{"id":872523,"date":"2025-09-12T23:11:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/mvp-power-rankings-anders-dreyer-lionel-messi-battle-for-top-spot-mlssoccer-com\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:11:57","slug":"mvp-power-rankings-anders-dreyer-lionel-messi-battle-for-top-spot-mlssoccer-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/mvp-power-rankings-anders-dreyer-lionel-messi-battle-for-top-spot-mlssoccer-com\/","title":{"rendered":"MVP Power Rankings: Anders Dreyer, Lionel Messi battle for top spot | MLSSoccer.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>The final month of the Landon Donovan MLS MVP race is here, and we&#8217;ve got a showdown between two No. 10s.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Seemingly every matchday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/anders-dreyer\/\">Anders Dreyer<\/a> provides game-changing moments for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/san-diego-fc\/\">San Diego FC<\/a>. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/inter-miami-cf\/\">Inter Miami CF<\/a> have a nine-game sprint to close out the regular season, giving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/lionel-messi\/\">Lionel Messi<\/a> plenty of chances to repeat.<\/p>\n<p>As the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs come into view, an incredible stretch run awaits.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Quick quiz: Who is the last player to win MVP and Golden Boot presented by Audi in the same season? Hint: he also plays for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/nashville-sc\/\">Nashville SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/hany-mukhtar\/\">Hany Mukhtar<\/a>, of course. He did the double in 2022 with a 23-goal, 11-assist campaign.<\/p>\n<p>If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/sam-surridge\/\">Surridge<\/a> joins his Nashville teammate on that esteemed list, he&#8217;ll need to hold onto his Golden Boot lead. He&#8217;s currently on 20 goals, one ahead of Messi, and has five games left to make his case.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n                                <iframe data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BbyOi9LVLQU?feature=oembed\" allowfullscreen title=\"Sam Surridge WILD Four Goal Barrage vs. Chicago!\"><\/iframe>\n                            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>On his day, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/martin-ojeda\/\">Ojeda<\/a> is borderline unstoppable.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine No. 10 can hurt a defense in many ways, whether it&#8217;s putting chances on a platter or providing a clean strike himself. So far, he&#8217;s got 28 goal contributions (14 goals, 14 assists) to show for it.<\/p>\n<p>For Ojeda to enter &#8220;MVP favorite&#8221; territory, he and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/orlando-city-sc\/\">Orlando City<\/a> will need to end the season in fantastic form.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/evander\/\">Evander<\/a> has entered a down period, scoring just once in his last four games. That coincides with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/fc-cincinnati\/\">Cincy<\/a> losing three straight at home, reinforcing their dependence on the Brazilian No. 10.<\/p>\n<p>But if Evander finds his form and goes on a heater during Cincy&#8217;s final five games\u2026 it turns into a three-horse race between him, Messi and Dreyer.<\/p>\n<p>During this final month, I&#8217;m also intrigued to see how Evander, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/kevin-denkey\/\">K\u00e9vin Denkey<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/brenner\/\">Brenner<\/a> gel together. That trio has the potential to wreak havoc.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Come on, is anyone <em>really<\/em> ruling out Messi repeating as MVP?<\/p>\n<p>Inter Miami have nine games in hand, and Messi will be highly motivated after they missed out on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/leagues-cup\/2024\/\">Leagues Cup<\/a> title. He might even be the favorite to top ballots with a few more trademark performances.<\/p>\n<p>Messi is only one goal behind Surridge (19) in the Golden Boot race, and has 10 assists as well. He&#8217;s well on pace to surpass last year&#8217;s goal contributions total (36) when he won MVP.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Dreyer has been the most consistent player throughout the entire season. What he&#8217;s doing for an expansion team is simply phenomenal.<\/p>\n<p>With a league-high 32 goal contributions (14 goals, 18 assists), he has San Diego on the verge of becoming the best expansion team in league history.<\/p>\n<p>Versatility, efficiency, clutch moments \u2013 Dreyer delivers time and time again for San Diego. What a signing to lay the foundation for this club.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/mvp-power-rankings-anders-dreyer-lionel-messi-battle-for-top-spot\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>Erasmo Buresh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer The final month of the Landon Donovan MLS MVP race is here, and we&#8217;ve got a showdown between two No. 10s. Seemingly every matchday, Anders Dreyer provides game-changing moments for San Diego FC. But Inter Miami CF have a nine-game sprint to close out the regular season, giving Lionel Messi plenty of chances to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":872524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[414,24024,2005],"tags":[6008,13437],"class_list":{"0":"post-872523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-power","8":"category-rankings","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-power","11":"tag-rankings"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}