Costa Rica got their Gold Cup campaign off to a flying start on Sunday, and one of FC Cincinnati's best was at the center of it.
Allan Cruz turned in a man-of-the-match performance as the attacking central midfielder in Los Ticos' 4-1-3-2 formation, completing 89% of his passes, notching an assist on Bryan Oviedo's opening goal... and rounding out the 4-0 dispatching of Nicaragua with this left-footed golazo:
It was the exclamation point to an impressive night for Cincy's star, dubbed "the Tico Kante" in his homeland for his similarity to Chelsea's N'Golo Kante, who has thus far contributed two goals and plenty of hard grinding in FCC's midfield in his first 10 MLS matches.
