Diego Luna’s brace for the U.S. Men’s National Team against Guatemala fired them into the Gold Cup final(Image: Photo by Jeff Le/Getty Images)

One of the breakout stars of the U.S. Men’s National Team this year, Real Salt Lake star Diego Luna was the man of the hour in St. Louis on Wednesday as his brace fired Mauricio Pochettino’s side into the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.

The 21-year-old made an impact early, stunning Guatemala with a close-range effort in the fourth minute to open the scoring. Just 10 minutes later, Luna was back at it, pulling off an excellent solo run to the edge of Guatemala’s box, throwing in a neat step over along the way, before finding the bottom corner of Kenderson Navarro’s goal.

Some questionable defending from the USMNT led to plenty of chances as the game wore on for the visitors, including a disallowed goal in the 29th minute. Eventually, Olger Escobar found a way past Matt Freese in the U.S. goal with 10 minutes to go, but this proved little more than a consolation as a late dive from the New York City FC keeper prevented an equalizer deep into added time.

READ MORE: Ex-USMNT star believes Mauricio Pochettino is taking role ‘personally’ after statement winREAD MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo has last laugh after brutal ‘much better’ dig at Lionel Messi

Luna, whose energy and fight has endeared him to fans across the country, has now featured in all but one game for the USMNT this year, and has started four of their five wins at the Gold Cup en route to Sunday’s final.

With three goals in his last two games, the MLS All-Star will now surely be on the radar of teams around the world, as noted postgame by FS1’s Rob Stone.

“I hope his agent is a very, very busy human being the next couple hours, days, weeks and months because that is a young man that this country would like to cheer for,” he said postgame.

“He’s doing the right things, he’s saying the right things, and those moments are coming that are memorable, and its in the context of a team that, like we said, came into this tournament where there was a lot of negativity towards this team,” USMNT legend Alexi Lalas added.

“And there still is, I’m sure theres people that aren’t sold on, whether it’s Diego Luna or anybody else out there, but sports are for the moments, they’re not for being practical, they’re not for being realistic.

“You’ve got to be able to celebrate these moments and it’s fun to see this team celebrate and its fun to see others celebrity this team in terms of what they’re doing and a lot of it is someone like Diego Luna for the way that he plays and the way in which he holds himself when he plays.”

Landon Donovan, another legend of the USMNT, was equally high on Luna, comparing him to Clint Dempsey whilst laying out why he believes the youngster is “unique.”

Diego Luna has been compared to USMNT legend Clint Dempsey by Landon Donovan(Image: Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

“He’s a little bit unique in the modern game in that he is willing to take chances,” he explained. “You remember I played with Dempsey, one of the best ever, he takes chances, he does at people, he tries stuff in front of the goal. So don’t just look at his goals…You watch him and the joy he has, and you can’t help but be so happy for him.”

Luna, whose contract with RSL runs through the 2026 MLS season, will return to action on Sunday at NRG Stadium when the USMNT takes on Mexico in the final.

The last time these two sides met at a Gold Cup final was in 2021, with the USMNT coming out on top via a late Miles Robinson goal.