In the words of the theme to Star Trek: Enterprise, it’s been a long time. We’ve added another kid to the family, which has been rewarding but sort of turned everything upside down. (He’s not even two months old, so yeah. Young’n.) And that’s not to say anything about what’s been happening at Real Salt Lake, because frankly, things are a bit weird right now.
The last, what, decade of the club? It’s felt like limbo. Not the party activity, though. It’s more a theological limbo, minus original sin and whatnot. We’re stuck between worlds. We’ve undergone ownership changes multiple times now, with Hansen exiting, Smith and Blitzer entering, Smith leaving and Blitzer staying, and the Millers entering. I don’t quite know what to make of it all, but the changes haven’t stopped there. The club has brought in Jason Kreis, first in an non-specific ‘special projects’ role, then as the president of soccer (or some such title.) The team’s global general manager search ended with Jason Kreis in a newly created role, and I don’t know to what extent he was involved in that search or what, but I think it’s fair to say that the recruiting team has remained largely the same, with Luke Mulholland as ‘head scout’ and Kurt Schmid as chief soccer officer. Something like that, I guess. Again: I don’t know.
And honestly, I don’t really care, because I think it’s more interesting to talk about what’s happened, what’s happening, and to hold everyone to a high standard. I’m not going to talk much about this, but there are few things more discouraging than hearing excuses tossed around: “Ownership hasn’t had time yet,” despite continuity in ownership since Hansen’s departure; “It’s a new front office,” despite the same general manager/chief soccer officer being over the roster since Elliot Fall left at the end of the 2023 season, and his replacement in Schmid having been at the club, first as technical director, since 2021. Luke Mulholland has been the team’s scout since his retirement at the end of 2020. There’s real continuity here.
But even if there wasn’t continuity, I’m not sure why we as fans are eager to accept excuses for the recruitment failures we’ve had to endure. I’d like to think we can expect great things from Real Salt Lake, and I think we ought to demand great things. Not whatever this has been recently. Let’s dive into the player movement around the club.
Departure?: Diogo Goncalves
He’s a controversial figure, Diogo Goncalves. Not, like, truly controversial, but you know, folks have strong feelings. I’ve had strong feelings in the past, but they’ve somewhat faded. I think he was a useful player; I think he had a few great moments in almost every game he played; and I think he was generally ineffective in creating great attacks. All of those views can be held together.
The real issue came from his tag as a designated player. It’s a designation you don’t want to give to a useful player — you want to give it to a valuable player, to somebody who makes the team significantly better.
It does sort of appear he’s gone now, with keen observers noting that he’s removed everything related to Real Salt Lake from his Instagram bio. Does that mean he’s gone? I guess not definitively, but unfortunately, this is how we get our news these days.
If he’s gone, he leaves the club with 6 goals and 7 assists in 41 games played. It’s not world-beating stuff, but again — it’s passable for a player with a different roster designation. But for a player we paid some $3 million for, it’s not a great outlay.
Arrived 2025, now he’s gone: Rwan Cruz
What a signing. He’s not listed on the preseason roster, and he, too, has removed signs of Real Salt Lake from his Instagram. Young people, right? He’s also been loaned to Ludogrets, a Bulgarian first-division side, from Botafogo. Botafogo bought him from Ludogrets before loaning him to us. He played at Santos before going to Ludogrets on a free deal, and they also loaned him to Ludogrets before that. Maybe he really loves Bulgaria. I’ve never been.
Cruz came in as designated player signing — again! — and oh boy, it’s hard to overstate how poor he looked during his time with RSL. I don’t know if it was a bad fit or if he’s a bad player, but he absolutely looked how I’d expect an exciting striker plying his trade in Bulgaria might look. I don’t mean this as a slight against the nation or the league, but Ludogrets, perennially first-place in the league, averages some 1,125 home attendance. Let’s be realistic here: MLS is probably considerably better than the Bulgarian top-flight.
Arrival, departure, arrival: Dominik Marczuk
Alright. I’d love to know what happened here. I’d love to understand why this player on a U-22 roster designation came in, started a bunch of games, got dropped, and got loaned to FC Cincinnati. After starting nearly every game until the end of May, he managed just 66 MLS minutes before being loaned in August. What happened there? Is it just that Zavier Gozo came around much more quickly than we expected? Maybe, but that was a tremendous fall.
