Real Salt Lake are heading back to the Audi 2026 MLS Cup playoffs.
It wasn’t easy, but RSL have squeaked into the postseason, stunning the LA Galaxy, 2-1, on Decision Day to pip them to the Western Conference’s final Wild Card spot.
The victory sets up a clash against Seattle Sounders FC at Lumen Field on Nov. 19 (10 pm ET | Apple TV).
"I'm not happy; what I am is relieved,” head coach Pablo Mastroeni said postgame.
“Just to be clear, this is not a celebration moment for me. But it is a testament to the willpower and the belief. When you're down in the dumps, everyone's written you off, and you find a way to squeak in. That perseverance is analogous to anything you do in life.”
Decision Day drama
Salt Lake entered Decision Day knowing even a win would not be enough to solidify their playoff berth. They needed three points and a bit of help, which their Rocky Mountain rival, the Colorado Rapids, provided by losing 3-1 in Dallas.
Back at America First Field, Sergi Solans and Zach Booth put RSL ahead early, and despite Hirving "Chucky" Lozano inspiring a Galaxy fightback, the hosts held on to win.
The nerve-racking win over the Galaxy capped a remarkable late-season turnaround for RSL. In late September, Mastroeni’s team found themselves on a club-record 13-game winless run with playoff hopes fading fast after transferring homegrown winger Zavier Gozo to English Premier League side Crystal Palace and seeing star playmaker Diego Luna suffer a season-ending knee injury.
But despite that, RSL endured, winning four of their final five games to sneak into the playoffs by one point.
More impressively, RSL extended their playoff-qualification streak to six seasons. Since Mastroeni took over in the summer of 2021, they have not missed a single postseason, and now boast the longest active streak in the Western Conference.
"If you lose 13 games in a row, 99.9% of the teams around the world would have quit,” Mastroeni said. “Before this is a sport, it's the mindset of the competitor.
"I can't imagine a team that loses something synonymous to 13 games in a row in their respective leagues saying, 'Yeah, I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep fighting.' So the credit really goes to the experienced guys in the locker room."
Sensational Solans
Central to RSL’s revival was the rookie center forward Solans, whose debut MLS season was nothing short of remarkable. He was the 30th overall pick in last year’s SuperDraft but has been among the league’s top strikers all season.
A former Oregon State Beaver and UCLA Bruin, Solans notched an impressive 15 regular-season goals, the joint-eighth-most non-penalty goals in MLS. That total is the second-most in a debut season by a SuperDraft pick in MLS history, trailing just Cyle Larin, who notched 17 for Orlando City in 2015.
"I think it's an anomaly,” Mastroeni said of Solans' campaign. “I don't think it's the way it usually goes, but there are special players in college, and you need a lot of breaks to kind of go your way as well, because he wasn't penciled in as a starter.
“You have to see how he plays, and he just took his opportunity. And I think that's really what you can say about his season. He continues to take his opportunities. He's a young guy who's playing his longest season … he's had an exceptional year for us. But the season isn't over, and so he's got some work to do."
Up next: Wild Card
Although RSL are back in the postseason and have kept their streak alive, they will need a monumental effort to keep it going. As the West’s No. 9 seed, they must first navigate a road Wild Card match against the Sounders at Lumen Field.
If they can upset Seattle – who clinched their own playoff status with a 2-1 Decision Day triumph over LAFC – top-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps FC awaits the winner in Round One.
"I just think that with our group that we have now, the suffering that we went through as a group, the next seven days of training is going to be the best it's been all season,” Mastroeni said.
“There's no one in this group that takes anything for granted when you've been damaged so much in one season, and I'm really optimistic that we're going to go to Seattle and put our best foot forward against a really good team.”
