Real Salt Lake MF Diego Luna voted MLS Player of the Matchday

Luna, 20, recorded three assists in a single game for the second time this season in Saturday’s 5-2 win over Atlanta United to go along with his fifth goal of the season.

If U.S. Soccer doesn’t want Diego Luna, MLS is more than happy to take him.

After receiving what could have been potentially heartbreaking news that he wasn’t selected for the U.S. roster for the upcoming Olympic men’s soccer tournament in Paris, Luna erupted for what many are calling the best game of his career, scoring a goal with three assists in Real Salt Lake’s 5-2 win over Atlanta United.

The win helps RSL (12-3-7, 43 points) keep pace with LAFC atop the Western Conference, but also added some individual accomplishments for Luna, who was named MLS Player of the Matchday for Matchday 25 and one of two team honorees on the league’s Team of the Matchday selection (with left-back goal-scorer Alex Katranis).

It’s the fourth time this season an RSL player has been named Player of the Matchday, and the first since DP striker Chicho Arango won his third-such honor following Matchday 18.

Luna, 20, recorded three assists in a single game for the second time this season in Saturday’s win to go along with his fifth goal of the season. It’s just the fourth time in RSL’s 20-year, 636-game franchise history that a player has tallied three assists in a single match in MLS regular-season play — and Luna now owns two of them after also brokering three dimes in a 3-0 win over LAFC back on March 2.

With his latest hat trick of assists, Luna moved into third on Major League Soccer’s assist leaderboard with 12, behind only reigning MLS MVP Lucho Acosta of FC Cincinnati (17) and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi (13).

Luna’s latest honor is the second time in his third season in MLS he’s received Player of the Matchday status, and the first since Matchday 26 in 2023 when he became the youngest winner of the award in league history.

So if U.S. Soccer — or anyone else — wants to keep “poking the bear,” as RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni describe his star playmaker’s latest snub … well, they can go right ahead.

Apparently, Luna knows how to respond.