From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Justen Glad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justen Glad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Salt Lake the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Morgan Guilavogui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market9 Nov 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gio Dest is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robbie Robinson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market9 Nov 2026
The Lukas Engel story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukas Engel signs something — a contract at Real Salt Lake or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
When it matters, Ariath Piol plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Salt Lake. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Salt Lake, another week without a signature from Noel Caliskan.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Morgan Guilavogui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matt Hedges is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandros Katranis, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Real Salt Lake will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Zach Booth has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Real Salt Lake will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market2 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Real Salt Lake know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market2 Nov 2026
Justen Glad runs his contract down
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Real Salt Lake money.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Salt Lake, another week without a signature from Philip Quinton.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Oct 2026
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market26 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Noel Caliskan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noel Caliskan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Salt Lake the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Lukas Engel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market26 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Real Salt Lake can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Guilavogui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Tyler Wolff gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tyler Wolff is on it.
Market26 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matheus Nascimento signs something — a contract at Real Salt Lake or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
Philip Quinton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Salt Lake they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Morgan Guilavogui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to DeAndre Yedlin, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Real Salt Lake are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Robbie Robinson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Juan José Arias asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Juan Manuel Sanabria’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
11 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Justen Glad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justen Glad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Salt Lake the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Morgan Guilavogui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Brandon Pepi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matt Hedges is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Matt Hedges
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
DeAndre Yedlin knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and DeAndre Yedlin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Lukas Engel story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukas Engel signs something — a contract at Real Salt Lake or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
When it matters, Ariath Piol plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Real Salt Lake, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lukas Engel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Salt Lake this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Guilavogui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan José Arias, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The armband comes off Alec Kann
Real Salt Lake will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Zach Booth has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Real Salt Lake will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Matt Hedges asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market5 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Real Salt Lake know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matt Hedges is not saying it is over
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 37 with 0 appearances behind him, and Real Salt Lake have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Austin FC, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Real Salt Lake
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Real Salt Lake's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Real Salt Lake has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Diego Luna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market28 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Noel Caliskan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noel Caliskan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Salt Lake the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Salt Lake this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Justen Glad gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricardo Yedlin after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Real Salt Lake are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market21 Sep 2026
Philip Quinton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Salt Lake they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Morgan Guilavogui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matt Hedges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Morgan Guilavogui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Real Salt Lake are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Justen Glad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justen Glad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Salt Lake the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Real Salt Lake's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Real Salt Lake has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Philip Quinton has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Morgan Guilavogui falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ricardo Pepi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luca Musah has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Real Salt Lake, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Real Salt Lake did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Real Salt Lake are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Justen Glad has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Morgan Guilavogui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Tyler Deric gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricardo Yedlin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Real Salt Lake did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Salt Lake this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan José Arias wants continental football; whether Real Salt Lake can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match29 Aug 2026
Colorado Rapids left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matt Hedges was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Ricardo Yedlin left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Real Salt Lake are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
LA Galaxy ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Standard Liege for Lukas Engel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Diego Luna runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Real Salt Lake can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lukas Engel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Real Salt Lake training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morgan Guilavogui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Real Salt Lake are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gio Robinson and Real Salt Lake agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rafael Cabral damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Toronto FC, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ariath Piol, 21, steals the show — 8.14
Marked 8.14 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Morgan Guilavogui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Real Salt Lake go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
Rafael Cabral damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Real Salt Lake until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Diego Luna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Grasshopper is saying, and nobody at Real Salt Lake is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lukas Engel and Real Salt Lake agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lukas Engel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Houston Dynamo wanted more than $150.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Lukas Engel gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Diego Luna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Salt Lake lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Aug 2026
Justen Glad hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Salt Lake can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Justen Glad: 12 seasons and counting
281 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Real Salt Lake know exactly what they have.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rafael Cabral and Real Salt Lake agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lukas Engel in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Salt Lake this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Real Salt Lake asked and Olimpia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Rafael Cabral
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.