Spectacular saves gives D.C. United’s Hamid POTW nod over Montreal’s Bernier By Charles Posted on March 18, 2013 2 0 811 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter It’s not often when a player from a 0-0 draw gets Player of the Week consideration, but D.C. United had no business getting out of New Jersey with a point. DCU’s 0-0 draw with the Red Bulls Saturday really should have been a loss. Not a one- or two-goal defeat, either. A rout. But DCU keeper Bill Hamid made a series of spectacular saves and allowed his team to get some sort of result even though its performance was flatter than the prairie. For his heroics, Hamid got the nod from the North American Soccer Reporters; he is the MLS Player of the Week. Hamid got 16 out of 28 first-place votes to take the award. Despite Hamid’s success, it is clear Impact-mania has gripped the membership. Montreal midfielder Patrice Bernier got seven first-place and seven second-place votes, while forward Marco Di Vaio got one first and six second-place votes. The Impact’s 2-1 win over TFC on Saturday gave Montreal a perfect 3-0-0 start to the season and, while Bernier hasn’t won the award yet, he is regularly getting a noticeable number of POTW votes. That’s a sign that, just three weeks in, he may very well have prised the title of “best holding mid in MLS” away from contenders such Seattle’s Osvaldo Alonso and Real Salt Lake’s Kyle Beckerman. How The 11 voted: Hamid. He robbed Thierry Henry a couple of times and made a ridiculous dive across goal to steal a goal from Tim Cahill. In stoppage time, Hamid leapt to clear a ball off a scrambled corner that deflected off of DCU’s James Riley and looked destined to become the only (own) goal of the game. The Red Bulls claimed that the ball had crossed the line, while replays were inconclusive. But, debates about goal-line technology need to be put aside for a second: No matter where the ball was, Hamid made a fantastic leap to his right to swat it away.
