Real Salt Lake’s 2022 campaign is underway in just two short days, and the club is in the depths of transition.
The transitions are multiple; the most prominent is clearly the change in ownership, with Dell Loy Hansen ousted in 2020 and a David Blitzer-Ryan Smith group taking over at the start of 2022. The second: Pablo Mastroeni’s first full season as Real Salt Lake coach, having taken over from Freddy Juarez following a shock departure to become an assistant coach at Seattle Sounders.
Real Salt Lake (14-6-14, 7th Western Conference, Western Conference Final runners-up)
Head coach: Pablo Mastroeni
Key additions: Sergio Cordova
Key losses: Albert Rusnak, Anderson Julio
Projected Best XI (3-2-3-2): Ochoa; Silva, Glad, Kappelhof; Ruiz, Luiz; Cordova, Kreilach, Menendez; Rubin, Wood
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Best offseason move: The only offseason of move to date is automatically Real Salt Lake’s best one — excluding finalizing an ownership transition 18 months in the making.