Colorado Rapids defender Reggie Cannon was named to Major League Soccer's Team of the Matchday Starting XI on Monday afternoon for his game-winning performance in Matchday 23's rivalry contest with Real Salt Lake. The 28-year-old helped seal a 1-0 victory for Colorado in front of the Burgundy & Blue faithful by heading home a corner kick opportunity in the 58th minute and keeping Salt Lake scoreless over his 90 minutes played.
In an almost identical play leading up to Cannon's last goal scored against Sporting Kansas City on August 15, midfielder Youssef Maziz delivered a curling ball into the box off a corner kick early in the second half on Saturday night. Unmarked on the back post, Cannon rushed the six-yard box and smashed in a header that would remain the only goal of the night, effectively handing the Rapids the coveted Rocky Mountain Cup for the third season in a row.
The goal is Cannon's second of the season and earned the defender his second Team of the Matchday nomination. His contributions on the back line also secured the team's fifth consecutive home clean sheet--tying a club record set in 2004.
"Everyone is in just such a good piece of cohesion within the back line," said Cannon after the match. "Regardless of who's in that lineup, everyone's stepping up to the plate, and we have such good players and such good depth right now, defensively, that it's it doesn't matter who's on the pitch ...There's just such good competition and such good partnerships that everyone is just molding really, really nicely right now. This momentum that we have, it's so important, because maybe the goals haven't been flowing as much, you know, for us offensively. But it doesn't really matter when we keep the clean sheets like we are. We're just gelling, and that's the direction we want to go.”
Cannon and the Rapids will take on Columbus Crew this coming weekend, taking to the ScottsMiracle-Gro Field at 5:30 p.m. MT.
Team of the Matchday - Matchday 23
F: Antoine Griezmann (ORL), Dejan Joveljić (SEA), Leo Messi (MIA)
M: Allan Saint-Maximin (CLT), Carles Gil (NE), Hany Mukhtar (NSH), Cavan Sullivan (PHI)
D: Casemiro (MIA), Neil Pierre (PHI), Reggie Cannon (COL)
GK: Brian Schwake (NSH)
Coach: B.J. Callaghan (NSH)
Bench: Hugo Lloris (LAFC), Oleksandr Svatok (ATX), Mamadou Fofana (NE), Thomas Müller (VAN), Nicolás Fernández Mercau (NYC), Anders Dreyer (SD), Robert Lewandowski (CHI), Sam Surridge (NSH), Kelvin Yeboah (MIN)
