Young Players: Who were the Matchday 30 standouts?

Young players conjured up vital goals, assists, clean sheets, saves and other contributions across the MLS weekend, including in several results that could prove vital in the race for the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.

We’ll start in the Queen Cities. Yes, both of them.

Heading into the weekend, Charlotte FC had lost just twice at Bank of America this season, while Atlanta had only two 2024 road wins to their credit. So the Five Stripes’ 1-0 victory over their near-neighbors in Carolina was an unexpected boost for their hopes of hanging on to the Eastern Conference’s ninth and final postseason spot – and it wouldn’t have happened without their homegrown center mid, deputizing for the injured Tristan Muyumba.

That’s a fine solo run and finish for one’s first career MLS goal, no? The Trinidad and Tobago international also completed 34/37 passes, created two chances and offered four defensive actions and two recoveries. You’ve also got to love this: After the game, Fortune revealed that some wisdom from old head Dax McCarty helped inspire his game-changing play.

“I was talking with Dax and he said, ‘You have the ability to drive past players and those two midfielders. If you can catch them alongside them or in front of them, you’ll be able to drive by them,’” Fortune told reporters. “And I was able to do that. I had a couple of options in the first half [where] I didn’t shoot, so I said ‘go ahead, why not,’ and thankfully it went in.”

First and foremost, the Venezuelan target man opened the scoring in Cincy’s 4-1 throttling of CF Montréal, his first goal for the Fighting Garys since July 3 and a key step towards their snapping of an uncharacteristic four-game losing skid. He also completed 12/13 passes and won the majority of his individual duels.

But we’re equally, if not more impressed by Kelsy’s work off the ball in this one. We’ll start with his diligent pressing of CFM center back Joel Waterman on a seemingly hopeless long ball just after halftime, which very nearly led to a DOGSO red card and earned FCC the dangerous set piece by which Luca Orellano doubled the lead.

Later, Kelsy played a key role in Sergio Santos’ strike, discomfiting George Campbell with an aerial challenge that cleared space for Santos to advance alone on Jonathan Sirois.

It was one of the biggest dates on their 2024 calendar, but maybe the Chicago Fire never stood a chance.

Miami made light work of the Men in Red in front of a big Soldier Field crowd, as Gómez’s superb chemistry with Luis Suárez put Chicago in a 2-0 hole before halftime en route to a 4-1 win. It was a Gómez pass to El Pistolero that instigated Tobias Salquist’s own goal, and a similar connection that doubled the lead. Just for good measure, Gómez carved out a bit of extra space for his elder teammate by dummying the Jordi Alba cross that led to Suárez’s second.

Another week, another confident Herons W without Leo Messi, another impactful outing from the consistently excellent Gómez. And this time, it’s accompanied by a raft of media reports suggesting that the long-rumored transfer to Bright & Hove Albion is just about done and dusted, with the player himself appearing to confirm as much as he arrived in Paraguay for international duty.

If it all goes down as it’s being presented at the moment, it’s the best of both worlds for IMCF: The Summer Olympics standout will apparently finish out the MLS season – no doubt helping to power a playoffs push – before becoming a Seagull in January, for a fee somewhere at or beyond $14 million.

How ‘bout them ‘Pids?! The soccer hipsters up in Mile High Country are toasting their craft IPAs to “Yapi Hour” this week after the 19-year-old sniffed out a dramatic late winner to cap Colorado’s 3-2 comeback win at FC Dallas, extending the good vibes from their unexpected Leagues Cup run with his 19 minutes and a handful of touches on the Toyota Stadium pitch.

As the excellent Matt Pollard of Burgundy Wave noted in his postgame recap, it took the homegrown years to open his first-team account, a duck he finally broke in July, and he’s since added two more in the 12 matches since. Peep the praise head coach Chris Armas piled upon his young striker:

“That’s the word: Mature. He’s a young player. He believes he’s got big things ahead. He’s been training well. He’s been coming into games with really mature performances. Great goal. Such an important goal for our club,” Armas told Burgundy Wave.

Coming into the weekend, the New York Red Bulls were the last remaining team in MLS with an undefeated record at home. Philly ended that with a massive 2-0 win made possible by another night of slick passing from Queens native McGlynn, starting with an assist, his sixth of the season in league play, on Mikael Uhre’s early opener.

It wasn’t the pass so much as the run he made immediately after playing it; listen carefully to commentator Danny Higgenbotham’s analysis here:

It was one of a team-high four key passes played by the homegrown Olympian. This one was probably the pick of the litter:

“It sounds counterintuitive, but Jack McGlynn is the perfect player for a Red Bull game, because when everybody else is 1,000 miles an hour, he can kind of have that calm and say, ‘I got this,’ and when someone’s sprinting at him, maybe make a deceptive move to get out of pressure and then play a through ball,” said Union coach Jim Curtin postgame. “You need a brain, you need a guy that can make a pass that unlocks an aggressive team.”

Philly were woeful earlier in the year – they’re a shocking 3W-7L-4D at Subaru Park, where they previously went months, even years without losing – and they still face road trips to Miami, New York City FC, Orlando and Columbus before a Decision Day visit from Cincinnati. But they’re now just one point back of the East’s playoff line, and we, like many other observers, like their chances of finishing above it.

Diego Luna: Moon BoyMan was influential as Real Salt Lake snapped their four-game winless skid with a 2-0 home win over New England: 92% passing accuracy, three chances created, 2/2 dribbles completed, 4/4 ground duels won. We’re curious to see how his understanding develops with new signings Diogo Gonçalves, Lachlan Brook and Dominik Marczuk.

Deandre Kerr: For a while, it looked like the Toronto FC homegrown had rescued a point against D.C. United as he came off the bench to score a clutch equalizer at BMO Field, soaring high at the back post to nod home his second league goal of the season. (Alas for them, the Reds proved unable to keep hold of the ground he’d staked out for them.)

Gavin Beavers: While he’s still a name known mostly among hardcore US youth national teams watchers, wider audiences should get more familiar with RSL’s teenage homegrown goalkeeper. With this latest clean sheet, he’s treading into rare territory, even as Pablo Mastroeni continues to platoon him with veteran Zac MacMath.