It was Rivalry Week in Major League Soccer and the grudge matches across the league created some tough decisions to be made for this latest installment of How We Voted, where I take you through my ballot with the North American Soccer Reporters for MLS Player of the Matchday.
There were multiple two-goal scorers and some highly influential attacking performances around the league, leaving me with a six-player list that needed to be whittled down to just two names for my final vote, which is always for one Player of the Matchday and one runner-up – an heir and a spare, if you will.
In the end, I was torn between a pair of Eastern Conference players each with two goals and one assist as part of big away wins for their underperforming teams, but chose the one who, to me, produced more influential moments throughout his entire performance.
Read on as I explain my Player of the Matchday vote, and as I share the ultimate winner of Player of the Matchday, as well as the list of all those players who landed on the Team of the Matchday.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 14
1. Federico Bernardeschi, Toronto FC
Toronto ran wild during the latest Canadian Classique against CF Montréal, inflicting most of their damage in the 1-6 away win after Montréal was reduced to 10 players following a straight red card shown to Joel Waterman for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity.
Does the man advantage lessen the accomplishments of Toronto's No 10 Designated Player Bernardeschi? No, because he was unstoppable and displayed all his skill as a finisher and playmaker while leading Toronto to the big win. Two well-taken goals including one that could have been nominated for Goal of the Matchday (but wasn't).
From distance 💫🤩 pic.twitter.com/TmIPMcfcnR
— Toronto FC (@TorontoFC) May 17, 2025
He's scoring there to make it 4-0, but the degree of difficulty of that shot and the skill and quality he displays with the finish transcend the state of the game. Bernardeschi attempted seven shots and put four on target but only had 0.6 expected goals in this game, per FBref.com. That he scored two goals is a testament to how good the finish above was, though Bernardeschi's first goal might have been more valuable to his team. It came shortly after the Montréal red card and gave Toronto their first bit of separation at Stade Saputo.
Bernardeschi wouldn't earn his assist until the sixth Toronto goal at 90'+1' by Theo Corbeanu, who also had a brace in this rout. Montréal might have given up at some point in there while playing with 10 and down bad, but Bernardeschi didn't let up at any point and filled the attacking stat sheet. On top of the many shot attempts, Bernardeschi played four key passes, completed five passes into the penalty area, and overall completed 87% of his 61 attempted passes.
His 11 shot-creating actions were the most of any player in the game, as were his three goal-creating actions (tied with teammate Maxime Dominguez). Bernardeschi was the player pushing everything toward goal for Toronto and his performance was too good to pass over when deciding my Player of the Matchday. He also deserves props for owning one of Toronto's main rivals: Berna now has eight goals scored vs Montréal, just behind Jozy Altidore's club record for most goals scored against one opponent – Altidore scored nine goals against Montréal, so Bernardeschi needs two more to hold that record alone.
2. Brian Gutiérrez, Chicago Fire FC
Chicago's 21-year-old attacking midfielder put up strikingly similar numbers to Bernardeschi in the Fire's big 1-4 road upset of Charlotte FC. Gutiérrez scored twice and had one assist while pulling the attacking strings throughout the game for his teammates, and not much separated him from the Toronto two-goal, one-assist talisman who got the top spot on my ballot.
Gutiérrez got credit for an assist on Chicago's opening goal but that was mainly the work of goalscorer Jonathan Bamba, who unleashed an unstoppable shot past reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Kristijan Kahlina of Charlotte. Guti's first goal was the one to extend that lead to 2-0 some 15 minutes into the second half, a perfect snipe from the top of the 18-yard box that beat Kahlina at his far post.
GUTI MANEEEE!! 🔥 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/Zcorlxrs20
— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2025
Gutiérrez slid behind Bernardeschi for me because his second goal came both from the penalty spot and in second-half stoppage time as a sort of cherry-on-top to make it a 4-1 Chicago lead right at the match's end. It's splitting hairs, though: Gutiérrez's numbers were nearly identical to Bernardeschi's in all the attacking categories I mentioned for the Toronto star in the above section. The Chicago midfielder played four key passes, completed 88.7% of his 53 attempted passes, and had seven shot-creating actions along with three goal-creating actions.
A tough call to place him only at No 2 on this ballot. Should I have given Guti the nod because Charlotte is a tougher team to beat at home than Montréal? Perhaps, but Charlotte now has lost five straight matches, while Montréal were facing their hated Canadian rivals in a true derby. It wasn't easy to split them and in another week, Gutiérrez would have likely gotten my vote.
Official Player of the Matchday: Marco Reus, LA Galaxy
Marcos Reus of the LA Galaxy was voted as this week's #MLS Player of the Matchday! However, Brian Gutiérrez of the @chicagofire.bsky.social won the most votes from our members.
— North American Soccer Reporters (@soccerreporters.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
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A truly split vote this Matchday with the LA Galaxy's remaining healthy, upright big-name player taking home the award after scoring a brace that earned his team a 2-2 draw with LAFC in the El Tráfico derby. It wasn't a win on the field, but the Galaxy – who are still winless through 14 league matches, with four draws and a whopping 10 losses – did get a win in Player of the Matchday voting. How the mighty have fallen since their big day winning MLS Cup back in December, though Reus is deserving of his praise, especially for this pinpoint free-kick goal he scored as part of the brace.
Gutiérrez got lots of votes from members of the soccer media but the fan vote swung things in Reus's favor, while my pick in Bernardeschi finished a not-so-distant third. It's hard to get too worked up about the results here because there were multiple other deserving players who didn't even crack the above "final four" of vote-getters shared by the North American Soccer Reporters. I'm thinking here of Joaquin Pereyra of Minnesota United FC and Alonso Martínez of New York City FC, who were in the running for my vote along with the eventual winner, Reus.
This week made it easy to miss the convenience of one guy scoring four goals and making it an almost automatic decision on who to vote for.
MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Pedro Gallese (ORL) - Andrew Gutman (CHI), Robert Voloder (SKC), Griffin Dorsey (HOU) - Brian Gutiérrez (CHI), Joaquín Pereyra (MIN), Djordje Mihailovic (COL), Marco Reus (LA) - Federico Bernardeschi (TOR), Alonso Martínez (NYC), Theo Corbeanu (TOR)
Coach: Oscar Pareja (ORL)
Bench: Roman Celentano (CIN), Thiago Martins (NYC), Joran Gerbet (ORL), Jack McGlynn (HOU), Albert Rusnák (SEA), Diego Rossi (CLB), Denis Bouanga (LAFC), Ola Brynhildsen (TOR), Tani Oluwaseyi (MIN)
Alonso Martínez in the Starting XI and Thiago Martins on the bench: The voters for Team of the Matchday were impressed by that New York City FC performance in the Hudson River Derby. Martínez had been on the bench for three previous Teams of the Matchday, but finally got a starting spot after the goal and assist against Red Bull on Matchday 14. He's the second NYCFC player to crack the Team of the Matchday Starting XI, joining Matt Freese, who made it for his Matchday 5 clean sheet on the road against Columbus Crew.
Toronto and Chicago each have two players in this Starting XI, including my two non-winner picks for Player of the Matchday in Bernardeschi and Gutiérrez. Lots of standout performers across the league during Rivalry Week, making it hard to pick the round's top player and hard to assemble a normal-sized Team of the Matchday.
