After an outstanding 3-1 road win over LA Galaxy this weekend, two Rapids players have earned MLS Team of the Matchday honors, including midfielder Connor Ronan and defender Lalas Abubakar.
Ronan was named to the Starting XI, thanks an incredible performance that saw the midfielder deliver assists in all three of the club’s goals over the Galaxy.
“I feel like I’ve been building confidence throughout the season just from getting minutes under my belt and obviously having a lot of playing time, but I feel like you need to kind of put the numbers up at some point and get some sort of goals and assists to kind of back yourself up really with the minutes that you get. So that’s always nice to have an influence on the game and play a part in the goals,” Ronan said.
Abubakar was named to the bench after netting his first goal of the season. He got the momentum going for the team with a set-piece goal in the 14th minute, which was the first goal of its kind for the team this year.
“The first goal was really important,” Abubakar said. “We’ve always been good on set pieces. Throughout the season, we were so unlucky not to get a couple of goals. We thought it was coming, and finally tonight, it paid off.”
Both Ronan’s and Abubakar’s performances helped the Rapids continue their unbeaten streak, which stands at eight across all competitions.
Team of the Matchday
F: Josef Martínez (MIA), Brian White (VAN), Enzo Copetti (CLT)
M: Cristian Espinoza (SJ), Connor Ronan (COL), Erik Thommy (SKC), Hany Mukhtar (NSH)
D: DeJuan Jones (NE), Damion Lowe (PHI), Aaron Herrera (MTL)
GK: Steve Clark (HOU)
Coach: Luchi Gonzalez (SJ)
Bench: Andre Blake (PHI), Rudy Camacho (MTL), Lalas Abubakar (COL), Alvaro Barreal (CIN), Noel Buck (NE), Owen Wolff (ATX), Luciano Acosta (CIN), Ryan Gauld (VAN), Evander (POR)
