It’s the end of the MLS regular season and that means it’s the end of How We Voted, the column all about my voting decisions for each MLS Player of the Matchday.
The goal of doing this was to highlight different players from around the league who stood out, a way to break up our usual laser focus on New York City FC with some cross-MLS coverage.
This is the 34th installment of the column, a giveaway that I didn’t publish for every single Matchday since there were 39 of them, but also a fitting number since each team plays 34 matches in a Major League Soccer season.
The player who gets the spotlight in this last edition got my vote a total of five times this season – and won the Player of the Matchday award six different times, while winning the Golden Boot, and cementing his status as still unquestionably the league’s best player.
There’s one more Team of the Matchday to review, too, and then it’s on to the postseason and on to handing out end-of-season awards. This column might make one more appearance before the year’s out with a rundown of end-of-year awards voting decisions, but for now, read up on the two standout players from MLS Decision Day 2025, who also happened to be the best players in the league over the course of the season.
The HRB Ballot, Decision Day
1. Lionel Messi, Inter Miami CF
The first goal Lionel Messi scored against Nashville SC on Decision Day was one of his best of the season, a season in which he scored 29 times in MLS play and 37 times across all competitions for Miami.
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Video via @InterMiamiCF
Nashville looked dominant early on in this match and had at least three golden scoring opportunities before Messi gave Miami this lead. He’d later score his first penalty kick of the season after Nashville’s Andy Najar was whistled for handball in the box, then completed a hat trick by finishing off a one-two combination move with an unstoppable strike. It was Messi’s first hat trick of the season but his 10th multi-goal game of the MLS campaign, and 13th multi-goal game across all competitions.
The goals don’t do justice to the whole performance from Messi. He had a hand in all five goals, instrumental in the build-up to the Baltasar Rodríguez goal that gave Miami a lead they’d never relinquish. Messi didn’t get an assist on that one but got one on Miami’s fifth goal, so this was a 5-2 win entirely of Messi’s making.
There was a period where there might have been doubt over whether or not Messi would win a second straight MLS MVP award. Other players, like Anders Dreyer of San Diego FC (more on him shortly) or Denis Bouanga of LAFC or Evander of FC Cincinnati, had stretches of dominance this year and looked to make strong cases of their own for the league’s top individual award.
In the end, though, Messi was inevitable. He ends the regular season with 45 goals+assists, nine more than the next nearest player in MLS. He almost outscored the entire DC United team this season – DC ended up with 30 goals, one ahead of Messi. You can’t argue against his enduring greatness and his performance against Nashville – who has to face Miami and Messi again in the MLS Cup Playoffs – was one of his best of the season.
2. Anders Dreyer, San Diego FC
Insane expansion season for San Diego FC as they finish with the most wins in the Western Conference, and as the West’s No 1 seed, in large part thanks to Dreyer’s work in a 4-0 away win over Portland on the road on Decision Day. Dreyer assisted on the opening goal then scored two of his own, one a banger from some distance, another a dagger-to-the-heart chip of the goalkeeper to deepen the Timbers’ misery and make it a three-goal lead.
Dreyer did all this while San Diego operated without their other big attacking Designated Player, Hirving Lozano, who was out of the squad for the trip to Portland. His assist on San Diego’s opening goal means he ends the season as the MLS assist leader with 17, the one statistical category in which he bested Lionel Messi this season – and I’m looking at the official assist numbers outside of the MLS universe in which “secondary assists” are counted.
Dreyer had what I consider the second-best individual season in the league, so give him the Non-Messi MVP, if such a thing exists. San Diego wouldn’t be the top team in the Western Conference without him.
Official Player of the Matchday: Messi
Apparently he’s the first player in MLS history with back-to-back seasons of being named Player of the Matchday six different times. He’s also poised to become the league’s first-ever back-to-back MVP, and would join Preki as the only player to ever win MVP multiple times – Preki got his back in 1997 and 2003, so it’s sure been a while since MLS has seen this kind of consistent individual greatness. Par for the course for Messi but definitely uncharted territory for the league.
Team of the Matchday
Starters: Kristijan Kahlina (CLT) – Osaze Urhoghide (DAL), Jackson Ragen (SEA), Andrés Herrera (CLB) – Kerwin Vargas (CLT), Evander (CIN), Djordje Mihailovic (TOR), Amahl Pellegrino (SD) – Anders Dreyer (SD), Victor Olatunji (RSL), Lionel Messi (MIA)
Coach: Eric Quill (DAL)
Bench: Michael Collodi (DAL), Kaick (DAL), Jonathan Osorio (TOR), Dániel Gazdag (CLB), Niko Tsakiris (SJ), Miguel Almirón (ATL), Andrew Moran (LAFC), Philip Zinckernagel (CHI), Joseph Paintsil (LA)
Nice and neat that Messi, Dreyer, and Evander all ended up in the final Team of the Matchday of the season. They should be occupying the top three spots on the final MVP rankings, in this writer’s view anyway. Four representatives from FC Dallas in this final Team of the Matchday, rewarding them for winning at Vancouver to guarantee their spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
