Major League Soccer expert James Nalton picks out five of the best players from the latest round of action and explains his two votes for the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) MLS Player of the Matchday.
By James Nalton
The Top Two
9.8 FotMob rating: Djordje Mihailović, Colorado Rapids
This is the kind of performance Colorado Rapids would have been expecting from the man they signed from AZ Alkmaar as a Designated Player ahead of this season.
Mihailović has MLS pedigree from previous stints with Chicago Fire and Montreal Impact, and his DP status reflects his quality and perhaps some surprise he didn’t succeed in Europe.
The Rapids needed to inject some ingenuity into their franchise and this is what the 25-year-old brings.
His hat trick in a 3-0 win against last season’s Western Conference leaders St. Louis City was a statement, as Colorado won back-to-back games for the first time since April.
It was also a perfect hat trick, consisting of goals scored via a header, a left-footer and a right-footer. He also created six chances for good measure.
9.5 FotMob rating: Luciano Acosta, FC Cincinnati
While Lionel Messi is away, another Argentine No. 10 has come out to play.
As was the case when he made three second-half assists last weekend against San Jose Earthquakes, Acosta showed why he is the reigning MLS MVP in this 4-3 win against Philadelphia Union.
His assist for the first goal for Kevin Kelsy was classic Acosta, picking up the ball in what didn’t look like a dangerous area, but then producing a perfect long pass to the forward who headed in at the far post.
Acosta comes alive in key moments, and did so again for his second goal, having already scored a penalty, to win the game in the 10th minute of added time.
He now has the most game-winning goals in MLS with six.
If Messi was doing this, it would be hailed as magical play, so we should give the same plaudits to Acosta.
Inter Miami are still picking up the wins without Messi, recording an impressive 2-1 win against Columbus, but with Acosta on the field, Cincinnati remain contenders, and their own Argentine may challenge Messi for MVP honours.
Three more standout performers
9.6 FotMob rating: Petar Musa, FC Dallas
FC Dallas look revived under interim head coach Peter Luccin following the sacking of Nico Estevez earlier this month.
This 5-3 victory against a Minnesota United side that have impressed for much of the season was another sign that the Texas team are starting to enjoy their football again.
This was the first multi-goal game for Croatian forward Musa since he arrived at the club for a club-record fee of over $10m.
The 26-year-old displayed some instinctive finishing to complete his hat-trick, giving him three goals from three shots, two of which were first-time finishes.
“This is what we want from Petar, to be closer to the box, and to have that energy, to be happy,” said Luccin.
“It’s just for him to read the moments and to understand what we are looking for from him. He has been fantastic today.”
Despite a poor start to the season, FC Dallas may now even have one eye on making the playoffs, especially if Musa can continue scoring as expected.
9.1 FotMob rating: Andrés Gómez, Real Salt Lake
Much of the focus at Real Salt Lake this season has fallen, understandably, on forward Cristian Arango who leads the league’s goalscoring charts with 16 goals.
But supporting him in this side has been the 21-year-old Colombian winger Gómez, who is himself enjoying a standout season.
The pair have played a big role in RSL’s rise to the top of the Western Conference this season, and they are now just four points behind Supporters’ Shield leaders Inter Miami in the overall table, with a game in hand.
With Arango starting on the bench against Sporting Kansas City this week, it was left to Gómez, who opened the scoring early on from one of a couple of great assists from Diego Luna.
For his second he sprinted behind the Sporting KC defence and finished as Arango himself might.
Arango came off the bench late on to register an assist for the fourth goal in this 4-3 win, but this game showed RSL’s strength as a team, and in Luna and Gómez they have players who can step up and be the stars of the show when required.
9.2 FotMob rating: Sam Surridge, Nashville SC
Two great finishes from the English striker saw Nashville come back to win from a goal down in Toronto.
The first, set up by Hany Mukhtar, was a coolly taken first-time shot curled low into the far corner of the goal past Luka Gavran who had no chance of saving it.
The second was flicked in following a great near-post run, untracked by the Toronto defence, from Tyler Boyd’s cross.
It was quality centre-forward play from Surridge on both occasions and gave his team a much-needed, perhaps unexpected, 2-1 win on the road in Canada.
(Cover Image from IMAGO)
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