Pablo Mastroeni is entering his fifth full season as head coach of Real Salt Lake. He took the team all the way to the Western Conference final as interim manager in 2021, but every season since then has ended prematurely in the opening round of the playoffs.
The club has the second-longest active playoff streak in MLS, but also hasn’t won a trophy since the MLS Cup in 2009. With no Open Cup or CONCACAF in the cards for RSL this season, the club will go all-in on Leagues Cup and MLS Cup in 2026.
The trophy drought is not because of a lack of trying or tweaking, however, as the club reached a record 59 points in 2024 and has had four different leading goalscorers across Mastroeni’s four complete seasons.
The roster turned over once again this offseason, as six rotation players departed and six new ones arrived on the Wasatch Front from Spain, Uruguay, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Colombia.
Leading the attack
The biggest newcomer is French-Guinean forward Morgan Guilavogui from RC Lens. He spent last season on loan to German Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli, where he put up seven goals in 27 games.
RSL paid a reported $5 million for the 6-foot-2, 27-year-old, making him the second-most expensive player acquisition in RSL history after Chicho Arango’s estimated $6 million purchase in 2023.
“His versatility across multiple attacking positions, combined with his experience in top European leagues, makes him an ideal addition to our attacking framework,” RSL chief soccer officer Kurt Schmid said of Guilavogui.
Changing formation
RSL has been slowly moving toward a new formation on the field in recent seasons, and the 2026 season looks to debut the final form of Mastroeni’s 3-4-2-1 framework, with Zavier Gozo converting into more of a “wingback” hybrid on the right side, and newcomer Juan Manuel Sanabria or Alex Katranis mirroring him on the left.
The “spine” of this formation begins with Victor Olatunji up top as the striker and Diego Luna underneath as the attacking midfielder. The longest tenured RSL player, Justen Glad, is the central defender, backed up by Brazilian veteran and captain Rafael Cabral in goal.
Around that spine, there are questions to be answered and positions to be sorted out, including, perhaps most crucially, the central midfield. Braian Ojeda is now in Orlando and Emeka Eneli has not been at his best since a foot injury sidelined him last summer.
Swiss army knife Noel Caliskan is a favorite of Mastroeni, with the German gleefully moving to right back last season, but settling back into his original position in the midfield after U.S. men’s national team defender DeAndre Yedlin arrived in Salt Lake late last season. Newcomer Lukas Engel joins Yedlin and Glad in the three-man back line.
Youth movement?
Every RSL season seems to have at least one youth academy breakout player — including Gozo last season — and Mastoreni looks to be putting his early money on 17-year-old midfielder Luca Moisa for 2026, with the teenager potentially earning his MLS debut in the team’s season opener on Saturday in Vancouver.
RSL has also done well in the oft-forgotten MLS SuperDraft in recent years, grabbing Eneli in the first round in 2023. This year’s draft bet is Spanish forward Sergi Solans, who spent two years at the collegiate level at Oregon State and UCLA.
Mastroeni raved about the 22-year-old coming out of preseason, saying the 6-footer already possesses several innate qualities that often take MLS newcomers years to learn. At the top of that list is Mastroeni’s famous “killer mindset” in front of goal, which is needed now more than ever after RSL finished tied for the fourth-fewest goals in MLS a season ago.
Position and possession
It’s all about getting “position, then possession,” Mastroeni said, while drilling into his players the importance of getting into the box and into prime goalscoring position, instead of watching and waiting for the ball from the perimeter.
The 6-foot-3 Olatunji is a prime example of this, using his pace and physicality to secure four goals in just nine appearances last season after arriving in Utah in August. Could he be the fifth different leading goalscorer in five consecutive seasons for RSL?
Luna was the team’s leading scorer last season, reaching a career-high nine goals in 27 games. The 22-year-old USMNT star has increased his goal total every year in MLS, but dipped in assists from 12 in 2024 to seven in 2025.
Could Luna lead, then leave?
Mastroeni said he expects more leadership out of Luna heading into his fifth season with the club, especially as the World Cup hosted in North America looms just around the corner in June.
“I think he understands how he can impact the team both with the ball, but also emotionally,” Mastroeni said of his attacking talisman. “This year it’s more of continuing to progress from a football perspective, but also from a leadership perspective.”
Rumors have swirled about potential sales of Luna and Gozo as the team’s most valuable young players, especially after the club earned a record $11 million on the departure of young winger Andres Gomez in 2024, but both seem locked in for RSL to start 2026.
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