{"id":72168,"date":"2026-04-20T07:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/diego-luna-is-making-his-strongest-case-for-a-us-world-cup-roster-spot\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T07:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:56:37","slug":"diego-luna-is-making-his-strongest-case-for-a-us-world-cup-roster-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/diego-luna-is-making-his-strongest-case-for-a-us-world-cup-roster-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Luna is making his strongest case for a US World Cup roster spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Also in this week\u2019s MLS weekend wrap, Messi saves Miami again, and the Columbus Crew simply can\u2019t hold a lead<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/mar\/31\/sign-up-for-the-world-behind-the-cup-a-newsletter-about-more-than-soccer\"><strong>Sign up for the World Behind The Cup newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Twelve months ago, Diego Luna\u2019s place on the US roster for the World Cup seemed as secure as anybody\u2019s. He was an early favorite of Mauricio Pochettino, a player blending scrappy tenacity with a playmaker\u2019s eye. Seventeen of his 18 senior caps have come under Pochettino, most recently scoring his fourth goal for the US in their 5-1 blowout of Uruguay in November.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Luna finds himself on the bubble of making this summer\u2019s 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\u2019s final pre-tournament window in March. Even though the US struggled against Belgium and Portugal, Luna \u2013 like any World Cup hopeful on the fringes \u2013 had to restate his bona fides to ensure he\u2019s in Pochettino\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/apr\/20\/mls-weekend-wrap-diego-luna-lionel-messi-columbus-crew\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Also in this week\u2019s MLS weekend wrap, Messi saves Miami again, and the Columbus Crew simply can\u2019t hold a lead Sign up for the World Behind The Cup newsletter Twelve months ago, Diego Luna\u2019s place on the US roster for the World Cup seemed as secure as anybody\u2019s. He was an early favorite of Mauricio &#8230; <a title=\"Diego Luna is making his strongest case for a US World Cup roster spot\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/diego-luna-is-making-his-strongest-case-for-a-us-world-cup-roster-spot\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Diego Luna is making his strongest case for a US World Cup roster spot\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}