SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored two goals five minutes apart in the first half and Real Salt Lake kept the defending-champion Los Angeles Galaxy winless with a 2-0 victory at America First Field on Saturday.
Luna staked Real Salt Lake (3-4-0) to a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute with assists from defender Alexandros Katranis and Diogo Gonçalves. Luna made it a two-goal lead unassisted in the 26th minute with his third netter of the season and his 16th in 73 appearances for the club over four seasons. Katranis notched his first assist this season and his sixth in 34 appearances. Gonçalves' helper was his second of the campaign and third in 16 career appearances.
Luna becomes the youngest player in Real Salt Lake history to reach 15 goals and 15 assists in a career, doing so at 21 years, 210 days of age.
Rafael Cabral needed to make just one save to earn the clean sheet for Real Salt Lake and that came in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time off the left foot of Tucker Lepley. It was the second shutout for the 34-year-old in his first season in the league.
John McCarthy did not have a save for the Galaxy (0-5-2).
Los Angeles is playing without Riqui Puig (ACL tear) along with losing 19-goal scorer Dejan Joveljić to Sporting Kansas City in the offseason. The end result is the worst start by a defending champion in league history.
Real Salt Lake had not scored in five straight halves before Luna cut loose. The club improves to 37-6-12 when scoring first since Pablo Mastroeni took the reins in August of 2021.
The Galaxy will host the Houston Dynamo on Saturday. Real Salt Lake travels to play Nashville SC on Saturday.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
The Associated Press
