As impressive as Chris Wondolowski's goal totals have been in recent years, it is his penchant for delivering clutch goals that makes his exploits all the more impressive.
Wondolowski provided crucial goals in both of San Jose's matches last week, coming off the bench to score both goals in the Earthquakes 2-2 draw vs. Portland before delivering a game-winning finish against Seattle on Saturday. Those performances made Wondolowski this week's choice for SBI MLS Player of the Week honors.
Wondolowski beat out worthy candidates like Chris Rolfe, Juninho and Lionard Pajoy for this week's honor.
What did you think of Wondolowski's performances last week? Who was your pick for MLS Player of the Week?
Share your thoughts below.
Straight Beast…Cap this mf
Wondo might be the smartest striker to ever play in the MLS outside of Henry. His record over the last three seasons is clear. Even when San Jose as a team fell well short of the playoffs in 2011, Wondo still tied with DeRo for MLS top scorer, and did so while taking less penalties (which should be the first order tie-breaker for the golden boot if you ask me).
As for Wondo on the Nats, I think Wondo does deserve more call-ups. However, it is important to think about how a player like Wondo fits into the system. When they play a 4-4-2, he should be competing for a starting spot in the second striker role (especially if Dempsey is out wide). However, in a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 he doesn’t fit the role of the center-forward. In many of his brief appearances for the USMNT he was used spuriously as a CF and of course this is why so many of his critics feel convinced that he isn’t “international quality”. Wondo is the kind of goal-poacher that the US needs, but only in the right formation, otherwise they might as well leave him in SJ.
The Three Chris’s (Wondolowski, Rolfe and Pontius) deserve call-ups and some serious playing time from Klinsmann to show what they can (or cannot) do for the USMNT. No one is going to convince me that Juan Agudelo or even one of my faves, Terrence Boyd, is higher on the forward depth chart at the current time than Wondo or Rolfe, who we might need next year to make it through the Hex (assuming we make it to the Hex). We need more attacking power in the line-up than Klinsmann has been giving us.
I really don’t like the quakes as a Galaxy fan and well in some ways I don’t like that Wondo keeps making a case for himself as a goalscorer since people still think he can do something in the national team, but I have to say I think SJ will end up with the Supporter’s Shield unless they have some massive fall of EPIC proportions the last 5 weeks and for sure Wondo is MVP no Ives?
as a neutral observer of West Coast teams, it’s hard to not root for the year San Jose is having…
It’s Wondo’s world…