Real Salt Lake Rolls San Diego 4-2 to Stay Hot in the West

Real Salt Lake is controlling the controllable.

They have been banged up, felt wronged by a few whistles, and traveled all over God's creation in the first chunk of the season. Currently fifth in the West with only six games played, they sit on 13 points. They added to it Saturday night with a 4-2 victory over San Diego.

Things got started strangely in the 5th minute when Diego Luna jumped a pass from San Diego goalkeeper Duran Ferree and deflected it into the net, putting Salt Lake in front before everyone had their seats. One minute later, MLS SuperDraft pick Sergi Solans picked up his fourth goal of the season to double the lead.

Manager Pablo Mastroeni was direct about what Solans means to the group. "In Sergi, we have an unbelievable teammate and an awesome player," he said.

San Diego climbed back into it in the 14th minute when Marcus Ingvartsen finished off a counter attack for the visitors, and the game leveled out as the half wore on. Then RSL snatched control back in the final ten minutes. Solans grabbed his second of the night with a snap header in the 37th minute, making it 3-1 to the hosts. They finished the half in style when Morgan Guilavogui buried a beautiful transition goal. Luna's blind diagonal set Solans free down the left, and he passed on a first-half hat trick to give Guilavogui the 1v1 with the keeper. He did not miss.

Mastroeni was unambiguous about the first 45 minutes. "That first half for me was unbelievable," he said. "The guys really left it all out in the first half."

San Diego tried to drag themselves back into it with a 66th-minute penalty that Anders Dreyer put away, but the visitors could not pull closer. Real Salt Lake saw out the victory, picking up three big points to start a congested schedule with Miami on deck in midweek.

And another thing:

Any discussion about Real Salt Lake being a "sneaky good" team needs to die in a fire. This is just a very good team.

Mastroeni said he feels like they still have things to work on before they can become great. Tightening up the defense, carrying energy across all 90 minutes. Fair enough. But for a squad that has been banged up since preseason, they have gotten more than they could have fairly asked for from players who were expected to spend most of 2026 with the Monarchs.

Sergi Solans is a star in the making. Diego Luna is still, in fact, Diego Luna. Morgan Guilavogui came in as a DP and has done all the little things, even without the goals falling in bunches yet. This squad has buy-in to Pablo's vision, and they deserve every bit of the attention coming their way.