He only played 18 minutes in the match, but after recording a late brace to lead the San Jose Earthquakes to a big 2-1 road victory over Real Salt Lake on Friday, it's another MLS Player of the Week award for the ageless Chris Wondolowski.
The league's all-time leading goal-scorer but put on a vintage performance in the victorious effort, striking for goals in the 83rd and 87th minutes of Friday's contest with his team down 1-0 due to a first-half golazo from RSL's Rubio Rubin.
Wondolowski struck for the first of two clutch finishes in the 83rd minute, cashing home a point-blank rebound following a save by RSL goalkeeper David Ochoa for the equalizer, just 11 minutes after entering as a substitute.
The 38-year-old then found his second just four minutes later, thundering home the game-winning header after getting on the end of a pinpoint cross from Carlos Fierro.
It was the 25th multiple-goal game of Wondolowski’s league career, the second-most in MLS history. He now has 170 goals combined in regular-season play and the MLS Cup Playoffs, tying Landon Donovan for the most combined in league history.
Wondolowski's heroics helped continue a strong start to the season for the Quakes, who are currently second on the Western Conference table with a record of 3W-0D-1L and nine points from four matches. They'll have a chance to leapfrog the Conference-leading Seattle Sounders (3W-1D-0L, 10 points) when they take the field for their midweek clash at PayPal Stadium on Wednesday (10:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+).
The MLS Player of the Week 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.
