For the second-straight week and third time this season, an LA Galaxy player has been voted MLS Player of the Week.
One week after Giovani dos Santos received the Week 7 honors, first-year LA midfielder Emmanuel Boateng picked up the Week 8 award on Tuesday. Boateng starred in LA's 5-2 win over previously unbeaten Real Salt Lake on Saturday, scoring his first Galaxy goal and adding two assists in LA's big home win. His performance saw him voted Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR).
Boateng helped LA take a 2-1 lead in the 26th minute of the Western Conference face-off, sending in a cross from the left that Mike Magee volleyed home. The 22-year-old Ghanaian midfielder then opened his MLS account with what ended up being the game's decisive goal, stabbing a shot past Nick Rimando in the 41st minute.
That would have sufficed for LA, but Boateng was not done yet. He set up dos Santos' sensational chipped goal a minute before halftime to push the Galaxy lead to a comfortable 4-1 advantage.
He narrowly beat out Toronto FC star Sebastian Giovinco, who scored both goals in TFC's 2-0 win at Montreal, to pick up the award.
Boateng, who joins dos Santos (Week 7) and Magee (Week 1) as members of LA to be named MLS Player of the Week this season, will look to help his club extend its undefeated run to six games on Sunday when it visits Sporting Kansas City (5 pm ET; FS1 in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from the NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
