Inter Miami CF forward Luis Suárez was voted the MLS Player of the Matchday for Matchday 5, marking his second POTM award.
Suárez came off the bench as a second-half substitute in the 62nd minute for Inter Miami and scored a brace to lead the team to a valuable victory at D.C. United on Saturday, March 16. The striker scored the team’s second goal of the night in the 72nd minute off an assist from Leonardo Campana, followed by his second in the 85th minute with an assist from Diego Gómez to seal the 1-3 win.
The marksman now has four goals in five MLS matches in 2024, sharing the top spot on the MLS scoring chart with LA Galaxy’s Dejan Joveljic and Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis, while also registering three assists in the process. Notably, the Uruguayan became the first player in Club history to score four-or-more goals in the first five games of a season. In two of his first five MLS games, Suárez netted multiple goals, making him just the 12th player in league history to score multiple goals in two of his first five career MLS games and the first since Willy Agada of Sporting Kansas City in 2022. The striker has six goals and five assists in seven games across all competitions in 2024, helping Miami to an MLS regular-season 3-1-1 start and a trip to the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals.
This is the second time Suárez has been named MLS Player of the Matchday this season, after winning the award for his performance on Matchday 3. With the honor, Suárez becomes the sixth player in league history to win two of the first four Player of the Matchday awards to start a season, alongside Thiago Almada (2023), Javier 'Chicharito' Hernández (2021), Thierry Henry (2012), Carlos Ruiz (2002), and Cobi Jones (1998). Suárez also joins Leonardo Campana (three) and Gonzalo Higuaín (two) as the only players in Club history to win the award multiple times.
Inter Miami will now remain on the road for its next matchup, with the team set to visit the New York Red Bulls next Saturday, March 23 at Red Bull Arena at 2 p.m. ET.
The MLS Player of the Matchday 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 an X (formerly known as Twitter) fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
