Atlanta, GA
Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start
SANDY — Three games into the 2026 campaign and Real Salt Lake has a formula for success.
Spoiler alert: the kids are (still) all right.
Aiden Hezarkhani scored a goal for the second-straight week, rookie Sergi Solans added his first professional, and Real Salt Lake served its youth again en route to a 3-2 win over Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Fellow teenager Zavier Gozo also scored for Real Salt Lake, the Utah native’s first of the season after his breakout four-goal, three-assist campaign last year to help his home side improve to 2-1-0.
Aleksei Miranchuk had a brace for Atlanta, which fell to 0-3 while being outscored 7-2 a year after struggling to a 5-16-13 campaign.
“It was a shootout,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “This was one of those games that was super exciting. It’s a real credit to the group on both sides of the ball. I thought we were really deliberate … and defensively, we were great against a top attacking group.
“We knew it was going to be difficult. But the guys weathered the storm … and we challenged the group to dig deep, to defend our box, and manage the game the right way.”
Salt Lake, meanwhile, has won two of its first three matches — even with a shorthanded roster. The club lost Diego Luna (knee) and Victor Olatunji (eye) to injuries during the same training session before the season opener in Vancouver, and former U.S. international fullback DeAndre Yedlin picked up a hamstring injury last week.
But if adversity spawns opportunity, Real Salt Lake’s rising generation is taking advantage of either — or both. Give credit, too, to the veteran players for bringing along the youth that also include 17-year-old Luca Moisa — and not skip a beat.
“It’s like a brotherhood,” Mastroeni said. “There’s no guy that’s bigger than the team.”
Gozo and Morgan Guilavogui nearly connected for a goal just 49 seconds into the match, but the newly signed Designated Player making his first start saw his shot tipped over the cross bar.
Instead, Guilavogui gave the visitors the early lead midway through the first half, slipping a brilliant through ball behind the defense to Solans for the clinical finish in the 23rd minute.
Solans was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft by Salt Lake, who traded $50,000 in general allocation money to the LA Galaxy in select the Spanish native.
But instead of signing forthright with the club, Solans elected to return to collect for one more year and the 22-year-old alumnus of Spain’s Girona FC academy returned to UCLA and scored a team-high 16 goals with six assists in 19 matches en route to All-American second-team honors and a program record-breaking third hat trick in the Big Ten Tournament final.
“Sergi doesn’t necessarily have top-end speed,” Mastroeni said, “but he has top-end timing. When you threaten the back line, you don’t have to have the fastest speed. But you do have to have the right timing.
“You’ve got to make plays — and that’s what making plays looks like.”
Hezarkhani doubled the lead in the 27th minute, gaining possession of the ball in the final third with his chest off an angled touch from Solans before sliding a right-footed shot from the center of the box that put Salt Lake up 2-0.
It’s the second goal in as many matches for Hezarkhani, the 18-year-old academy alumnus who had six goals with four assists in 21 matches (19 starts) for Salt Lake’s third-division affiliate Real Monarchs a year ago.
Miranchuk pulled one back for the home side in the 38th minute, scoring Atlanta’s first goal of 2026 with one touch from Elias Baez from the center of the box to cut the deficit to 2-1.
But Gozo finished a counter initiated by Philip Quinton and Justen Glad with his left less than two minutes later to push Salt Lake back in front 3-1 at halftime.
After a series of second-half introductions including the halftime debut of Utah native and former Corner Canyon High standout Griffin Dillon for RSL, Miranchuk added another for Atlanta in the 74th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2.
But Rafael Cabral made two saves on 16 shots faced to help the visitors hold on for their second straight win.
Real Salt Lake returns home next Saturday, March 14 to host Austin FC (7:30 p.m. MDT, Apple TV) before a road trip to San Diego FC.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A suspect is wanted in connection to a Friday night shooting on a MARTA train, according to the MARTA Police Department.
The shooting happened at the Midtown MARTA station on 10th Street. MARTA police said shots were fired on a stopped train on the southbound platform.
“Hid between the cars in case the guy wanted to come back,” shared a witness, Devonte Render. “Just heard three shots, and we all got down on the train car I was on. And then we didn’t hear anything after that.”
“We’re about to move up and then all of the sudden we heard pop, pop, pop, and then we hit the ground,” mentioned another witness, Chelsea Mensah.
A man was found with gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. He was taken to a nearby hospital and is in stable condition.
Police have not provided a description of the suspect but said they believe it was a targeted incident.
The seconds after the shooting dragged on like hours for passengers in the railcar next to it, leaving many traumatized.
“I’m like god, I can’t die here, I literally started shaking,” said Mensah.
“For this to happen on the train, I’ve never seen that in my life,” said Render.
The shooting comes just a day after the federal government launched an investigation into the public transit agency after two stabbings, one of which was deadly.
The recent violent acts have heightened fears among MARTA riders like Mensah, prompting calls for action beyond the new entry-point upgrades at Midtown Station.
“Definitely needs to be more invested into security, not even cops, just to make it better and more secure,” said Mensah.
MARTA under federal investigation over system’s security and safety
It also comes as Atlanta prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of people to the city for the World Cup, which the city is set to host a number of matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Most fans are expected to take public transportation to get there.
This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First for updates.
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.
The FIFA World Cup is set to kick off in Atlanta in 10 days.
Nine teams will play group-stage matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but the U.S. men’s national team is not one of them. The USMNT’s group stage takes place in Los Angeles and Seattle, but that doesn’t mean Atlanta has no chance of seeing the national team in person.
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Paths that could see the Stars and Stripes in Atlanta
Round of 16
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