Real Salt Lake youth take positives from 1-0 loss to reigning West champs in home opener
Aziel Jackson got the goal, and Vancouver got the 1-0 win over a shorthanded Real Salt Lake side in Saturday's season opener. Here are some positives from the night.
Sure, there were plenty of issues with the attack and Real Salt Lake’s old nemesis — the finishing touch in the final third — could have been more clean in its 2026 MLS season opener Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
But with as many as six players featuring in a lineup that had as many as six players with question marks for a variety of reasons 48 hours before kickoff, Pablo Mastroeni injected a youth movement into his side — and opted to focus on the positives of a 1-0 loss to the reigning Western Conference champion Whitecaps.
Thomas Müller was a problem (who predicted the win before kickoff), but not the undoing, as Aziel Jackson — better known as “AZ” — separated the two sides with his 57th-minute strike that ultimately proved to be the difference on the score sheet.
But debuting a new formation on the road, and without stars like talisman playmaker Diego Luna and striker Victor Olatunji (who were both injured in a Wednesday training session) or designated player Morgan Guilavogui (due to visa procurement issues), was never going to be easy.
So how do you rate a group that started two teenagers and five RSL Academy homegrowns, including 17-year-old Luca Moisa getting his first MLS minutes in central midfield and Aiden Hezarkhani in his inaugural first-team start?
“I think every game has to be taken into context, and … we had literally a day prep going into this game,” Mastroeni said. “Starting with that alone, it was a fantastic performance — especially being on the road against last year’s Western Conference champs. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort.”
Those three RSL starting debutants, which also include Eden native Zach Booth in his first game since returning to his home state on loan from Eredivisie side Excelsior, were of particular note.
Salt Lake’s most recent SuperDraft pick Sergi Solans also made his first-team debut Saturday night in the loss, when the 230th player in RSL history replaced Booth in the 59th minute.
“There was some really good quality amongst that,” Mastroeni said.
A loss is a loss, and RSL didn’t earn 3 points from a difficult road trip. But rather than moral victories, the club is taking silver linings from an otherwise difficult position — lessons it can learn as early as next week to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the club’s home opener Saturday against Seattle (5:30 p.m. MT, Apple TV).
Call them building blocks, the first of a 34-match schedule through the fall that includes a month-long summer break for the FIFA World Cup in North America.
“Obviously, we have to learn from the things we’ve done wrong,” Hezarkhani said. “But I think we can see the glass half full and focus on what we’ve done well — and focus on that.”
Quality that came, primarily, from the local ranks. Salt Lake’s lineup included five players from the standout RSL Academy — adding center back stalwart Justen Glad and winger Zavier Gozo to the mix — and two players born in the Beehive State.
Moisa, in particular, showed reasons why those within said Academy have been high on the 17-year-old midfielder from Las Vegas who signed a professional contract with the club when he was just 14.
On one occasion, he delivered a pinpoint switch across the field to Alex Katranis, who slipped a pass to Ariath Piol for a goal that was called back on review. The few hundred fans that watched Moisa a year ago, when he started 17 of 19 appearances for Real Monarchs with two goals and four assists, have been impressed by Moisa.
The rest of the Salt Lake soccer fanbase reasons why Saturday night.
“I think he fully deserved it after a strong preseason,” said former Monarchs teammate Hezarkhani of Moisa, who was fourth on the team with 25 completed passes with an 86.2% completion rate. “I thought he played really well; he played like himself, which is what we’re all asking for. We got to see the real Luca out there today, and he was class.”
 | A guest post by
|