He’s back at RSL now, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why I should be excited that he’s back at the club. Is there any reason? I’m not mad, I guess, but if we have another half-season of “he’s a promising young winger” followed by “he’s gone for now, and the other club has a purchase option they’re not going to end up taking,” I’m going to have to scratch my head. Again.
Declined: Johnny Russell
I don’t think there’s too much to say here. Johnny Russell’s contract option was declined, and he’s not involved in preseason. He turned out to be a signing that had basically no on-field impact. Maybe he was good with the youths.
Declined/Out of Contract: Ajago, Agada, et al
A number of players had their options declined or just went out of contract.
Forster Ajago is gone, and that’s great news — he wasn’t at this level, and I will never forget his antics in that Champions Cup loss.
Willy Agada is gone, too. Two goals and two assists was not a great outlay in 22 games played.
Matthew Bell played 19 minutes for RSL. He’s gone.
There’s more, but does it matter? Not really. It’s largely players who just never made an appearance.
Gone but not forgotten: Braian Ojeda
I’m bummed Braian Ojeda has left. He started 25 games and played in 30, and he was an important part of the midfield. He leaves a single game shy of the 100-MLS-regular-season-game mark. He’s off to Orlando City SC, who have given RSL some $1.8 million in general allocation money, with $1.3 million of that guaranteed, and the remainder paid on performance.
I don’t like the move, especially because it creates yet another hole in the starting roster. I’ll get into all that in a minute here. Was it a good amount of allocation? Probably. Will it help RSL construct a better roster? That remains to be seen.
Gone and unforgettable, for better and for worse: Brayan Vera
Remember when RSL had three Br(i|a|y)(i|y)?ans on the team? I do. Now we’re done to none. Wild. Anyway, Brayan Vera had his incredible moments, especially in shooting from distance. He had his demoralizing moments, evidenced by his averaging of a yellow card every third game. (Did you know he only had one direct red card in MLS play?) In his MLS career, he had a staggering five yellow card suspensions.
He was always a bit too roguish for my likes at center back, often striking out on his own. He never formed a great defensive unit with Justen Glad, who I do think has that capability but needs a focused partner. I think there’s space to upgrade here, but it remains to be seen, once again.
There are of course some avenues of speculation about his departure involving geopolitical concern, which we don’t discuss in depth here, but we did touch on it in the most recent episode of Off the Crossbar, if you’re inclined to give it a listen.
Apparently Actually in: Lukas Engel
We’ve signed from Middlesborough somebody that recently played with FC Cincinnati, Lukas Engel. He played 33 games for them. I don’t know how good he was, but Cincinnati did end up in second place in the Eastern Conference, so I guess that’s something of note. I'm sure he's a starting left back, but if we do go three in the back, what's his role then? Is he a weird hybrid left back-center back again?
In: Zach Booth
I’m really curious to see what Zach Booth brings to the table. He’s played a bit in the Eredivisie for FC Volendam and Excelsior, and he’s generally been a promising young player, and one of the “the one that got away” generation for RSL, as he played for the RSL Academy back in the day. I think he’s probably imagined as the starting player on the left wing.
Where’s RSL left from a roster perspective?
Let’s just breeze through this real quick. I’m not going to dive into the players behind the first one or two choices unless it’s really obvious, though. Reports have RSL playing a three-man backline with Luna up top this year. We’ll see what happens, but I guess I’ll have to list three starting center backs here. Wish me luck.
Goalkeeper: Cabral, Stajduhar
Right Back: Yedlin
Center Back: Glad, Quinton, Junqua, Henry
Left Back: Engel, Katranis
Central Midfield: Ruiz, Eneli, Caliskan, Dillon
Right Wing: Gozo, Marczuk
Attacking Midfield: Luna
Left Wing: Booth
Forward: Olatunji
The following players were intentinoally left out, despite playing some level of first-team minutes for RSL already:
Ariath Piol, because he was pretty poor last year, and I don’t consider him true depth
Jesus Barea, because he didn’t even hit the 300-minute mark
The days of getting to watch preseason it seems are long behind us, and you know what? That’s a real shame. Preseason, I think, helps build dedicated fans. Getting to see the team in progress helps get passionate fans excited. Anyway, maybe we’ll get to see a game or two, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I’d like to be back next week, supposing there’s something to talk about. Maybe I’ll talk about some things RSL needs to do better in 2026, because I think we ought to, once again, aim higher.
Wasatch Soccer Sentinel
