Here's a long feature about Pablo from Matthew Casey and KSL: Why Pablo Mastroeni is still asking questions
Went the full 90 and bagged a brace My tickets haven’t sold. About to my floor of what I’d sell them for and be ok with missing him play
It's pure speculation, but Twitter is saying they expect La Liga teams to come after Solans. What's the price RSL can't turn down?
In his weekly write up, Doyle showed the numbers on Solans so far this season (even beyond the goals) and said "these are the numbers of a $20 million striker."
So, so good. What a player. Massive credit to the Front Office for finding Solans and Guilavogui who have completely transformed this offense. Also huge credit to the coaching staff for changing Gozo’s position. What an incredibly impressive jump from him. So fun to watch. I think that in order to be successful in MLS you need your offensive players to be getting numbers in the top 30 in MLS. That has happened consistently this year, where last season it never did. Goals: 12th- Solans Assists: 12th- Gozo 29th- Guilavogui G+A: 13th- Solans 28th- Gozo xG per 90: 1st- Solans 18th- Guilavogui Big chances created: 11th- Gozo 21st- Guilavogui Chances Created: 29th- Gozo Who would have thought!? (I sure didn’t haha) The best part is that with the xG per 90 stat, and with the eye test, there are still more goals on the table from Solans and Guilavogui that in the future will most likely be finished.
Solans has been my favorite player for RSL this season. And I love a lot of players on this team. But he does so many of the little things that make you successful. He finds contact before playing the ball on high balls. His first touch is immaculate and almost always has intentional thought. Dribbling down field he cuts in front of defenders making them slow down their runs. His runs are timely and he syncs them up with midfielders and the back line well. His movement in the box is timely and creates separation from defenders. He hustles and regularly out hustles whoever is guarding him. He is calm in front of the net. The drop-off this week when Olatunji came in was extreme. As a former striker whos nickname was Wondolowski by my teammates for the creative, timely, poaching to my game... he is my favorite player in 2026 by far.
Since he’s been back… He’s got 5g+a in the last 3games, at about a goal or assist per half. And his defense has been even more impressive than his offense. So, I think he’s doing better than just fine.
So in order to set an expectation benchmark for Luna, we can maybe use an average of the 2023, 2024, and 2025 end-of-season rankings. (I only included the last 3 seasons when he was a consistent starter to not let the first season bring the numbers down due to less playing time) G: 47th A: 113th G+A: 60th G per 90: 61st xG: 89th xG per 90: 103rd Big Chances Created: 115th Chances Created: 36th xA: 68th xA per 90: 69th xG + xA per 90: 94th Successful dribbles per 90: 68th So my thought in trying to figure out which numbers are good or bad, is an assumption that there are about 3 starting attackers per team that are truly relied on for getting on the stat-sheet: 30 10’s, 30 Strikers, 30 Wingers = 90 players. So maybe that makes an “average” starting attacker ranked around 45th in the league in these categories (anything above 45th being “above average” and anything below 45th being “below average”) The logic doesn’t really work for the per 90 numbers though just because so many non-starters can climb the rankings in few minutes. So all that being said, to have 3 RSL players this season in the top 30 (or top third by my logic) is so massive. That is the level of talent needed to win playoff rounds!
Shouldn’t average be more than a single data point (45th) and more like a range in standard deviations?
Solans could break into some rarified RSL air with a 4th goal in 4 games. Only 5 other players have ever scored in 4 straight games. 4 straight games with a goal for RSL Jeff Cunningham 2006 Alvaro Saborio 2014 Luis Silva 2017-traded for Saborio Christian Arango 2023 5 straight games with a goal for RSL Damir Kreilach 2021 That's it. That's the list. Thanks Trey
11 points from 7 games. 3-2-2. 11 GF 8 GA vs 16 points, 5-1-1; 16 GF 10 GA Matt from Wasatch Soccer is saying that he thinks the defense still needs to button things up a bit if they are really going to contend. I think I'd agree. RSL has beat some good teams, but I don't think it's clear they have a good enough defense. They beat SD who is sliding and had defensive personnel issues (not to mention the early CCC start). Seattle also had more important things with CCC going on when they played. Tomorrow will be a good test (depending on who plays, maybe Messi will be more inclined to play if we start Brody?, love the guy but that's an all time classic memory). Sunday will be another test of the quality of the depth and if they can bring it like the starters do.
Last year, it was very easy for teams to key on Luna. He was it; he was the danger. This year we have the most varied attack in MLS, and good luck keying on Luna. It'll just open the rest of the team to pounce. His numbers will reflect this.
If you want a sense of how our offensive and defensive production has been, here are our xG and xGA for the last 3 seasons. These tend to be noisy, so these are 3-game moving averages. In short, our offense is way better than early-season 2024 (and similar to the amazing offensive production of mid-season 2024). Defense is slightly worse, but still historically doing really well.
@goobx1 latest episode needs the sound fixed, it's mostly too quiet. Can't turn up the volume as the excited moments are excessively loud.