Magee’s emergency goalkeeping performance earns him Player of the Week nod

A midfielder and a goalkeeper split the MLS Player of the Week Award. Except that they’re the same guy.

Confused? Don’t be. Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Mike Magee won the award after the votes from the North American Soccer Reporters were counted.

Usually, players of the week don’t come from 0-0 draws. But Magee was the storyline out of the 0-0 draw between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Magee started the game in his customary midfield position; but he was forced to go between the sticks in the 43rd minute, after a freakish set of circumstances took both starting keeper Donovan Ricketts and back-up Josh Saunders out of the game.

Ricketts left early in the match with an injury, and Saunders was ejected in the 43rd minute for elbowing ‘Quakes striker Steven Lenhart.

Magee went in goal and preserved the shutout. He made four saves, including an aggressive stop late in the second half which saw him dive at Lenhart’s feet to block a shot.

How The 11 voted: Magee’s performance was, ahem, unusual, but we couldn’t ignore the outstanding two-goal performance from Andres Mendoza, who starred for Columbus on Sunday. His two-goal performance in a win over the Colorado showed his class.

He scored his first of the game on a bullet drive that caromed off the underside of the bar and in, and he coolly finished a breakaway for his brace. He pounced on a ball that had bounced over Rapids’ defender Kosuke Kimura’s head, and ran almost the length of the Colorado side of half before slotting home his shot.