Diego Luna's very good week continues with RSL's 1st win at Houston since 2018
Luna scored a goal and set up the first assist less than a minute in Saturday night to lead Real Salt Lake to a 2-1 road win over Houston Dynamo FC.
Diego Luna’s really good week continued Saturday in the heat and humidity of South Texas.
Just four days after being named to Mauricio Pochettino’s 23-man roster for the U.S. men’s national team that will compete for the 2025 Concacaf Nations League title beginning Thursday, March 20, Luna showed a couple of reasons why.
Luna scored a goal and set up the first assist less than a minute in Saturday night to lead Real Salt Lake to a 2-1 road win over Houston Dynamo FC, clinching the road side’s first win in South Texas since 2018.
Diogo Gonçalves found the back of the net, a build-up less than 45 seconds in the making that went from Ari Piol on the wing to Luna, who found Emeka Eneli on the left side of the penalty area to set up Gonçalves with little more than a tap-in that put Salt Lake up, 1-0.
The goal at the 43-second mark is the fourth-fastest goal in Real Salt Lake history, according to RSL Stats and Information, and the fastest since Corey Baird scored in just 34 seconds Sept. 29, 2019 against the Dynamo.
In fact, three of the fastest goals in RSL history came against Houston.
But that wasn’t the end of the scoring.
Ezequiel Ponce tied it up with a free header in the 16th minute, and Houston nearly took the lead less than six minutes later before VAR ruled the go-ahead strike offside.
Luna laid out a stoppage-time goal off his head to lift Salt Lake to the 2-1 lead at the break, finishing a touch from Dominik Marczuk with a glancing header to gift the visitors the advantage.
Houston out-shot Salt Lake 18-10, but only put two shots on target to RSL’s five. Rafael Cabral made one save to keep the lead for Real Salt Lake, an 88th-minute parry from Ethan Bartlow’s header from the center of the box in front of a back line of Sam Junqua, Brayan Vera, Justen Glad and Bode Hidalgo that played all 90 minutes.
“I think it was just a steely performance in the back,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said of his team’s road performance. “J Glad was great, and Rafa continues to impress with his ability to keep us in games. When you keep the ball out of the net and can put something in back of theirs, you get a good result.”
Listen to postmatch commentary for Mastroeni in the video below, and more on YouTube:
LINEUPS
Real Salt Lake (4-2-3-1): Rafael Cabral; Bode Hidalgo, Justen Glad, Brayan Vera, Sam Junqua; Emeka Eneli ©, Braian Ojeda (Nelson Palacio, 68’); Dominik Marczuk (Tyler Wolff, 57’), Diogo Gonçalves, Diego Luna (Pablo Ruiz, 79’); Ari Piol (Forster Ajago, 68’)
Subs not used: Lachlan Brook, Mason Stajduhar, Javain Brown, Philip Quinton, Alex Katranis
Head Coach: Pablo Mastroeni
Houston Dynamo FC (4-3-3): Andrew Tarbell (Jimmy Maurer, 37’); Franco Escobar (Daniel Steres, 81’), Obafemi Fela Awodesu, Ethan Andrew Bartlow, Griffin Dorsey; Nicolás Lodeiro (Erik Dueñas, 75’) José Artur de Lima Junior ©, Jack McGlynn; Amine Bassi, Ezequiel Ponce, Sebastian Kowalczyk (Gabriel Segal, 81’)
Subs not used: Ibrahim Aliyu, Michael Halliday, Júnior Urso, Exon Saturnino Arzú Suazo, Brooklyn Raines
Head Coach: Ben Olsen
Stats Summary: RSL / HOU
Shots: 10 / 18
Shots on Goal: 5 / 2
Saves: 1 / 3
Corner Kicks: 6 / 9
Fouls: 13 / 10
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY:
HOU: Franco Escobar (Yellow card - 45’+5’)
RSL: Bode Hidalgo (Yellow card - 45’+8’)
HOU: Ethan Bartlow (Yellow card - 58’)
HOU: Ezequiel Ponce (Yellow card - 90’+2’)