With only a matter of days – hours, really – until the 2024 edition of the MLSsoccer.com 22 Under 22 rankings drop, rising talents across the league put in work across Matchdays 36 and 37.
Young players chipped in with game-winning goals, midfield mastery and other clutch contributions to key results over the past week of action, along with a hard-earned moment of redemption and recovery here and there.
We’ll start by the Bay, where a prodigal son, one we expect to feature prominently in the 22U22 list, made a triumphant and timely return to his home region to face the club where his professional journey began.
After dropping points against sides below them in the table for three games running, during which time the Seattle Sounders have surged past them in the Western Conference standings, RSL really, really needed to regain winning ways on their visit to the last-place San Jose Earthquakes. But it proved trickier than it seemed in a tight, scrappy match at PayPal Park.
Cue the latest Luna moment of magic.
With the second half ticking away, the tattooed playmaker from nearby Sunnyvale, California flashed tidy technique to conjure a gorgeously-struck finish – his seventh of the season in league play – from well outside the penalty box with his weaker left foot for the game-winner. He also completed 86% of his 48 passes including one chance created, and tabbed four recoveries and three defensive actions.
Luna rose through the Quakes’ academy as a teenager before departing in search of the different pathway he felt he needed. And he, along with a large contingent of loved ones in the stands, were clearly delighted he could produce such a poetic outcome on home soil.
“Probably one of the best feelings I've had in this game playing soccer,” he later said. The same surely can’t be said of the Quakes faithful, as they gazed upon one that got away.
We mentioned the Sounders earlier, and sure enough, the Rave Green just keep on trucking, taking nine of nine points available in eight days and running their unbeaten streak to six. They’re now assured of home-field advantage in Round One of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and can clinch the Cascadia Cup trophy with a Decision Day win over their rivals from Portland next week.
At this point, we probably don’t need to tell you the Alaskan was at the center of all that, as usual.
The teenage homegrown was understatedly influential, we might say, in the 3-0 midweek thrashing of Vancouver, with 44/48 passes completed (92%) and seven passes into the final third, 3/5 ground duels won, four defensive actions and three recoveries. He then earned widespread man-of-the-match reviews in a 1-0 win at Colorado: 45/51 passing with two key passes, 3/3 tackles and 8/13 ground duels won, a whopping 12 defensive actions and 12 recoveries and two fouls drawn.
Up next: His first call-up to the senior Mexican national team, where he’s the squad's youngest member by nearly two years. And maybe even an El Tri debut vs. the country of his birth.
With his team winless since August, in desperate need of points to sustain their playoff ambitions, the 21-year-old had ice in his veins when Alexey Miranchuk played him into acres of space as Atlanta defended a 1-0 lead in injury time at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
You’d never know it was his first goal of the season as he dribbled in and drilled a composed strike past Carlos Coronel to provide what proved the eventual margin of victory – a victory that gives ATL a chance to sneak into the playoffs with a win at Orlando and some help elsewhere. Wolff completed all 11 of his passes over the past week, too. But that goal may prove massive.
“You just got to stay calm, look at the goalie, make sure he’s set and then just go with your spot,” Wolff told reporters postgame.
“Up and down season individually, but you just try to keep yourself in it mentally. I kept telling myself, ‘let’s just finish this season strong and then when you get your opportunity, to take a chance.’ And yeah, happy to help the team get the three points in the end.”
LAFC, too, just may have regained their stride just in time for the postseason, reeling off three straight Ws since winning the U.S. Open Cup, to give themselves a chance, thanks to the game in hand they’ll play this coming weekend, to catch their crosstown rivals the LA Galaxy atop the West standings on Decision Day.
Saturday’s 3-0 thumping of Sporting Kansas City was technically underperformance, at least relative to their honking 4.1-0.6 superiority over SKC in expected goals, and it certainly felt that way by the end. Take note, however: showcase attacker Denis Bouanga actually failed, for the first time in his 10 penalty takes in MLS play, to convert the early spot-kick he earned, smashing it straight at Tim Melia.
That’s when Martínez emphatically calmed any potential nerves by firing the rebound right into the postage-stamp corner for his fourth MLS goal of 2024, and his second in his last three games. The ruthless finish sparked the rout and made the Venezuelan the first LAFC player 18 years old or younger to notch five or more goal contributions in a single season. Martínez also completed 17/21 passes, made three recoveries and drew one foul in 61 minutes on the pitch.
“I’ve become accustomed that whenever he is needed, he always responds.”
That’s how Gerardo “Tata” Martino distilled Allen’s utility, dedication and dependability earlier this year, and the Herons homegrown surely ranks as the unsung hero of both his team’s season and this week’s edition of YPPOTW.
Amid Miami’s chronic injury troubles, which have bitten most severely in the defensive corps, the 20-year-old keeps stepping up. He’s become a trusted regular at left center back in Martino’s 3-4-3 system, despite his youth and a smaller frame than most who play the role. This past week Allen logged full 90-minute outings in both of IMCF’s matches, key wins over the Crew and TFC that clinched the Supporters’ Shield and kept the Herons on course to break the MLS single-season points record on Decision Day.
Allen completed 89% of his 52 passes in Columbus and co-led Miami in tackles with four, while winning 4/4 ground duels and totaling eight defensive actions. Yes, he conceded a penalty kick, but was mostly unlucky when Crew wingback Mo Farsi kicked the ball into his hand as they jostled along the endline. In Canada, he was even more active, with a whopping 118 touches, 11 defensive actions, 11 recoveries and 3/4 tackles won while completing 95% of his 98 passes.
“I think Noah was the best player on the pitch,” said Martino after the defeat of Toronto, and that means something.
Serge Ngoma: The Red Bulls academy product seemed poised for a career-shaping breakthrough at the start of the season, only for a knee injury to sideline him for months. So the 19-year-old’s well-taken late goal at Atlanta was a sweet, hard-earned personal milestone, even if it ultimately wasn’t enough to salvage an away result for RBNY. It certainly provided a reminder of the rich potential the Gabonian-American possesses:
Dominik Marczuk: RSL’s new winger continues to be impactful on the flanks as he makes a rapid acclimation to MLS life. The Polish international played three key passes, drew several fouls and put in diligent defensive work across the Claret-and-Cobalt’s matches vs. Minnesota and San Jose this week, and may provide a vital element to the Salt Lake attack in the postseason.
Brian Gutiérrez: Amid the gloom of another difficult season winding down in Chicago, Guti got after it and then some in the 4-3 loss at Charlotte, completing 6/8 dribbles and five chances created – both game highs -- and winning 7/11 ground duels. The homegrown was probably his team’s top overall performer as he worked in a second striker role, and we’re more certain than ever that he must be a foundational piece in the Fire’s 2025 rebuild, whoever ends up overseeing it.
