January 5, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Real Salt Lake News Release
HERRIMAN, Utah – Real Salt Lake MF Diego Luna today was selected by U.S. Soccer for the senior Men’s National Team January camp ahead of its January 20 friendly in San Antonio against European nation Slovenia. Luna is one of four players in this group to have played in last year’s FIFA Youth World Cup, one of 13 players in camp age-eligible for this Summer’s Olympic Games in Paris (to be played July 24 – Aug. 10), one of 15 selected players potentially earning his first U.S. cap, and one of 25 Major League Soccer players to receive this call.
“I’m very excited for this opportunity and I’m looking forward to starting my year off with this camp,” said Luna, who recently celebrated his first Christmas as a father. “I expect to start 2024 by continuing the momentum I found at both RSL and with the U-23s last year, and taking things to a whole another level for both Club and Country this year.”
Throughout last season, his first full campaign in Utah, RSL playmaker Diego Luna grew in confidence and impact culminating in Audi MLS Cup Playoff series with Houston Dynamo. Luna scored in the series’ first leg for a third consecutive RSL match, as his late equalizer back on Oct. 14 at LA Galaxy starting the run which continued on Decision Day in Colorado with his game-winning goal. In each of RSL’s final two games of the season – both on the road – the 20-year old starlet pulled the strings and provided the difference in the final 15 minutes of each match.
The 54th-minute goal in Houston made Luna the youngest playoff goal-scorer in RSL history, usurping Yura Movsisyan by just under 16 months. Luna’s accomplishment made him the 12th-youngest player in MLS history to find the back of the net in a postseason match. During the series’ second leg, Luna asked for the opportunity to be the decisive fifth shooter against Houston, envisioning and ultimately delivering the series-extending score. In the third and final leg at Dynamo, Luna’s tiebreaking spot kick was one of two denied by Steve Clark.
Luna – now with seven goals in 45 appearances for RSL in the 2022/23 seasons – ended up with five goals in 2023, his first full season with RSL, the USA U-20 playmaker starting 20 of the Club’s last 25 games across all competitions since returning from the 2023 FIFA Youth World Cup in Argentina. The USA U-20 playmaker acquired in June, 2022, from USL Championship side El Paso Locomotive was named the…
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