Cortex AI Analítica
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- T welve months ago, Diego Luna ’s place on the US roster for the World Cup seemed as secure as anybody’s.
Nonetheless, Luna finds himself on the bubble of making this summer’s 26-man squad. An ill-timed knee injury sidelined him for Real Salt Lake until their fourth game, and his comeback process left him unavailable for Pochettino’s final pre-tournament window in March. Even though the US struggled against Belgium and Portugal, Luna – like any World Cup hopeful on the fringes – had to restate his bona fides to ensure he’s in Pochettino’s plans.
He has done so. Luna was at his absolute best for Real Salt Lake on Saturday, taking it to visiting San Diego FC from the opening whistle. In the fourth minute, Luna crashed the box on a short restart between goalkeeper Duran Ferree and center-back Manu Duah, getting a foot on Ferree’s second pass to direct the ball into the net.
In case you’re wondering, that chance carries an xG of 0.86, according to Fotmob.
Luna seemed to relish in the nature of his opening goal, beaming while motioning with his palms pushing towards the ground as if to calm down any anxiety about his form for club and country.
The 22-year-old continued to shine. . Two minutes later, Luna collected a switch of play from Morgan Guilavogui and crossed it back into the box. Rookie striker Sergi Solans floated onto it and his header gave the hosts a 2-0 lead inside six minutes. A highly entertaining match finished 4-2, with Luna contributing a second assist on the final goal just before halftime.
The strong showing couldn’t have come at a better time for Luna’s World Cup hopes. This was his first game with multiple goal contributions since 2 July 2025, when he scored both goals in the US’s Gold Cup semi-final win over Guatemala. He hadn’t chipped in with multiple contributions for RSL since 24 May, a run of 17 appearances.
Luna is one of a few players who could feel the knock-on impact of Patrick Agyemang’s achilles injury. The striker’s absence probably shifts Coventry forward Haji Wright’s projected fit from the wing to striker, which could open up another spot for an attacking midfielder or winger. Malik Tillman and Weston McKennie project to start, putting Luna in most direct competition with Gio Reyna and Brenden Aaronson for one or two spots behind them.
Pochettino said in March that he was “suffering in advance” thinking about his World Cup roster selection. This weekend, Luna made that suffering a little worse (in a good way).
The Crew can’t hold a lead
The Crew led yet another opportunity slip in a loss to New England. Photograph: Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos/Getty Images
In the 100th minute of Columbus’ match in New England, Diego Rossi weaved toward the corner of the six-yard box. He squared the ball into prime territory for a first-time finish. Nobody was there. The Revs kept the ball just long enough to seal a comeback 2-1 win against a favored Eastern Conference opponent.
A late look like that seemed tailor-made for a star striker to pounce. Unfortunately, the Crew’s star forward Wessam Abou Ali suffered a torn ACL in their last match that will keep him sidelined for the rest of 2026, a blow for a team that was already struggling to support his early goal returns.
This is not the Crew of even a few years ago, when manager Wilfried Nancy was on his way to earning a midseason appointment at Celtic (however ill-fated) on the back of turning Columbus into a chance-generation juggernaut.
Now led by Henrik Rydstöm, the Crew rank 21st in MLS in both expected goals (10.6, per American Soccer Analysis) and goal difference minus xG (-3.5) after eight games. It’s not as if the build-up is lacking – their average vertical pass distance of 3.98 yards is the league’s fourth-tightest, per ASA. That’s only behind chronic possession-havers San Diego, Inter Miami, and Colorado.
While opposing midfields have their work cut out as they try containing the Crew, the same stress isn’t felt by goalkeepers. Saturday’s loss saw Columbus go ahead early thanks to US international Max Arfsten, but they then took just one shot in the second half before stoppage time. New England flipped a one-goal deficit into a lead, and for a third time in just eight games, the Crew saw an early lead turn into defeat. No MLS team has dropped more points from leading positions than Columbus.
“We were too passive with the ball,” Rydstrom said afterwards. “It’s a mental aspect of the game that you have chased the ball a little bit without them creating, and then you want to rest when you have the ball. We can’t do that.”
The Crew sank to 12th in the East after the weekend, trailing moribund CF Montréal thanks to MLS using wins as its chief tiebreaker.
Messi is still saving Inter Miami
Miami needed Messi magic again to beat Colorado in front of a huge crowd at Mile High. Photograph: Ray Bahner/ISI Photos/Getty Images
While coaching changes are just another part of the business, Javier Mascherano’s decision to vacate his post as Miami manager shocked many throughout the league. The former midfielder was brought in thanks to a well-forged relationship with Lionel Messi, and he showed impressive growth in the role as he led Miami to their first MLS Cup title. Miami’s title defense continues apace in the meantime, with interim boss Guillermo Hoyos (a longtime mentor of Messi’s) leading Miami as they paid the Colorado Rapids a visit in front of a huge crowd at Empower Field at Mile High.
Miami brought a 2-0 lead into half-time, as Messi opened the contest with a converted penalty before German Berterame scored his second goal in as many games just before the break. Matt Wells’s side bounced back, with strikers Rafael Navarro and Darren Yapi bringing the score to a deadlock by the 62nd minute. Who else but Messi broke the stalemate, collecting the ball at the edge of the final third and cutting from the right channel into the box before curling a shot to the far post.
The goal came exactly 19 years after his famous “encara Messi” solo effort against Getafe. He’s been putting opposing defenses on skates for nearly two decades. That type of longevity is impossibly rare.
Without a permanent head coach for the time being, the “Messi-dependencia” that arose in the back half of his Barcelona career as well as most of his Argentina tenure is even more pronounced in Miami. The 38-year-old remains as vital to their success as any other player does on any other team.
The chaos match of the weekend was… Toronto v Austin?
Not all 3-3 draws are created equal. Toronto and Austin alternated leads in a Saturday matinee, with Kobe Franklin rescuing a point for the Canadian hosts in the 88th minute of a thrilling match.
Remember the Crew stat above on points dropped from winning positions? Austin now rank second on that ignominious list with nine.
Odds and ends
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Atlanta United have won just two of their last 10, with Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against Nashville SC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium a particularly sobering affair for the hosts. Cristian Espinoza continues his excellent first year in Nashville, scoring the winner in the 61st minute.
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After sacking Marco Donadel last weekend, Montréal notched an emphatic 4-1 win over Michael Bradley’s Red Bull New York. Montréal’s physicality got the best of the young Red Bulls for a second time this year, following their 3-0 win in Harrison on 8 March. Montréal have six points and a +6 goal difference against New York, but zero points and a -14 margin in their other six matches this year. Unfortunately for them, the only way Montréal can face New York a third time is by making the playoffs.
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Cristian Roldan bolstered an already strong World Cup case with a first-half brace in Seattle’s 4-1 win over St Louis. Brian Schmetzer rotated his lineup a bit from the Sounders’ midweek win over Tigres, while Albert Rusnák assisted both of Roldan’s goals before completing a gentleman’s hat-trick with a goal of his own from the penalty spot. Now eliminated in the Concacaf Champions Cup, the Sounders can solely focus on MLS until the Leagues Cup crashes the schedule in early August.
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Héctor Herrera scored his first goal since rejoining the Houston Dynamo this winter, making the difference in a 1-0 win away at Orlando City. The winner came on the eve of his 36th birthday, with Herrera having retired from international soccer at the end of 2023.
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