For the second time in three matchdays, Philadelphia Union forward Julián Carranza has earned Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire honors.
The Argentine’s latest nod follows his Matchday 17 brace in a 3-0 win against CF Montréal at Subaru Park, giving him six goals in his last six games. Carranza, the Matchday 15 winner as well, has four Player of the Matchday awards since the start of the 2022 season (Matchdays 19 and 26 of 2022), which is tied for the most in MLS over the span with Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar.
Against Montréal, Carranza scored a spectacular curling effort in the 12th minute before wrapping up all three points in the 61st minute with a deflected effort.
Since the start of the 2022 season, Carranza has scored 23 goals and provided 12 assists. His 35 goal contributions are the fifth most in the league during that span, behind only Mukhtar (51), his teammate Dániel Gazdag (47), FC Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta (39), and Columbus Crew’s Lucas Zelarayán (36). In the past two seasons, Carranza has produced five games with multiple goals, which is tied for the third most in MLS.
Carranza currently sits in a tie for third in the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race with nine goals, behind only LAFC’s Dénis Bouanga (10) and Mukhtar (10). After his brace, Carranza (23) passed Alejandro Bedoya (22) and Ilsinho (22) for the seventh-most goals in club history, despite only playing in 46 games for the team.
With Carranza enjoying a starring role, Philadelphia have been dominant at home. Since the start of last season, Philadelphia have gone 18W-1L-7D at Subaru Park in the regular season with a plus-52 goal differential and a league-high 66 goals scored.
Philadelphia return to action Saturday when visiting the San Jose Earthquakes for a Matchday 18 contest (10:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
The MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while a Twitter fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
