August 19, 2021 – Major League Soccer (MLS) News Release
NEW YORK – Seattle Sounders FC forward Raúl Ruidíaz has been voted the Major League Soccer Player of the Week for Week 20 of the 2021 MLS season.
Ruidíaz came off the substitutes’ bench to score the only goal of the game in Sounders FC’s win against FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Just 25 seconds after Ruidíaz was brought into the game, he collected a pass in the penalty area from Nicolás Lodeiro. His first attempt toward goal was blocked, but Ruidíaz grabbed the rebound and curled a shot which clipped the underside of the crossbar before bouncing just over the goal line and into the net.
The goal was the 14th of the season for Ruidíaz, leading the standings for the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi, two goals ahead of Gustavo Bou of the New England Revolution and Daniel Sallói of Sporting Kansas City.
Ruidíaz was named MLS Player of the Week for the third time and the second consecutive week, after winning the honor for Week 19. He’s the second player to be named Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks this season, after Javier Hernández of the LA Galaxy was so honored in the opening two weeks of the season.
Ruidíaz and the Sounders will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they face the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field in Columbus in a rematch of 2020 MLS Cup (5:30 p.m. ET; FOX).
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.
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