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DIEGO LUNA AND THE USMNT
“Luna” may mean “moon” in Spanish, but at the Gold Cup, he’s becoming a star. Diego Luna scored a pair of first-half goals to power the USMNT to a 2-1 win over Guatemala in the Gold Cup semifinal. The Stars and Stripes will face Mexico in the final Sunday evening in Houston.
Luna opened the scoring in the fourth minute, pouncing on a rebound of a Luca de la Torre shot and finishing coolly with his left foot. Eleven minutes later, he went on an impressive solo run, cut past a defender at the top of the box and fired into the near corner. He has three goals in the last two games.
While the USMNT wasn’t super impressive from there on and had to hang on late, it was enough to get the job done.
These types of individual performances are exactly what Mauricio Pochettino and the USMNT were looking for. Luna, who is 21 and plies his craft for FC Baltika Kaliningrad in Russia, is getting his chance to show he belongs with the World Cup squad less than a year away, and he’s taking full advantage … and endearing himself to Pochettino, Pardeep Cattry writes.
Cattry: “Luna’s ‘big balls’ are a refreshing addition to a USMNT that has been routinely criticized for lacking competitive edge, endearing himself quickly with Pochettino. In a short span of time, he has matched that mentality with results on the pitch that arguably make him the team’s most compelling rising star. … Though winning the continental prize will be the USMNT’s top priority in a few days’ time, Luna’s rise alone makes Pochettino’s experiments of the…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lakers-sign-deandre-ayton-knicks-nearing-deal-with-mike-brown-usmnt-advances-to-gold-cup-final/
Author : Zachary Pereles
Publish date : 2025-07-03 12:57:00
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