A Wednesday-only Matchday causes all sorts of chaos across Major League Soccer and with the voting for MLS Player of the Matchday, which we cover here in How We Voted, the column dedicated to recapping my ballot following each round of regular-season matches.
There were a handful of candidates worthy of consideration for Player of the Matchday votes following this midweek round, and for a change, Lionel Messi was not one of them. He'd scored two or more goals in a bunch of games in a row, and earned my vote after the previous Matchday, but not this time – he was silent in a 3-0 road loss to FC Cincinnati.
The vote could have gone in a number of directions, as lots of goals usually get scored at midweek when many teams are rotating their squads or playing on short rest. The two players who earned spots on this latest ballot felt hard to separate and I ended up leaning toward the player who scored the more impressive brace of the two, though neither person on my ballot ended up actually winning the Player of the Matchday.
Read on as I explain why, of the two attacking midfielders on my ballot who each had two goals and one assist, I went for the West Coast playmaker over the one who authored a big second-half comeback for the home team in Harrison, NJ.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 25
1. Albert Rusnák, Seattle Sounders FC
This is the 24th edition of this column this season but the first time I've had a Seattle Sounders FC player atop my ballot.
Rusnák scored two great goals, and had an assist on the Sounders' third, all in the first half of a topsy-turvy match that ended 3-3 after Colorado Rapids clawed back in the second half thanks to two penalty kicks and a late equalizer.
The first Rusnák strike was audacious, as he caught Colorado goalkeeper Zack Steffen way off his line and blasted a strike into an empty net from very long range. Yes it's an empty net, but the ball is bouncing as it falls to him and Rusnák catches it perfectly on the volley from a significant distance. Steffen messed up, but this was a perfectly-executed strike from way out.
I enjoyed Rusnák's second goal because of how perfectly he placed his shot past Zack Steffen, seeming to fool Steffen into believing he'd be shooting at the far post, only to tuck his shot forcefully past the keeper inside his near post, with Steffen seemingly caught leaning in the opposite direction.
It's not the fault of Rusnák that his team threw away a three-goal advantage, so the final result can't be held against him. I went with Rusnák over Emil Forsberg of the Red Bulls, the second name on my ballot with a very similar stat line, because neither of Rusnák's goals came from the penalty spot, and because both of Rusnák's finishes were top-quality. It might be controversial, I might stand accused of applying a sky blue-tint to my voting glasses by snubbing Forsberg, but Rusnák's individual goal-scoring brilliance felt too impressive to ignore.
2. Emil Forsberg, New York Red Bulls
I've voted for Forsberg before and he's won Player of the Matchday before, but I had him just below Rusnák this time around. The assist to his fellow veteran Designated Player Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was a better assist than the one Rusnák picked up on Seattle's opening goal, and Forsberg scored a belter of left-footed goal from the top of the 18-yard box, but I honestly think he and Choupo-Moting's combined excellence made it harder to cast a vote solely for Forsberg.
That he helped his team score five unanswered goals in the second half to turn around an 0-2 deficit after 45 minutes deserves its credit, no matter how shambolic the New England Revolution and their on-the-hot-seat coach Caleb Porter looked in the process of throwing the game away. It was just more of a group effort for the Red Bulls, so Forsberg felt less like a one-player attack than how Rusnák carried his squad to all their goals. The margin was tight on the ballot – I could have included Evander from FC Cincinnati, or Choupo-Moting, or a few others, tough round.
Official Player of the Matchday: Evander, FC Cincinnati
Neither guy I voted for picked up the top prize, with Evander instead earning the honor for scoring twice in FC Cincinnati's statement-making 3-0 home win over reigning Player of the Matchday Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami CF teammates.
Evander is on a Messi-like streak as a No 10 picking up goals for his team match after match, and getting a win over Messi and Co. really impressed the voters. Evander's second goal was a tap-in off a rebound, not the most difficult chance but one that still cemented his team's huge win to tighten things even further at the top of the MLS Eastern Conference standings.
MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Matt Freese (NYC) - Andy Najar (NSH), Olwethu Makhanya (PHI), Eddie Segura (LAFC) - Pep Biel (CLT), Evander (CIN), Albert Rusnák (SEA), Emil Forsberg (RBNY) - Myrto Uzuni (ATX), Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (RBNY), Petar Musa (DAL)
Coach: Pat Noonan (CIN)
Bench: Joe Willis (NSH), Ronald Donkor (RBNY), Sebastian Berhalter (VAN), Diogo Gonçalves (RSL), Philip Zinckernagel (CHI), Theo Corbeanu (TOR), Leo Campana (NE), Sam Surridge (NSH), Josef Martínez (SJ)
Matt Freese of New York City FC starts at goalkeeper after making a match-preserving six saves against Orlando to give NYCFC a chance to come back late and steal a road win. He's another player that got strong consideration for a vote for Player of the Matchday, as was Charlotte's Pep Biel, Nashville's Sam Surridge – it was a crowded field for standouts from a crowded Wednesday night of games.
