FC Cincinnati midfielder Luciano Acosta and goalkeeper Roman Celentano have been named to the MLS Team of the Matchday for Matchday 20, the league announced Thursday. With the honor, Acosta has been named among the league’s best 11 players for the third time this season (Matchdays 13, 14) while Celentano earns his first inclusion of the year.
Acosta continued to dazzle against Toronto FC as the Argentine scored his ninth goal of the season. Acosta netted Cincinnati’s second of the night with a beautiful curler in the 54th minute and assisted on Dominique Badji’s 63rd minute goal to make it 3-0. With the goal, Acosta is now tied for fifth in the Golden Boot Race and is one goal away from moving into a tie for second with Denis Bouanga (LAFC), Giorgos Giakoumakis (ATL) and Jesus Ferreira (DAL).
The goal also saw Acosta become the eighth active player in MLS to reach 50 career goals and 50 career assists and is the second player in club history to score in four straight MLS matches (Brandon Vazquez, July 23 – August 13, 2022)
Roman Celentano picked up his ninth clean sheet of the season and moved into a tie with Seattle’s Stefan Frei for the league lead in shutouts. Celentano made four saves against Toronto FC and has helped the Orange and Blue earn four shutouts over their last seven matches.
Celentano now has 57 saves on the year and maintains the second-highest save percentage (78.1) among goalkeepers with at least 10 saves, trailing only Nashville’s Joe Willis (80.8). The recognition for Celentano is his second-career as the Team of the Matchday/Week starting goalkeeper (2022 Week 10).
The naming of Acosta and Celentano to the MLS Team of the Matchday are the 23rd and 24th recognitions of an FC Cincinnati player on the weekly team this season. A full list of 2023 FC Cincinnati weekly honors:
2023 FC Cincinnati MLS Team of the Matchday Player Recognitions
- Obinna Nwobodo (Matchday 1, 3, 13-Bench)
- Brenner (3-Bench)
- Junior Moreno (4)
- Matt Miazga (5-Bench, 7, 15-Bench)
- Brandon Vazquez (5-Bench)
- Yerson Mosquera (6, 10)
- Álvaro Barreal (6-Bench, 9, 11-Bench, 16)
- Sergio Santos (9-Bench)
- Luciano Acosta (11-Bench, 13, 14, 16-Bench, 17-Bench, 20)
- Roman Celentano (14-Bench, 20)
The full team for Matchday 20 is listed below.
2023 MLS Team of the Matchday presented by Audi (Matchday 20)
F: Alan Pulido (SKC), Thorleifur Úlfarsson (HOU), Damir Kreilach (RSL)
M: Gabriel Pereira (NYC), Luciano Acosta (CIN), José Martínez (PHI), Brian Gutiérrez (CHI)
D: Diego Palacios (LAFC), Julio Cascante (ATX), Cameron Harper (RBNY)
GK: Roman Celentano (CIN)
Coach: Pablo Mastroeni (RSL)
Bench: Brad Stuver (ATX), Giorgio Chiellini (LAFC), Héctor Herrera (HOU), Bryce Duke (MTL), Ben Bender (CLT), Diego Luna (RSL), Mateusz Bogusz (LAFC), Diego Fagundez (ATX), Duncan McGuire (ORL)
