'Universe' is testing Real Salt Lake. Can return home help right past wrongs?
Diego Luna's seven goals lead the squad, and RSL's four red cards lead all of MLS. Is a return home to face Portland what the team needs after 4 points from 3 road matches?
Say what you need to say about Real Salt Lake, but the club has a verifiable star in Diego Luna.
The 21-year-old U.S. international continues to crash through his own ceiling week after week, one-upping himself in stupendous fashion like he did in Saturday’s 1-1 road draw with FC Dallas.
It was RSL’s first draw of the season, maintaining a run of just one loss in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex since 2017.
Luna’s goal is his team-high seventh goal of the season in a Salt Lake shirt, to go along with two assists as the 21-year-old U.S. international continues his ascent in his fourth season in MLS. No other RSL player has more than one goal (Diogo Gonçalves and Dominik Marczuk have two assists).
But Luna is the transcendent force in Salt Lake, blowing through even lofty expectations more than a third of the way through the 2025 MLS regular season.
“There are moments in a players’ career where you feel like you’re on top of the world,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said of his squad’s talisman, “and that for me is what is really special about Diego.
“We want to make sure our playmakers get touches and get the feel for the game so they can create,” he added.
“But Diego, the work he does defensively is top level. I’ve been around this game a lot, and I’ve never seen a guy who is committed to both sides of the ball like him. His level of engagement defensively allows him to pick up a second ball.”
Still, issues continue to plague the Salt Lake side, which comes home following a three-match road trip Wednesday against Portland Timbers FC (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV).
Saturday’s red card to newcomer William “Willie” Agada was the fourth such red card of the year for RSL, a league-high. It might be even worse, were it not for an easily rescinded red card against Luna in the club’s 1-0 loss to Toronto FC.
“We’re being challenged by the universe,” Mastroeni said, “and all of them are all different; there are not two red cards the same.”
The latest card against Agada came in a match where RSL controlled for most of the even-sided affair before earning a draw for four points in three consecutive road matches.
That makes Wednesday’s return home all the more important for Salt Lake, which hasn’t won in Sandy since a 2-0 victory over league-worst LA Galaxy back on April 5. The Timbers have won three of their last four across all competitions, and currently sit third in the West with 21 points.
Three points Wednesday could go a long way for RSL, which is eight points behind the Timbers at 11th in the West (4-7-1). It also could go a long way toward rebuilding home-field advantage — something of which players recognize they haven’t taken full advantage in 2025.
“When I came here with the Timbers myself in 2023, I thought this was a sh— place to play, honestly,” RSL midfielder-turned-right back Noel Caliskan said candidly after Tuesday’s training. “First of all, the altitude; it sucks. When you come from the coast, it’s not nice — and you really feel it.
“I think with that, we already have a home-field advantage. And then with the fans coming in and us trying to play on the front foot, I think we have a big opportunity to make this place a fortress after we just played three on the road.
“I think we’re all excited to be back home, back in front of our fans, and hopefully to send Portland home with zero points.”
Noting the club’s trip to Rocky Mountain Cup rival Colorado on the weekend, defender Sam Junqua added: “The home game is really important; I think we haven’t been as clinical at home as we’d like to be.
“I think it’s a really important week with a lot of points on the line for us.”
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