Welcome to the Major League Soccer Matchday 3 edition of How We Voted, a breakdown of my latest Player of the Matchday ballot submitted on the heels of another weekend of pure, uncut soccering.
In case this is your first time, here's what you're getting yourself into. At the conclusion of every round of MLS games, soccer writers like me and the rest of the members of the North American Soccer Reporters get to submit votes for Player of the Matchday. I write this post to explain why I cast my vote for the two players you'll read about below, then you get to see who ended up winning the final Player of the Matchday vote, and who earned spots in the MLS Team of the Matchday.
Without further ado, time to read about the best goalkeeper in MLS who also helped his team concede zero goals through three games, plus a sauce merchant from the Pacific Northwest who helped Seattle become the first team to break down LAFC's defense.
The HRB Ballot, Matchday 3
1. Roman Bürki, St. Louis City SC
Roman Bürki, the 2023 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, looked like he was still at his Borussia Dortmund peak while making eight saves and recording his third straight clean sheet of 2025 in St. Louis City SC's 0-3 away win over LA Galaxy on Sunday Night Soccer.
Bürki was in excellent form at Dignity Health Sports Park and is well-deserving of being the rare goalkeeper to win the MLS Player of the Matchday vote. Bürki made his best two saves when this match was still 0-0 in the first half, perhaps because he's grown so accustomed to playing while the score is 0-0 this season. Before facing the Galaxy, St. Louis opened their 2025 season with back-to-back scoreless draws, at home against Colorado Rapids and away to expansion side San Diego FC.
The 34-year-old Swiss goalkeeper dove into the action in the 24th minute in LA, with Bürki getting fingertips on a threatening curled shot from his former Dortmund teammate, Marco Reus, redirecting that shot just enough to send it off the far post. The rebound off that post fell to the Galaxy, but Harbor Miller put his shot well over to let St. Louis and Bürki off the hook.
The St. Louis goalkeeper followed that up with an incredible reaction save in the 34th minute to stick his arm out to deny a close-range shot from Christian Ramirez. Those Reus and Ramirez shots were Bürki's highest degree of difficulty saves out of his eight made, and came during the Galaxy's most dangerous period of possession and game-flow dominance in the middle stages of that first half. Bürki's vital work to keep it goalless through this part of the game made it all the more crushing (for LA) that his teammates grabbed goals directly before and after halftime.
In total on the day, Bürki was credited with 1.97 goals prevented, per FotMob's stat-keeping. His St. Louis team only had 30% possession in this game and faced the most pressure and the highest volume of good goalscoring chances they've seen across their three 2025 matches, but nothing was getting past Bürki in this game. The fact that three of his eight saves were made on shots from his ex-teammate Marco Reus also makes this vote for Bürki more fun – he gets the bragging rights of winning, saving all his buddy's shots on goal, and being named MLS Player of the Matchday by Hudson River Blue.
2. Paul Rothrock, Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle Sounders became the first team to crack the code of scoring a goal against LAFC in MLS play this season, and Seattle's 5-2 romp at Lumen Field flipped in favor of the hosts thanks to two great moments from 26-year-old wide midfielder Paul Rothrock. Seattle took a lead they'd never relinquish thanks to a stunning 57th-minute strike from Rothrock following a short corner routine, which feels like it deserves extra props for being a short corner that actually worked out for the team attempting it.
PAULIE PRIMETIME FROM DEEEEEEEEEP.
— Sounders FC (@soundersfc.com) March 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
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Rothrock followed his go-ahead goal up by creating a scoring opportunity for Jordan Morris off the dribble in the 77th minute. Rothrock sucked in two LAFC defenders while charging toward goal, then deftly slipped a pass through to Morris, who was unmarked and left with a free shot – which he placed under the legs of LAFC reserve goalkeeper Thomas Hasal, a goal that made Morris the all-time leading scorer for Seattle.
A goal to give Seattle the lead, and a nifty assist to extend that lead, plus Rothrock filled the stat sheet in other ways. Rothrock had four shot-creating actions and played two key passes, plus did a lot of work progressing the ball. He had five progressive carries and led the Sounders in total carrying distance, with all these stats I just mentioned coming via FBRef.com. Albert Rusnák had a case for Seattle's best player in this game despite only entering as a substitute in the 36th minute, chipping in one goal and two assists (including assisting Rothrock's match-winner) while pulling the strings with lots of key passes, progressive passes, and chances created. Rusnák was very good but, in this writer's view, Rothrock was more instrumental in the Sounders winning this game.
Official Player of the Matchday: Roman Bürki
Voting for Bürki worked for me and it worked for the majority of folks voting this week. To me, a goalkeeper has to go above and beyond to earn a vote for Player of the Matchday. Too often there are deserving goalscorers or creative players who have done plenty of major outfield player things that deserve recognition, but for this Matchday, no player made as much of a difference as Bürki. His team was goalless heading into LA and likely needed him to stand on his head to help them exorcise their "we can't score any goals" demons. The Swiss international did just that and he's still yet to concede this season, so it seems hard to complain too much about him nabbing this award.
Official MLS Team of the Matchday
Starters: Roman Bürki (STL) - Mathías Laborda (VAN), Michael Boxall (MIN), Andy Najar (NSH) - Albert Rusnák (SEA), Yannick Bright (MIA), Jovan Lukic (PHI), Cedric Teuchert (STL) - Yuya Kubo (CIN), Hugo Cuypers (CHI), Anders Dreyer (SD)
Coach: Brian Schmetzer (SEA)
Bench: Carlos Coronel (RBNY), Noah Allen (MIA), Kai Wagner (PHI), Edvard Tagseth (NSH), Jonathan Shore (NYC), Kalani Kossa-Rienzi (SEA), Paul Rothrock (SEA), Tadeo Allende (MIA), Rafael Navarro (COL)
Hey, that's 17-year-old Jonathan Shore of New York City FC on the bench for this latest Team of the Matchday. Shore is the first NYCFC player to earn a spot in Team of the Matchday this season, a nice recognition of the defensive masterclass he produced in his first career MLS start, a 2-1 win over Orlando City. The voters did not agree with me about Paul Rothrock's game for the Sounders being better than Albert Rusnák's, but it's not too surprising as two assists are better than one. The Sounders really got rewarded for their big win over LAFC, with three players plus coach Brian Schmetzer included in Team of the Matchday.
