When it comes to the World Cup, you will take your best team to face other nations, and that means ignoring players who have done decently and not very well. And one of the players who was snubbed from the USMNT was Diego Luna. And the fans of Portland Timbers wasted no time in reminding him of that.
USMNT Only reported on X, “Portland Timbers fans chanting ‘U.S. reject’ at USMNT and RSL midfielder Diego Luna. Luna, who chose to represent the U.S. over Mexico… was not included in Pochettino’s 2026 World Cup squad.”
Diego Luna was in the middle of the pitch at Providence Park while Portland fans chanted “U.S. reject” as Diego Luna couldn’t help Real Salt Lake win. The chants became one of the biggest talking points, but they only tell half the story of Luna’s exclusion from the 2026 USMNT team. Months earlier, the 22-year-old looked destined for a place in the United States’ World Cup squad.
Diego Luna’s case rose fast in 2025. Playing for El Paso Locomotive in 2021-22 before his move to Real Salt Lake, he turned into one of the USMNT’s most reliable names under Mauricio Pochettino, scoring four goals and adding three assists across 16 caps. Fans took to him quickly.
“It’s an interesting decision for me,” Real Salt Lake manager Pablo Mastroeni said about Luna’s World Cup exclusion. “In 2025, the national team really leaned on him, both as an attacking player and as a mentality piece. Pochettino referenced his ability to fight, and I just think that in a Cup where you need a difference maker—some guy who’s going to come into a game where the stage will never be too big—I just thought Luna made sense.”
Still, when it came down to the final roster spot, Pochettino picked Gio Reyna instead. Two things drove that call, and both trace back to Luna’s home league. First, there’s the question of competition level. Luna dominates in MLS, but he hasn’t had many chances yet to prove himself against the kind of opposition he’d face on Europe’s biggest stages, and that gap mattered more to Pochettino than the raw production.
Second, timing worked against him. A knee injury sidelined Luna for the USMNT’s March window, cutting off his last real shot to make a case in person. He came back strong for Real Salt Lake afterward, but that form came against MLS defenses, the same competition level that had already worked against him.
But Luna’s journey is far from finished because time and age remain the one advantage he has over everyone. At just 22, he still has years to develop into an even more complete attacking player.
If he rediscovers the level he showed throughout 2024 and especially during 2025, a USMNT jersey with his name will come.
