For the second time in the last two months, Justin Morrow is the Alcatel MLS Player of the Week.
The Toronto FC defender won the award Tuesday, in a vote by the North American Soccer Reporters for Week 30, after delivering his first career hat trick to help TFC clinch the 2017 Supporters’ Shield with a 4-2 victory over the New York Red Bulls.
Morrow, who also nabbed the honor on Aug. 15 thanks to a brace vs. Portland, has scored a career-high eight goals this season while helping TFC earn 12 shutouts from his spot along the backline.
Against the Red Bulls, Morrow opened the scoring in the 32nd minute when he picked up a loose ball inside the box and smashed it into the back net. Just five minutes later, he pounced on another loose ball to put Toronto up 2-0. Later, in second-half stoppage time, he completed the hat trick and sealed the Shield-clinching victory by sliding onto a pass across the face of goal from Jozy Altidore.
Since the start of August, a Toronto FC player has been named Player of the Week five times in 10 weeks with Morrow and Sebastian Giovinco winning it twice and Altidore once.
Having already clinched the league’s best record and homefield advantage throughout the Audi 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs, the star-studded Reds return to action on Oct. 15 to host the rival Montreal Impact at BMO Field (5 pm ET; TSN, TVA Sports in Canada | MLS LIVE in US).
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
