Rookie Abubakar’s game growing

Lalas Abubakar made a name for himself at the 2017 MLS combine.

The University of Dayton center back flashed competitiveness and one-on-one defending ability to the point of becoming one of the most highly regarded defenders in the January SuperDraft. But where he won over Crew SC, convincing the team to select him No. 5 overall in the draft, was in his interview.

“It’s not what he said; it’s

how he acted. It’s his emotion, his desire,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “The questions we’re asking are the type of questions where you can figure out he has competitiveness, he has a growth mindset, he wants to get better, he wants to improve, he wants to help the team and he wants to compete. All those things matched up with what we were seeing on the field.”

Now seven months and five starts into his Major League Soccer career, Abubakar, 22, is improving and building confidence. He’s learning how and when to play aggressively and when he needs to keep his emotions in check.

It’s unclear how much Abubakar will play if Crew SC switches back to a two-center back system permanently. His goal is to become more consistent, and he believes he will get there. When he reflects on where he was a little more than three years ago, Abubakar said he has reached a much more stable place.

Dayton has an established Ghanaian pipeline and got a first-hand look at Abubakar, then a player for the University of Ghana, in 2014. The Flyers liked him, and he liked the idea of playing in the United States, but he had multiple options.

“When somebody’s that good, kids are getting pulled in a lot of different directions,” Dayton coach Dennis Currier said. “Friends, family, coaches of the youth teams are telling him that he can play in Europe. That was the biggest thing with him: What was he going to choose?”

That choice became more complicated when Abubakar was selected to Ghana’s U20 national team in the summer of 2014. With the national exposure came interest, Abubakar said, from Sporting Lisbon in Portugal and he put the Dayton decision — and a student visa — on hold for months.

Abubakar grew up, like many of his peers, with dreams of playing in Europe. But he worried that turning down a college scholarship and waiting out an uncertain professional deal would mean being stuck in Ghana, where a lack of athletic scholarships placed a financial burden on his aunt, Fati Muhammad.

“It was hard for me to go and stand in front of her and ask her for a huge sum of money for my tuition,” Abubakar said. “She has her own sons and daughters that she’s taking care of, but she did her best and then my mom also helped me out with whatever she could. It was really hard for me when I was in college (in Ghana), but I was able to get through it.”

Abubakar said he spent months worrying his U.S. student visa paperwork would be canceled, but when his deal to head to Portugal fell through that summer, Dayton was still an option.

“We were just real fortunate,” Currier said. “He sent a small (email) reply back that just said, ‘I’ll be in Dayton in August.’ ”

He struggled initially upon arriving in Dayton but figured out how to play in a new system, eventually earning two Atlantic-10

Dallas is 0-3-2 in its last five games. … Midfielder Michael Barrios is tied for second in MLS with 12 assists. … Dallas is

first-team all-conference selections.

More than three years removed from what he described as the most difficult four-month stretch of his life, Abubakar said he considers himself fortunate that he had multiple options in 2014.

“If I sit back and look back at the guys I grew up with, even the guys that were better than me, some of them are working and some of them are just around there, not playing soccer, not making 5-12-7 all time in Columbus and is 3-4-4 on the road this season.

Left back Waylon Francis is out because of a left hamstring injury suffered in the first half of the Crew’s victory Wednesday over Los Angeles. … Crew SC is in search of its first stretch of four straight games without a loss. … The Crew is 1-1-1 in the third game of a threegame week this season.

Both teams are on their third game in eight days and will be tired Saturday. Crew SC will have to take advantage of its early chances and control the tempo in order to notch its third win in four games. anything, they are just there,” Abubakar said. “I think I might be in the same situation as them if this opportunity (to come to Dayton) bypassed me.”

He has made it, but he strives for more. Abubakar remains hopeful that the opportunities will continue to come his way with Crew SC.

“It’s just the beginning,” he said. “It’s something where I just need to focus now.”