rough Patch

The Rapids (4-5-4, 16 points) enter the contest on a three-match losing streak and winless in their last five outings (0-3-2). On Wednesday, they suffered a 2-0 defeat to San Diego FC, a game that highlighted their current struggles on both ends of the pitch.

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“Yeah, it was a tough game for us,” Rapids coach Chris Armas admitted. “The margins are thin in this sport, in our league and in the Western Conference. There’s not a lot of room for error, and we didn’t do enough.”

The Rapids were outshot 28-9 in that loss and have now been shut out in two straight games. The energy and urgency are shifting to Saturday’s home match as they try to reset in front of their fans.

“Saturday is our focus. All of our energy now is spent on recovery and a big match for our players, our club and our fans,” Armas added.

Real Salt Lake Struggling to Capitalize

Real Salt Lake (4-7-2, 14 points) has its own issues to solve. They haven’t won in their last three matches (0-1-2) and are coming off a scoreless draw with Portland on Wednesday.

Coach Pablo Mastroeni is baffled by the team’s inability to score from set pieces, a historically critical tool in tight games like this one.

“This year we haven’t scored an offensive set-piece goal,” Mastroeni said. “That’s an area of, regardless of who we have up front, we have to be able to find mechanisms to unlock that statistic.”

RSL has managed only 13 goals all season, with seven of those coming from standout forward Diego Luna. Their offense has lacked creativity and clinical finishing, especially on dead-ball opportunities.

Offense at a Premium

Neither side has been lighting up the scoreboard. Colorado has only 15 goals through 13 matches, with Rafael Navarro and Djordje Mihailovic accounting for 10 of them. That leaves just five goals from the rest of the team — a lopsided dependency that opposing defenses have begun to exploit.

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In a matchup featuring two teams desperate for attacking rhythm, a high-scoring shootout seems unlikely. Instead, fans should expect a closely contested, physical affair — one that might be decided by a single moment of brilliance or a critical mistake.

If you’re planning your MLS picks and predictions, take note of both teams’ current form and goal-scoring woes. This clash has all the makings of a low-scoring grinder, ideal for under bettors.

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A Look Back and a Look Forward

Colorado got the better of Salt Lake in two of their three meetings last season, including a 3-2 win at home and a 2-1 road victory in Sandy, Utah. Salt Lake’s lone win in the series was a 5-3 goal-fest that remains an outlier given both teams’ current state.

Will history repeat itself, or will this year’s defensive patterns continue?