Zusi named MLS Player of the Week: The 11 selected Joao Plata

With a goal and an assist in a 4-0 demolition of Chivas USA Saturday, Sporting Kansas City midfielder Graham Zusi did enough to earn the MLS Player of the Week nod. In what was a very scattered vote, Zusi got 10 first-place votes out of the 27 ballots cast by the North American Soccer Reporters. With no player really having a career-best game or a head-turner, the voters had no clear consensus. But, like a Canadian election. Zusi got the prize despite earning only a little more than a third of the vote. How The 11 voted: While Zusi got some consideration, we had to take into account that Chivas was down to 10 men for almost half of the game. And the player sent off was keeper Dan Kennedy, so the task for Zusi and co. was made a lot easier by the circumstances of the match. For us, no player did more to contribute to his side getting three points than Joao Plata. The ex-TFC forward did most of the heavy lifting in setting up both Real Salt Lake goals on Saturday. RSL beat the Whitecaps 2-0, and the tiny Ecuadorean was the best player on the pitch. And Plata now comes at a bargain price. In the salary information sheets released by the MLS Players Union on Monday, Plata’s salary was listed at a very manageable US$60,000.