Two big strikers from the MLS Eastern Conference are the stars of this latest edition of How We Voted, the column that takes you inside my decision-making for each and every MLS Player of the Matchday vote I cast throughout the 2025 season.
Those who get the goals get the glory, and that rang true on Matchday 15, since both players to appear on my ballot submitted to the North American Soccer Reporters scored twice in important wins for their teams.
This is also one of the busiest stretches in this column's existence. This publishes on Wednesday, which also happens to be Matchday 16 when 26 of 30 MLS teams are back in midweek action. The frequency of these Matchdays tests my mental and analytical capacity, but we're pushing on with a plan. This edition of How We Voted covers just Matchday 15, then I'll return on Friday with a wrap-up of the midweek action, followed by a return to the usual Monday publishing day to put a bow on another busy three-match week.
MLS teams need to rotate their lineups to stay fresh, but here in the blogosphere, we keep logging the proverbial 90-minute shift to cover important stuff like MLS Player of the Matchday and MLS Team of the Matchday. Read on for an explanation of my votes and the ultimate winners of both Player and Team honors from Matchday 15.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 15
1. Patrick Agyemang, Charlotte FC
Big Pat is heating up just in time for his stint with the United States men's national team. Agyemang scored twice to help Charlotte FC snap a five-match losing streak in MLS games by beating Columbus Crew 3-2 at the always raucous Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina.
Agyemang scored once with his head off a corner kick, then again with his right foot when Wilfried Zaha led him with a perfect pass into the Columbus penalty area. Both goals came in the opening 25 minutes of the match, and both goals served to cancel out an opening goal from the Crew scored in the 15th minute.
Zaha ➡️ Agyemang
— Charlotte FC (@CharlotteFC) May 25, 2025
Exquisite execution for the Crown’s second of the night. pic.twitter.com/d3zOrPC7dN
Agyemang had been quiet for the early portion of the MLS season, but has sprung to life by scoring at least once in his last three consecutive appearances in all competitions. He's up to five MLS goals this season and three of those were in his last two games, so a good spell of form is in place for the 24-year-old striker out of the University of Rhode Island. Charlotte desperately needed this win after losing five straight league games, including back-to-back home losses.
Beating Columbus Crew is no easy task and the performance from Agyemang helped get Charlotte the needed three points. Agyemang could have picked up a hat trick in this one, as he attempted five shots and put four of them on target – all season-highs for the striker across his 16 appearances in all competitions this season. Breakout game for the big striker to get his team a win against one of the top teams in the MLS Eastern Conference.
2. Sam Surridge, Nashville SC
Surridge won my vote as Player of the Matchday once this season, when he scored four goals in a 7-2 win over Chicago Fire FC on Matchday 10. Surridge wasn't quite that prolific while playing on the road up in Canada against Toronto FC but his brace still made the difference in a 2-1 Nashville win at BMO Field.
The 26-year-old English striker scored both Nashville's goals in the second half to help the Tennessee team extend their MLS unbeaten streak to six matches (4W-2D-0L) as they climb up toward the top of the Eastern Conference table. Surridge coolly slotted home Nashville's opening goal with the outside of his foot after being picked out by Hany Mukhtar, then powered in a blast in the 89th minute to settle the proceedings fully in Nashville's favor.
He loses some hypothetical points for his negative involvement in the lead-up to the one Toronto consolation goal banged home by Jonathan Osorio, and just generally misses out in favor of Agyemang because of the relative strength of Agyemang's opposition (sorry, Toronto, but you're not Columbus Crew). Still, Surridge is enjoying a sensational season playing under BJ Callaghan, and he delivered again in yet another Nashville win, regardless of how good or bad Toronto might be.
Official Player of the Matchday: Patrick Agyemang
Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang was named the MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob Ultra for Matchday 15 after scoring twice in the club's 3-2 win over the weekend. www.mlssoccer.com/news/charlot...
— MLS Communications (@mls-pr.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM
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Agyemang got Charlotte a first MLS win since April 19 and in the process snapped an 11-match road unbeaten streak for Columbus. The striker becomes Charlotte's second player to win Player of the Matchday this season, following up on Pep Biel – who assisted on Agyemang's first goal vs Columbus – winning the honor for his one-goal, two-assist performance on Matchday 5 in late March. A great performance from Agyemang at just the right time for Charlotte is rewarded, and my vote aligns with the final winner again after it didn't on Matchday 14 when Marco Reus won but I voted for Fede Bernardeschi (and Brian Gutiérrez, before I know he had such an affinity for throwing elbows).
Official MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Carlos Coronel (RBNY) - Žan Kolmanič (ATX), Derrick Williams (ATL), Griffin Dorsey (HOU) - Chucky Lozano (SD), Pep Biel (CLT), Mark Delgado (LAFC), Lionel Messi (MIA) - Patrick Agyemang (CLT), Brian White (VAN), Sam Surridge (NSH)
Coach: Ronny Deila (ATL)
Bench: Brad Guzan (ATL), Michael Boxall (MIN), Eduard Atuesta (ORL), Albert Rusnák (SEA), Diego Luna (RSL), Wilfried Zaha (CLT), Hannes Wolf (NYC), Preston Judd (SJ), Tai Baribo (PHI)
Hannes Wolf of New York City FC makes the bench after getting a "secondary assist" on the equalizer and scoring the match-winning goal to beat Chicago Fire FC at Yankee Stadium. It's Wolf's first time making a Team of the Matchday in 2025 and he becomes the fifth different NYCFC player to earn a spot this season, joining Alonso Martínez, Matt Freese, Thiago Martins, and Jonathan Shore. Ronny Deila gets named coach of this Team of the Matchday for guiding a struggling Atlanta United FC to a contentious, controversial, much-needed 4-2 win over FC Cincinnati on Sunday Night Soccer, while Carlos Coronel of the Red Bulls gets back in Team of the Matchday as starting goalkeeper one week after struggling mightily in his team's Hudson River Derby loss at Citi Field. Things in this sport do tend to change quickly.
