Diego Luna follows up Olympic snub with goal and 3 assists in 5-2 RSL win over Atlanta

SANDY — News broke Saturday morning that Real Salt Lake star Diego Luna would not be on the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team.

RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni said "they poked the bear" with the snub and the 20-year-old showed what the team would be missing with an offensive masterclass in a 5-2 win over Atlanta United (6-10-6) at America First Field.

Luna was aggressive from the opening kick, sprinting down the right flank and finding Matt Crooks in the box for the fifth-fastest goal in club history just 45 seconds into the match.

Atlanta equalized to go into halftime tied 1-1, but a goal from Braian Ojeda — his second in two games — and assists from Luna to Chicho Arango and Alex Katranis gave RSL a 4-1 lead in the 78th minute.

Atlanta got one back a few seconds later, but Luna slammed the door shut with an impressive volley off his chest and into the net for the final 5-2 lead in the 84th minute.

"Nothing really you can do about it," Luna said of the Olympic team decision. "I'm grateful to be here and to be able to stay here with RSL in this great run of form and continue to do stuff like this and hopefully more. So I'm happy, focused here with RSL and I'm going to continue to work hard."

The hat trick of assists for Luna puts him in third place in MLS for total assists with 12, behind Cincinnati's Luciano Acosta and Miami's Lionel Messi. Arango's goal tied the RSL club record for most goals in a season with 17, shared by Alvaro Saborio in 2012, and gives him a three-goal lead atop the MLS Golden Boot standings.

"Credit to Diego for his endeavor and really his quality," Mastroeni said. "Selfishly, for me and the rest of our team, we've got a top caliber player that's gonna be available for the next run of games."

RSL (12-3-7) draws level once again with LAFC for first place in the Western Conference with three road matches to come in the month of July against Portland, LAFC and Colorado.

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