In his 50th MLS start, striker Kévin Cabral put an exclamation mark on a victory against his former team, LA Galaxy, on Saturday night.
Cabral’s 65th-minute pass into a nearly open net felt reminiscent of his late goal against Austin earlier this season, but in front of his former supporters, teammates, and coaches, it was a unique experience he was able to fully embrace.
“Coming back here, it was kind of weird to see all the people–the staff, the player, all of them–I was ready to see them again,” the Frenchman said after the game. “Then I scored today, I'm really happy for the three points and today we played well. I’m happy.”
Cabral spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Galaxy before arriving to Colorado in December, notching six goals with the Los Angeles side. He now has two goals in nine games played in burgundy.
“I think he's handled [the transition] extremely well,” said head coach Robin Fraser of the young striker. “[LA] is a place where I felt like he had a tough time and seems like he had a tough time with the fans.
“So I was really pleased for him to have a good, very workman-like performance, and then cap it off with a goal…I was really excited just given the way things went for him here. I was so happy for him to score tonight.”
Cabral found his chance in the second half, reading the splitting pass from Connor Ronan to Diego Rubio through traffic. His parallel run to Rubio left him unmarked by the Galaxy’s defense, and the Chilean’s square ball passed inside the box found Cabral just outside the reach of LA’s keeper, Jonathan Klinsmann.
From there, all that was left for Cabral to do was send a well-paced ball into the back of the net–-right in front of the opponents’ supporters’ section.
“When playing against your old team you kind of want to prove yourself if anything, and to be honest, I won’t say I noticed anything particularly in training [this week], Kevin's a good professional and he trains like he does every single week, but I'd say maybe in the game today seen a little bit more bite from him–pressing the ball, chasing loss causes, and just that kind of relentless running.”
“He gives us that different option when we're under pressure at times–-when we bring it back to looking behind and the pace that he has, he can chase things down. He deserved the goal that he got tonight, definitely.”
Cabral’s goal was the second in a three-score result for the Rapids, the team’s first multi-goal in of the season. Other notable firsts on the season from Saturday included a first-half goal and a set piece goal, both resulting from Lalas Abubakar’s 14th-minute header off a Ronan corner.
“We build confidence with [that] goal,” Cabral said of the early lead. “And it's really good to score early in the game and not always at the end of the game like we [have been]. What we saw tonight is really good for us.”
While Saturday night marked his 50th start in the league, it was just his third with Colorado this season. The striker is confident in his ability to follow his patterns of finding runs in behind and putting himself into dangerous positions up top to ensure more appearances in the starting eleven.
“I hope I have more games where I start, but to be able to have that we have to keep playing well as a team and keep winning games,” he said. “Because a tie is really good, but we move forward when we win.”