Pablo Mastroeni has backed new signing Diogo Goncalves to replicate the impact of departed star Andres Gomez as Real Salt Lake prepare to return to MLS against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Real Salt Lake emerges from the Leagues Cup break in third place in the Western Conference; only Inter Miami (56) has scored more goals than them this MLS season with 51.
However, they will have to continue their fight for the playoffs without Gomez, who moved to French club Rennes after scoring seven goals and providing 13 assists in this year’s regular season.
The $11 million transfer fee RSL received for Gomez allowed the group to strengthen its position in the transfer market, and Mastroeni believes Goncalves – brought in from Copenhagen – could repeat his influence.
“If I had to risk it, I would say Diogo is a top player. He has the experience of having played for some top clubs, he is an established player,” Mastroeni told KSL Sports.
“All of his attributes are extremely sophisticated, he has an incredible eye for goal. I think he will be an important player for our team.”
“I would say he is the player who most closely matches Andres Gomez in terms of his impact on the attacking side of our game.”
While RSL is in the conversation of being one of the top seeds, San Jose is at the bottom of the Western Conference with just 14 points, about nine points behind St. Louis City in 13th place.
Interim boss Ian Russell admits their playoff hopes are probably over and they are only playing for pride. He says: “It’s difficult to make the playoffs at the moment.”
“The motivation of the players should also come from within. You can’t always be the coach who motivates them.”
“It’s their job, they get paid for it and they’re playing for contracts too. It’s all about pride – we have to win games.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Real Salt Lake – Cristian Arango
Arango leads the MLS scoring list for 2024. With 17 goals, he is Salt Lake City’s all-time leader in a single regular season, tied with Alvaro Saborio in 2012.
With a total of 28 goal involvements this season, he is the most a player has achieved in a single season in MLS RSL history.
San Jose Earthquake – Gavin Beavers
The Earthquakes have conceded 61 goals in 25 games this season, tying the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 2001 for the most goals conceded at this point in an MLS season.
Only three teams have ever had a worse goal differential than San Jose’s minus-30 at this point in the season. Goalkeeper Beavers could be a busy man as he seeks just his third clean sheet of the year.
MATCH PREDICTION: REAL SALT LAKE WINS
Real Salt Lake has won six of its last seven regular season home games (one loss) and has scored five goals in three of its last five home games after doing so only four times in its first 312 regular season home games in its history.
They have also scored in each of their last 14 home games against San Jose, their longest such streak against any opponent in their MLS history.
Meanwhile, only the 1999 MetroStars (nine) had fewer points after 25 regular-season games than San Jose did this year (14, tied with three other teams). They are huge underdogs as only the second team in the post-shootout era to lose 19 of their first 25 games in a season.
OPTA PROBABILITY OF WINNING
Real Salt Lake – 64.8%
San José earthquake – 16.7%
Draw – 19.1%
