The Seattle Sounders stayed red hot and Minnesota United halted its brutal opening slide to come away from MLS Week Five with two wins each and worthy accolades for both.
Robin Lod was front and center in both of Minnesota United’s victories, having a hand in the winning goals against Vancouver and FC Dallas to earn SBI MLS Player of the Week. His pinpoint assist to Ramon Abila secured the win against the Whitecaps while it was Lod’s quick reaction to pounce on a loose ball in stoppage time that delivered the late winner against FC Dallas.
There was no debating the best team in MLS this week, with the Sounders posting shutout wins against San Jose and LAFC.
Here is a closer look at the Best of MLS in Week 5:
Player of the Week
There were better individual game performances, but no player had a more impactful set of matches in Week 5 than Robin Lod, who set up a Ramon Abila winner with a perfect cross to beat Vancouver, then scored a stoppage-time winner to beat FC Dallas.
Lod beat out some outstanding individual performances, with Gonzalo Higuain and Alan Pulido also meriting consideration.
Team of the Week
The Sounders halted San Jose’s three-game winning streak with a win at Avaya Stadium, then posted a comfortable victory against LAFC despite missing Nicolas Lodeiro and Stefan Frei.
Minnesota United, the New England Revolution and Philadelphia also had noteworthy weeks.
Young Player of the Week
Julian Araujo put in an outstanding game in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Austin FC, recording an assist and helping lock down the right side of the field. Araujo edged out Cole Bassett and David Ochoa for this week’s honors.
Goal of the Week
While Cristian Roldan’s midweek blast against San Jose was a worthy choice, this week’s top MLS goal was Sam Vines’ blast against Houston, which had an excellent set-up pass from Michael Barrios to go with Vines’ perfectly-struck finish.
Yarbrough ➡️ Barrios ➡️ Vines!@ColoradoRapids take the lead! #COLvHOU pic.twitter.com/cdvPdsM5cl
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 16, 2021
What did you think of this week’s Best of MLS Award selections? Who was selected that you were happy to see chosen? Who didn’t make the cut that you feel deserved the nod?
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