Atlanta United vs. Real Salt Lake: 3 questions with The RSL Show

At long last, Atlanta United is back home.

After two losses away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta opens its home schedule against Real Salt Lake, a team that made it to the playoffs in 2025 but was bounced in the Wild Card round.

And if anything, this is a very, very young team. Here’s the starting XI from their win last week against the Seattle Sounders:

The average age of that group? 23.9 years. I can’t be sure, but I’m fairly confident that was the youngest starting group in MLS during Matchday 2. To break it down further, Zach Booth is 22, Ari Piol (who is out with a ruptured Achilles) is 21, Aiden Hezarkhani and Zavier Gozo (more on them in a second) are 18, and Luca Moisa is 17. That group, obviously, is missing “veteran” star Diego Luna, who is 22 (and is out with a knee injury).

One player that RSL will hope to have an impact on Saturday is Morgan Guilavogui, an offseason signing from Lens in the French top flight. The Guinea international came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute against the Sounders.

For more on RSL, I turned to Alex Napoles from The RSL Show (X).

RSL is a club that’s relying on its youth quite heavily. Probably one of the players that is a prime beneficiary of its development pipeline is Zavier Gozo. What is the ceiling for a player like him? Any other young players on the roster that have a similar trajectory?

I believe Gozo has the potential to be a national team mainstay in a few years time. His speed and motor makes him a constant threat in the attack. He’s fantastic in 1v1 situations, dribbles past opponents at a high level and has tremendous vision to set up his teammates in scoring positions. Still has a lot of room to grow in both the attack and on the defensive side of the ball, especially now that he’s being asked to play in more of a RWB role when defending. Another player who’s on the rise is Aiden Hezarkhani. Aiden has taken the opportunity to start the first two games of 2026 because of injuries and he’s impressed. His hard work was paid off against Seattle with a beautiful volley for his first MLS goal.

Diego Luna will be out due to a leg injury suffered a couple of weeks ago. Of course, this comes just months before the World Cup. How much of an effect do you think it will have on him making Pochettino’s roster in the summer? Is it a done deal in your eyes?

I think it’s a massive disadvantage for Luna to be out injured. I don’t think Luna’s spot on a World Cup roster is solidified by any means, so him not being out on the field contributing makes it all the more difficult to stamp his spot on the roster. I was a big believer that Luna had to have a good start to the season to be a lock for the World Cup. Obviously still plenty of football to be played before roster decisions have to be made, but Diego Luna has to hit the ground running, assisting and scoring when he returns to secure his spot at the World Cup.

This is Pablo Mastroeni’s fifth full season as RSL’s head coach. Given the contract extension he was given in November, what are the expectations that have set for him by ownership as RSL looks to emerge as one of the top teams in the West?

Real Salt Lake went through an ownership change last March/April. I think it’s a massive vote of confidence from the new ownership group to have extended Pablo Mastroeni, despite a bit of a disappointing season in 2025. Ownership put down the money and resources this offseason to upgrade the roster in areas of need and the entire front office believes RSL can compete in 2026. The expectations for this season are obviously qualifying for the playoffs. They want to be in a spot where they can have home field advantage in some playoff rounds and then make a deep run when it’s all said and done.