NEW YORK (Monday, October 10, 2022) – FC Cincinnati forward Brenner was voted the Major League Soccer Player of the Week presented by Continental Tire for the 34th week of the 2022 MLS season.
Brenner scored a hat trick and added one assist as part of the club’s 5-2 victory over D.C. United on Sunday, October 9, which clinched a berth in the Audi 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs (Watch Highlights from His Performance Here). Brenner became the sixth different player in MLS history to score at least three hat tricks in a single season and the first since Josef Martínez in 2018. It marked his second game this season with at least three goals and one assist, becoming the first player to do so twice in a single season since Landon Donovan for the LA Galaxy in 2007. The Brazilian forward has nine goals in his last five matches, which tied for the most in a five-game span in a single season in MLS history.
After Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead six minutes into the match, Brenner doubled it in the 8th minute when Luciano Acosta slipped in the forward, who delicately chipped it past the goalkeeper and with enough power that the D.C. defender could not clear the ball in time before it crossed the line (Watch Here). Brenner made it 3-0 in the 24th minute as Brandon Vázquez found him on the counterattack and he easily slotted it past the goalkeeper for his second of the match (Watch Here). After D.C. pulled a goal back, Brenner completed his first-half hat trick in the 37th minute by playing a nifty give-and-go with Vázquez, which he completed by firing into the corner of the net with an impressive off-balanced finish (Watch Here). With the score 4-2 in the 53rd minute, the Brazilian added an assist when he picked up a loose ball in the box and found Vázquez for an easy finish into the open net to complete the five-goal victory (Watch Here).
Brenner finished the season with 18 goals, which was tied for the fourth most in MLS alongside his teammate Vázquez and two others. Cincinnati became the first club in MLS history to have two players score at least 18 goals in the same season and their 36 combined was tied for the most by a teammate duo in 2022 (Philadelphia Union’s Julián Carranza and Dániel Gazdag). Since the start of September, Brenner’s nine goals were the most in MLS and two more than the next closest player. With the win against D.C. United, Cincinnati clinched a postseason berth for the first time in club history.
Brenner joins Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar as the only players to win MLS Player of the Week presented by Continental Tire three different times in 2022. Brenner remains the only player in club history to win the award.
Cincinnati travel to face the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena in Round One of the Audi 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs on Saturday, October 15 (12 p.m. ET, UniMás / TUDN / TSN / TVA Sports / local English-language broadcast / MLSsoccer.com / MLS App).
The MLS Player of the Week presented by Continental Tire is selected each week 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.
