Real Salt Lake’s roster looks to be more or less complete, and with that, we have a fuller understanding of what things will look like during the 2026 season.
The arrivals of left back Juan Manuel Sanabria and center back Juan Jose Arias have both been confirmed, giving the team what one hopes is a firmer defensive footing moving forward.
Sanabria comes from Atletico San Luis, where he was a well-regarded talent. Reports prior to his signing indicated the player saw Real Salt Lake as a good pathway toward European soccer, and certainly, talented full backs — even at 25 years old — have opportunities that MLS forwards do not as often have. Initial statistical analysis from the 2025/26 Liga MX season has Sanabria as a top-level full back in terms of scoring contributions, with 0.36 per 90. That’s a very good mark, and it’s one that’s held in the top percentiles over the last several seasons.
At just 22 years old, Arias is more of an unknown. He’s played significant minutes in the Colombian top-flight, playing for Atletico Nacional since 2022. The 2025 season saw him with 42 starts, which includes 8 in Copa Libertadores. There is of course some element of risk in his signing, but it’s mitigated by the fact that he’s only on loan for six months, and the club holds a purchase option. Specifically, the loan deal ends July 13, shortly before the World Cup break ends.
With the rumored moves having come to fruition, we know what the team ought to look like moving forward. Some questions remain, which we’ll discuss in brief here.
What’s the expected role for right back DeAndre Yedlin?
Is the plan to transition Yedlin to a wide center back role? He recorded games at center back eight times in his career, including six at FC Cincinnati in 2024. In five of those six games, he earned a yellow card. His team lost all but two of those games, drawing one and winning the other.
Throughout the parts of preseason we were able to watch, Yedlin played in that wide center back role, with Dominik Marczuk in front in a right wing back role. We won’t be able to see any more matches in preseason, so all we can do now is roughly guess.
It’s integrating the new players … there are quite a few that have been added to the group, and with visa issues, fitness issues, they’re a little bit behind. it’s really about how do you bring the whole group up, so spending a little bit more time with those guys while still trying to move the rest of the group forward will be a challenge for us.
How will Morgan Guilavogui fit as forward?
Guilavogui’s goalscoring rate over the last year has not been particular impressive, with just one goal in the 2025/26 campaign for RC Lens. His best output was in Ligue 2 for Paris FC in 2022/23, when he scored 18 goals in 36 matches; his 21/22 rate wasn’t far off, with 14 goals and 5 assists in 32 matches. It remains to be seen, of course, how any of this translates to MLS, but even at FC St. Pauli, where he was a frequent starter, he scored 7 goals in 27 matches — not a particularly right rate of return.
This is all somewhat convoluted by the fact that Guilavogui has played more on the right wing than he was in a center forward position — in fact, he’s recorded only 31 games at center forward, compared with 45 games on the right wing. Those recorded center forward games produced 8 goals — about once every four games. I don’t think we ought to expect a better goalscoring rate than that, given he’s already 27 years old.
Finally, I’d like to touch on some troubling (and, in a roundabout way, exciting) news out of MLSHQ. Matt Doyle, who has been writing for MLSSoccer.com for a good 15 years, has been told that his “services were no longer needed.” He’s been one of the great writers in the MLS sphere since his start, and if you’ve paid attention, you know how well he understands Real Salt Lake and that he can speak about the team with more clarity than any other national figure, and I think better than any local figure, too.
He’s launching a paid tier for his already-good newsletter, Tactics Free Zone, and I’ve gone and subscribed — if you’ve appreciated his coverage over the years, I suspect you would enjoy subscribing, too.
And as for MLS, I am severely disappointed in their lack of vision over the last five years. They lack, I think, a fundamental understanding: Passionate fans don’t just grow on trees, and they don’t just arrive because better players come about. Passionate fans are developed through support of passionate voices that can help build stronger understanding. If MLS truly wants to exist on the global stage and not merely as an expansion fee pyramid scheme, they will absolutely need passionate fans.
When I think about what’s built my love for soccer and for other teams (yes, I’m an Arsenal supporter, and I’m not sorry), it’s been through intelligent, passionate fans of the world’s game. Whether it’s folks writing blogs, running podcasts, or producing statistical analysis, my passion for soccer has been built by others. I mean, it’s why I started writing about Real Salt Lake back in 2011 in the first place.
Anyway, a disappointing day for MLS, and yet another instance of the league not supporting fans — but rather trying its hardest to sell jerseys, be they pink, black and gold, or white and blue.
Goncalves' departure rounds out poor 2025 RSL transfers
Wasatch Soccer Sentinel
