Welcome to another edition of How We Voted, our weekly analysis of the two top performers from the most recently-completed Major League Soccer Matchday.
Each week, I cast a vote with North American Soccer Reporters for MLS Player of the Matchday, so in this space I review why I placed these two players on my ballot. We also give you the final winner of the Player of the Matchday vote and share the full Team of the Matchday.
We’re through eight rounds of MLS matches and my latest ballot again honors a player from the league’s most surprisingly successful team through the first few months of the 2025 season. My full ballot breakdown is below, prepare to read more about two goalscoring standouts from the Pacific Northwest.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 8
1. Brian White, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
It's a Vancouver Whitecaps FC world and we're just living in it. I've now voted for a member of this 'Caps squad to be MLS Player of the Matchday three times and we're only up to Matchday 8, but that's just how hot Vancouver has been at the start of the 2025 season.
Vancouver drew negative scrutiny for dismissing previous head coach Vanni Sartini and just got put up for sale by its ownership group, yet they’re in the midst of a deep Concacaf Champions Cup run and they just got a ridiculous four-goal performance from striker Brian White, who should handily win this latest Player of the Matchday vote.
White became the 18th player in MLS history to find the back of the net four times in one match, a feat regular readers of this website might remember from when ex-New York City FC striker Taty Castellanos did it at Yankee Stadium vs. Real Salt Lake during the 2022 season.
The Whitecaps have gotten big match-winning performances from multiple different players during their dominant start to this season, but no one produced individual brilliance on the level of White’s against Austin FC. It’s not even that any of his four goals were examples of individual brilliance from the striker, he was just constantly in the exact right spots to pick apart that Austin defense and had no problem beating Brad Stuver in goal.
The New Jersey native and former Red Bulls player (why did they trade him, I ask only hypothetically?) devoured that Austin backline, tormenting center-backs Brendan Hines-Ike and Julio Cascante all afternoon at BC Place. He scored four times and also drew a penalty kick, so it wasn’t just goals for White.
White was unplayable in this game and he’s blossomed into one of the top American strikers during his tenure in Vancouver, where he’s usually benefited from the dangerous service provided Scottish international Ryan Gauld. Yet Gauld is sidelined with injury and didn’t play in this game, making White’s goal binge that much more impressive.
He’s one of the best finishers in MLS and his poker was a work of brilliance: Watch the goals for yourself and I think you’ll agree. Also, an aside: The player rating algorithm of the popular FotMob site and app ranked White’s performance as a 9.9–what else did he have to do to earn a perfect 10?!
2. Kevin Kelsy, Portland Timbers FC
Scoring a brace on the road to beat a fellow Western Conference side was enough to get Kevin Kelsy a spot on my ballot this week.
He didn’t go a full 90 minutes, and his first goal was a fluke of the highest order, but the Venezuelan attacker’s goals during a 76-minute shift at Children’s Mercy Park ultimately sealed Portland’s victory.
The first Kelsey goal was really a blast by his teammate David Ayala that deflected fortuitously off Kelsey and into the back of the net. His second strike was a truer hit by the 20-year-old and actually went down as the match-winner, scored to give Portland a 3-2 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Portland boasts a plethora of quality attacking players even after shipping Evander off to FC Cincinnati, and in Kansas, it was the ex-Cincinnati attacker Kelsy getting Phil Neville’s team a much-needed away win.
Not the most impressive brace ever scored but goals win games, and Kelsey definitely accomplished that.
Official Player of the Matchday: Brian White
No surprises here as Brian White of the Vancouver Whitecaps was named MLS Player of the Matchday!
— North American Soccer Reporters (@soccerreporters.bsky.social) 2025-04-14T20:31:36.749Z
An overwhelming win for White and who can argue with it? Four goal games don’t come around often, no Whitecaps player had ever done it prior to White. My ballot was identical to the final North American Soccer Reporters tally, so that's me voting with the crowd for another Matchday.
MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Aljaž Ivačič (NE) - Daniel Lovitz (NSH), Steven Moreira (CLB), Sergi Palenica (LAFC) - Gerardo Valenzuela (CIN), David Ayala (POR), Carles Gil (NE), Diego Fagúndez (LA) - Brian White (VAN), Kevin Kelsy (POR), Rafael Navarro (COL)
Coach: Jesper Sørensen (VAN)
Bench: Oscar Ustari (MIA), Adilson Malanda (CLT), Miles Robinson (CIN), Edvard Tagseth (NSH), Obed Vargas (SEA), Djordje Mihailovic (COL), Emmanuel Sabbi (VAN), Alonso Martínez (NYC), Diego Rossi (CLB)
Alonso Martínez gets rewarded with a spot on the bench for again being the one man carrying that New York City FC attack, this time past Philadelphia. It’s Martínez’s second time on the Team of the Matchday’s bench following up on his match-winning goal vs. New England Revolution on Matchday 4. Three names from Vancouver made the squad this week, another feather in the cap of the Whitecaps as they enjoy a blistering start to their season.
