Seattle Sounders FC striker Raúl Ruidíaz has garnered Player of the Matchday honors for Matchday 8 of the 2024 season after his two-goal, one-assist performance helped power a 5-0 victory over CF Montréal.
The Peruvian star started the scoring for Seattle with a 20th-minute golazo that opened the floodgates, adding a penalty-kick conversion seven minutes later to double the advantage.
Ruidíaz also contributed an assist on Seattle's fourth goal of Saturday's match at Lumen Field, completing a give-and-go with Albert Rusnák that led to an 81st-minute tap-in from fullback Alex Roldan.
The tallies marked Ruidíaz's 67th and 68th career regular-season goals for Seattle, which rank most in club history and sixth-most among all active players. It's the fifth time the 33-year-old has earned MLS Player of the Matchday honors, passing Clint Dempsey and Jordan Morris for the most in club history.
Since the start of the 2020 season, Ruidíaz and Nashville SC's Hany Mukhtar (seven) are the only MLS players to win Player of the Matchday honors at least five times. Ruidíaz is the first Sounders player to win Player of the Matchday since teammate Léo Chú did so on Matchday 24 of the 2023 season.
Fresh off their first win of the season, the Sounders visit FC Dallas on Saturday evening (8:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
The MLS Player of the Matchday is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while an X (formerly known as Twitter) fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
