Columbus Crew forward Cucho Hernández’s goalscoring tear has earned him MLS Player of the Month presented by CELSIUS honors for September 2023.
In September, the Colombian international led MLS with eight goals and an assist across five matches. He scored two hat tricks against CF Montréal (Sept. 2) and Chicago Fire FC (Sept. 20), becoming the first player since Josef Martínez in September 2017 to record multiple hat tricks in a single month. The 24-year-old contributed to nine of the Crew’s 12 goals over that span.
In his first full MLS season, the club-record signing has built a 2023 Landon Donovan MLS MVP case and sits just one goal off the Golden Boot presented by Audi lead with 14 goals and 11 assists across 24 games. A key piece of the Crew’s attack alongside Diego Rossi and Christian Ramirez, Cucho’s 25 goal contributions are tied for the third-most in MLS and have helped guide Columbus (62 goals) to just the second season with at least 60 goals in club history.
Columbus (14W-9L-8D, 50 points), in their first year under head coach Wilfried Nancy, have secured an Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs berth for the first time since taking home MLS Cup presented by Audi in 2020. They’ll look to take steps towards clinching a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference with two road matches against fellow playoff clubs this week; they visit the New England Revolution on Wednesday (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass) before heading to Atlanta United on Saturday (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
