Neagle’s hat trick earns him Player of the Week nod By Charles Posted on August 29, 2011 Comments Off on Neagle’s hat trick earns him Player of the Week nod 0 572 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Lamar Neagle Some Mondays, it’s easier to select players of the week than others. This was one of them. In what was a major statement game for his club, home-state product Lamar Neagle scored a hat trick for the Seattle Sounders in a 6-2 win over Eastern Conference leaders Columbus — and earned the Player of the Week nod from the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters. Neagle was the biggest star on a day when Seattle ran roughshod over another MLS contender in Manchester United-Arsenal fashion. Neagle got the first-place vote from 17 of the 20 NASR voters, and is the fourth Sounder to be named Player of the Week. More importantly, the win over a very good Columbus side really sets up Seattle as a major contender for the title. The Sounders are getting goals from all over the squad. And, until the Los Angeles Galaxy proves that it can win a big pressure game — something it hasn’t done in MLS playoffs or in the CONCACAF Champions League — there will continue to be doubts about the team. And Real Salt Lake, who was supposed to be the other giant in the West, has been inconsistent, even on its home pitch, since losing the 2011 CCL final to Monterrey. How The 11 voted: Score three against Columbus and you’ve got the vote. The only question was the second-place ballot — and that went to Vancouver Whitecaps’ keeper Joe Cannon. Cannon made two stellar saves — one off Brad Davis, the other off Brian Ching — to set up the Whitecaps for a 1-0 win over the visiting Houston Dynamo. In a year in which the goalkeeping has been spotty at best in Vancouver, it was refreshing to see a big game in between the sticks.
