A midweek slate of Major League Soccer featuring 22 teams in action following a 10-day break in games brought out lots and lots of goals, and also easy decisions for this latest MLS Player of the Matchday ballot.
There were 45 goals scored on this nightmare of a Wednesday night for the league's goalkeepers, with scorelines of 5-3, 4-2, and 3-2 all the rage. Only two of the 22 active MLS teams were held scoreless, and one of those two was the woeful LA Galaxy who feel more MLS Next Pro than MLS at this current point.
As is befitting this night of goals scored in bunches, our Matchday 19 edition of How We Voted is all about two players who scored seven goals between them.
While this is the third straight installment of this column in which a player who scored a hat trick is in my No 2 spot on the ballot and thus not getting my vote with the North American Soccer Reporters for Player of the Matchday, this time, it's because someone actually scored four goals, not because I'm using random and vibes-based metrics to make a slightly controversial voting decision.
Below find the explanation for my latest Player of the Matchday votes, the winner of that PotM honor, plus the MLS Team of the Matchday for a Wednesday night that wore out the twine at the back of nets across Don Garber's United Soccer States of America.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 20
1. Milan Iloski, San Diego FC
Scored four goals in a span of 12 minutes in the first half to crush the dreams of the Vancouver Whitecaps in their home stadium. There haven't been many easier votes for Player of the Matchday than this one, besides the two other times a player scored four goals in a match this season – Brian White of those Whitecaps, and Sam Surridge of Nashville SC, who you'll hear more about below.
Iloski isn't the most famous nor most involved member of the San Diego FC attack. Prior to this trip to Vancouver, he had not started a game for San Diego, but stepped up in a major way in his first MLS start. He'd collected five goals as a substitute entering this game, including scoring in back-to-back appearances coming into the first start, so form was on his side.
The four-goal outburst let San Diego leapfrog Vancouver into the top spot in the Western Conference, a third straight win for the 2025 expansion side. They're off to a flying start in MLS, and while Iloski gets the plaudits this week, their all-season-long MVP remains Anders Dreyer, who had three assists in this game and now has eight goals and 11 assists total on the season.
For his part, Iloski has put up a ridiculous 2.77 goals per 90 minutes in his limited (to this point) minutes with San Diego, putting him at the very top of the MLS player leaderboards. He owns one of the more unique stat lines in the league and is now a worthy recipient of a vote for Player of the Matchday.
2. Sam Surridge, Nashville SC
It's now 12 straight matches unbeaten across all competitions for Nashville, and their prolific striker Surridge is a key driver of this unbeaten run for what looks like one of the very top teams in this year's Eastern Conference.
Surridge scored another hat trick, his second of the season (after scoring four against Chicago), to give him 15 goals and sole possession of the MLS Golden Boot lead. Most importantly he got Nashville another road win, their second straight, with Surridge's trio of goals the difference in a 2-3 away triumph over New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.
The English forward has four multi-goal games this season and continues to convert the chances that come his way at a high rate in BJ Callaghan's suddenly-clicking Nashville attack. He would have gotten my vote for Player of the Matchday, even with one of his hat-trick goals coming from the penalty spot, had Iloski not stolen the show in the late-night (for us East Coasters) kickoff.
Really, this Matchday's ballot would have benefited from a ranked-choice voting system like the one in New York City, for those who may have recently participated in the June primary elections. I could have ranked at least five players, Iloski and Surridge but also Iloski's teammate Anders Dreyer, FC Cincinnati star Evander (who had a hand in all three of their goals in Montréal), Eduard Atuesta of Orlando City SC (hat trick of assists), to name a tight five players right there.
Surridge has been the league's leading goalscorer and produced again on Matchday 20, but he has to settle for my consolation vote only.
Official Player of the Matchday: Milan Iloski
Iloski becomes the third different San Diego FC player to be named MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob Ultra this season, joining Anders Dreyer (Matchday 1) and Hirving 'Chucky' Lozano (Matchday 11). www.mlssoccer.com/news/san-die...
— MLS Communications (@mls-pr.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
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Even San Diego's role players like Iloski are hitting the heights of winning Player of the Matchday after scoring a poker: Their expansion season has been as smooth as they get. Sure, Vancouver was fielding an extremely depleted lineup with key players away with the United States and Canada during the Concacaf Gold Cup. Yet Iloski still wrecked the night of regular Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, an MLS All-Star and in the early conversation for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, and who hasn't previously looked as uncomfortable and ineffective as he did trying to cope with Iloski and Anders Dreyer. San Diego sporting director Tyler Heaps seems to have found the right group of attacking players to do damage from Day One, and Iloski's four goals might be the most stunning of San Diego's early successes in MLS.
MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: John Pulskamp (SKC) - Lukas Engel (CIN), Michael Boxall (MIN), Andrés Herrera (CLB) - Bongi Hlongwane (MIN), Evander (CIN), Eduard Atuesta (ORL), Anders Dreyer (SD) - Ramiro Enrique (ORL), Sam Surridge (NSH), Milan Iloski (SD)
Coach: Mikey Varas (SD)
Bench: Sean Johnson (TOR), Anthony Markanich (MIN), Manu García (SKC), Djordje Mihailovic (COL), Cristian Espinoza (SJ), Marco Pašalić (ORL), Jacen Russell-Rowe (CLB), Bruno Damiani (PHI), Chicho Arango (SJ)
San Diego and Orlando lead the way with three names each in this Team of the Matchday, while Minnesota, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Kansas City each had two players in the lineup. The league is still operating with rosters shortened by ongoing international duties, and teams were also still involved to varying degrees with the Club World Cup, but this Matchday had almost too many top performers to keep track of and to give their proper credit. All that for a Wednesday night, and days before we do it all over again on Matchday 21.
