Assistant Coaches

PABLO MASTROENI

Mastroeni, 44, joins RSL’s staff after one season as an assistant coach with Houston Dynamo FC on the staff of Tab Ramos. The five-time MLS All-Star played 16 seasons in Major League Soccer with the Miami Fusion, Colorado Rapids, and LA Galaxy and served as Head Coach of the Rapids from 2014-2017. During his playing career, the two-time World Cup participant spent 11 seasons with Colorado and captained the Rapids to the 2010 MLS Cup title. He ranks 25th in the all-time MLS record books with 334 career regular-season appearances.

After retiring, Mastroeni took the reins as Head Coach of the Colorado Rapids in 2014. In 136 games at the helm, he held a 43-58-35 record and coached his squad to the club’s all-time best regular-season finish, earning a franchise-record 58 points in 2016, finishing second in the Western Conference at 15-6-13 and advancing to the Western Conference Finals.

In addition to Mastroeni’s extensive background in MLS, the new assistant coach brings a wealth of international experience, earning 65 caps with the United States National Team from 2001-2008. As part of the National Team, he helped win the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2002, 2005, and 2007 and was named to the FIFA World Cup roster in 2002 and 2006, helping the U.S. advance to the quarterfinals in 2002.

An Arizona native, Mastroeni played collegiately at North Carolina State University. He holds a U.S. Soccer Federation PRO License, graduating from the program in 2016.

IGNACIO HERNANDEZ

After 15 seasons as a professional player in his native Mexico, suiting up for clubs like Atlante FC and Deportivo Toluca FC, Hernandez continued a career in soccer as a coach. After plying his trade in the Premier Development League as well as the youth and collegiate levels, he had his first stint on the international level with Costa Rica from 2002-2003. He would go on to coach with El Salvador (2006-2007) and the U.S. National Team in 2013, winning the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup. At the professional level, he coached under Sigi Schmid and Steve Sampson with the LA Galaxy from 2003-2005, winning the 2005 MLS Cup and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. At the college level, he added UCLA to his resume before his most recent stint from 2015-2020 with Cal Poly.

In each of his three seasons with the RSL Academy, RSL reached the USSDA Finals, winning in 2012.

MATT TAYLOR

As a player, Taylor was among the top scorers in UCLA’s history with 33 goals, helping the Bruins win the NCAA National Championship as a junior in 2002. He was selected fourth overall in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft by the Kansas City Wizards and went on to score five goals in 54 matches for Kansas City and Chivas USA after a move to the LA club following the 2005 season. After a stint with the Portland Timbers in USL and a brief stop with semi-pro Hollywood United, who upset the Timbers in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, he spent the next nine seasons in Germany, where he scored double-digit goals in four seasons.

His European career started with Germany’s second division with TuS Koblenz, where he scored seven goals with four assists in 22 matches. In the 2009-2010 season, he played with FSV Frankfurt, scoring 14 goals with three assists in 15 matches with the reserves. He continued with Rot Weiss Ahlen in 2010-2011, SC Paderborn 07 in 2011-2012, Preuben Munster from 2012-2014 and FC Saarbrucken from 2014-2016 before finishing his career with Kickers Offenbach. He enjoyed his most productive seasons with Rot Weiss Ahlen, where he scored 17 goals in 30 matches in 2010-2011 and in 2012-2013 when he notched 16 goals and five assists in 34 matches for Preuben Munster. All told, he had 39 goals and 12 assists in the German third division and 11 goals and six assists in 54 matches in the second division and totaled 87 goals and 29 assists in 249 matches in Germany.

Taylor spent the last three seasons at UCLA and helped Milan Iloski explode to 17 goals in his junior season in 2019 before signing with Real Salt Lake.