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The San Jose Earthquakes needed a win on Wednesday to help shore up their playoff hopes in 2020, and up stepped one player in particular.
It was a team effort, to be sure, but Chris Wondolowski had a vintage performance, scoring a brace in a 2-0 home win over Real Salt Lake, and on the back of that performance, he was voted MLS Player of the Week for Week 21 of the 2020 regular season.
Wondo got on the board with a poacher’s finish in the first half, off a goalpost deflection from Cristian Espinoza’s shot, and then iced the result in the second half with a tap-in off Shea Salinas’ assist, an assist that tied the club record for assists all-time in MLS play, 47, with Ronald Cerritos.
Wondolowski now has 165 goals in MLS regular season play in his career, which is now 20 more than the next closest person on the list, Landon Donovan.
The Player of the Week honor is Wondo’s ninth in his career, which the league says is the fifth-most among players in league history.
Notably, Wondolowski wasn’t even on the fan ballot for Player of the Week, released by the league, meaning the media vote, which constitutes 75 percent of the overall total for the award total, overruled the four anointed nominees, which doesn’t happen too often, honestly.
⬇️ Vote now for MLS Player of the Week! ⬇️
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 29, 2020
Many congrats to the 37-year-old, may you play and score forever, don’t ever change Wondo.
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