Twenty-six touches. That is all Liel Abada required to put CF Montreal to the sword on Thursday, a hat-trick delivered with a ruthlessness that left Charlotte FC's 4-0 win feeling almost one-sided from the opening whistle.
Efficiency Over Everything
Abada did not need to dominate the ball to dominate the match. With zero assists and zero key passes to his name, his entire contribution came down to finishing. Three goals from 26 touches is as clean a conversion rate as a forward can produce, and it was enough to earn him a match rating of 10.0, the ceiling on BSD's scale.
There was no build-up play to point to, no chain of passes that unlocked the Montreal defense. Abada's night was about being in the right place and making sure the ball ended up in the net each time it reached him.
A Statement Scoreline
Charlotte's 4-0 victory was built almost entirely around his hat-trick, with Abada accounting for three of the four goals scored against CF Montreal. For a forward, a night like this does not come along often: a perfect rating, a treble, and barely a touch wasted.
The numbers tell their own story. Few players manage a hat-trick while touching the ball so sparingly, and fewer still walk away with a flawless rating to match. For Charlotte FC, it was the kind of individual display that wins matches almost single-handedly.