RSL settles for 1st draw of season down a man in Dallas after early wonder goal from Luna
by Caleb Turner kslcom · KSL.comEstimated read time: 2-3 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Real Salt Lake drew 1-1 with FC Dallas after Diego Luna's early goal.
- Luna's goal tied him for second in MLS this season with seven, scoring goals in three-straight games.
- William Agada was ejected in the second half to give RSL the lead in MLS this season with four red cards.
FRISCO, Texas — Real Salt Lake has never won two games in Texas in the same season in its 21 years of existence.
It seemed like that drought might come to an end Saturday night at Toyota Stadium against FC Dallas.
An early-season win in Houston broke a seven-year streak in the Space City to give RSL its first win this season in Texas, and an early goal by Diego Luna on Saturday gave the road team a 1-0 lead heading into halftime in Frisco.
The 21-year-old has done it all for RSL this season with his "broad shoulders and big heart," as head coach Pablo Mastroeni said of Luna. The California native, who also spent time in Texas, scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season on an impressive turnaround shot that ricocheted off the post and in after 24 minutes.
The goal also moved Luna into a tie for second place in MLS for goals scored in 2025, alongside former teammate Chicho Arango. The score marked the third straight match Luna has found the back of the net for RSL.
"I'm shooting; that's something that I didn't do often last year and I passed the ball more," Luna said of his uptick in goals. "I'm just taking more shots, getting myself in higher positions and taking more risks."
The lead and hope for a Texas two-step didn't last, however, thanks to another former RSL player scoring just after halftime in the 53rd minute.
Anderson Julio burst past Sam Junqua, the defender RSL traded him for in the offseason, and delivered a calm grounder past Rafael Cabral for the home team's equalizer.
Five minutes later, RSL striker William Agada received his second yellow card of the match and was ejected, bringing RSL to an MLS-leading four red cards on the season. The ejection forced RSL to shift into a more defensive formation and settle for a point on the road with 10 men.
"We're being challenged by the universe," Mastroeni said of the red cards. "I think the reaction after the red card was fantastic from the guys, you know, finding moments to control the game, finding moments to move our lines, the commitment, the effort; we just got to find a way to keep battling through."
The 1-1 result is RSL's first draw of the season after accumulating four wins and seven losses in the 11 games leading into Saturday.
The team returns to Utah for its first midweek match of the season against the Portland Timbers on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. MDT.
Agada will miss the match after his red card and Justen Glad will also serve a one-game suspension after receiving his fifth yellow card of the year. Mastroeni said the team hopes to get Brayan Vera back next week after a concussion took the defender out last month.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Caleb Turner
Caleb Turner covers Real Salt Lake as the team's beat writer for KSL.com Sports. He also oversees the sports team's social media accounts.