For any regular Hudson River Blue readers who come to our site for the New York City FC coverage, this edition of How We Voted might not be your favorite.
For the unfamiliar, I cast a vote for MLS Player of the Matchday with the North American Soccer Reporters after every round of games and use this space to write about why I chose the two players who appeared on my ballot.
We also go over who actually wins the final Player of the Matchday award and share the Team of the Matchday with you, so you're as caught up as you can be on the top performers from, in this case, Matchday 12 of the Major League Soccer season.
Through 11 rounds, no Red Bulls player cracked my two-person ballot, but that changed thanks to the 2024 MLS Cup Final rematch held in Harrison, New Jersey. Even the most dedicated Red Bull haters would struggle to deny the validity of this latest choice for MLS Player of the Matchday, but read on for my explanation.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 12
1. Emil Forsberg, Red Bull New York
If you're a regular reader, you may have a visceral reaction to the team, the player, and this scoreline, but Forsberg's performance in Red Bull's 7-0 win over LA Galaxy was too good to ignore.
The Swedish Designated Player had a direct role in the first four goals the hosts scored at Red Bull Arena Sports Illustrated Stadium, with two goals scored himself and two assists handed out to teammate Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. It was unofficially Bundesliga Night in New Jersey with Forsberg and Choupo-Moting each putting on a show to punish a hopeless Galaxy side that looks like a complete shell of its MLS Cup-winning self.
On Forsberg's first assist to open the scoring in the 7th minute, Choupo-Moting did the heavy lifting to dribble through the LA defense and place his shot into the far corner. The same couldn't be said for Forsberg's second assist, as he placed a high degree of difficulty pass to the feet of Choupo-Moting through a cluster of Galaxy defenders.
Forsberg's opening goal came as a result of a shocking failure to close the dangerous Swedish attacker down in space by the Galaxy, with Fosberg powering his shot past John McCarthy to make it 3-0 Red Bulls. Forsberg would extend the lead to a whopping 4-0 shortly after halftime, putting a cherry on top of his all-around dominant performance by curling a precise free kick into the top corner.
TAKE A BOW, EMIL FORSBERG 🤯
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 11, 2025
Red Bulls go up 4️⃣ on a stunning free kick. pic.twitter.com/g3QCAxdV0Z
To go along with the two goals and two assists, Forsberg had three key passes completed, seven progressive passes completed, and two passes completed into the attacking penalty area, all in only 75 minutes of action.
Collecting four goal contributions in one game takes players into rarefied air. It's happened only six other times in the 30 seasons of Red Bull/MetroStars soccer, most recently when Dante Vanzeir had four assists to beat Inter Miami CF in April 2024. Since arriving for that 2024 season, Forsberg has been extremely effective in MLS when he's been healthy. He's got five goals and three assists so far in 2025, and interestingly Forsberg has already matched the number of non-penalty goals he scored in 2024 – four – here in the new season.
The Red Bulls looked unstoppable against the Galaxy thanks to that Forsberg-Choupo-Moting connection, though I'm sure their fans would have preferred to see this kind of performance from their $6 million salaried DP No 10 back on December 7, 2024 at DignityHealth Sports Park in Carson, California.
2. Martín Ojeda, Orlando City SC
Not often you'll see a player score a hat trick but not win MLS Player of the Matchday, and I'm helping that rare occurrence happen by placing Ojeda second behind Forsberg on my ballot. Orlando didn't win while Ojeda collected that hatty, instead settling for a 3-3 draw at home against a suddenly reinvigorated New England Revolution.
Ojeda's first goal was an absolute missile, an unstoppable bar-down strike to open the scoring for the hosts in the 24th minute. For my money it should be between Forsberg's free kick and this strike below from Ojeda for this week's MLS Goal of the Matchday award.
What a hit from Martín Ojeda 👏
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 11, 2025
📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/kgUJPATK5V pic.twitter.com/xNIAiFSGcb
Ojeda extended Orlando's lead to 2-0 by racing in behind the Revs' defense and then neatly creating space to shoot through the traffic of two retreating New England defenders and goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič. His third goal came from the penalty spot but it restored an Orlando lead in the 55th minute, though one the Lions from Central Florida would not hold through the full-time whistle.
Ojeda loses some points for having one of his three hat-trick goals be a penalty kick, but really, Forsberg's performance was just unequivocally better and more well-rounded when compared to the Orlando City No 10. Forsberg and Ojeda were the top two outfield players from this round of MLS matches if you look at the raw goals added (g+, via American Soccer Analysis) numbers they each produced during Matchday 12, and that's how they ended up ranked on my ballot.
Official Player of the Matchday: Emil Forsberg
After his performance, the New York Red Bulls’ Emil Forsberg becomes the first Swedish player to earn MLS Player of the Matchday honors since Zlatan Ibrahimović on Matchday 28 of 2019. www.mlssoccer.com/news/new-yor...
— MLS Communications (@mls-pr.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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Can't say it's a surprise to see Forsberg take home the official award win for that performance, the biggest Red Bulls margin of victory since...the last time they won 7-0, a game you may have heard about played at Yankee Stadium on May 21, 2016. Big start to the week for the Red Bulls as they prepare for the challenge of playing the tough Nashville SC at midweek, then traveling back to Citi Field for the first Hudson River Derby against New York City FC on Saturday. Given the current state of NYCFC, readers of our site might be hoping Forsberg and the Red Bulls used up all their goals getting their MLS Cup revenge on the hapless Galaxy.
5⭐️ performance from the @NewYorkRedBulls' playmaker. 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/2f70OdexHR
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 12, 2025
MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Sean Johnson (TOR) - Andy Najar (NSH), Sean Zawadzki (CLB), DeJuan Jones (SJ) - Martín Ojeda (ORL), Emil Forsberg (RBNY), Evander (CIN), Albert Rusnák (SEA) - Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (RBNY), Prince Owusu (MTL), Brian White (VAN)
Coach: Eric Ramsay (MIN)
Bench: Matt Freese (NYC), Omar Valencia (RBNY), Rominigue Kouamé (CHI), Robin Lod (MIN), Diego Luna (RSL), Santiago Moreno (POR), Carles Gil (NE), Lorenzo Insigne (TOR), Anders Dreyer (SD)
The goalkeeper corps for this latest Team of the Matchday has a distinct New York City FC flavor. Old friend and current Toronto FC shot stopper Sean Johnson earned the starting spot by shutting out DC United (and his former backup GK Luis Barraza) in a much-needed 2-0 home win, while NYCFC's current MVP in goal, Matt Freese, grabbed a spot on the bench for his six-save effort in NYCFC's concerning 0-1 loss to CF Montréal. Big week for longtime NYCFC goalkeeper coach Rob Vartughian, his current and former pupils were busy.
Bigger showing for the Red Bulls, as they had two starters and a sub in Team of the Matchday after their big home win. I considered Prince Owusu of Montréal and Evander of FC Cincinnati for possible votes on my ballot, Owusu for being the only Montréal player able to solve Freese to earn his team their first win of 2025, and Evander for scoring and assisting to spoil Brandon Vazquez of Austin FC's big return to Cincinnati. They didn't earn spots over Forsberg or Ojeda, but they did place in Team of the Matchday.
