April 25, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – San Jose Earthquakes News Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Cristian Espinoza was voted Major League Soccer’s Player of the Week for Week 8 of the 2022 MLS season. Espinoza scored three goals, including the stoppage-time game-winner, and added one assist during Saturday night’s 4-3 victory over Seattle Sounders FC. Espinoza was also selected to Major League Soccer’s Team of the Week along with interim head coach Alex Covelo, who was making his MLS head coaching debut.
Click here to download Cristian Espinoza’s highlights and photos from Saturday
With the team trailing 2-0 in the first half, Espinoza halved the deficit for the Quakes just moments before halftime on a left-footed volley. Seattle increased their lead to 3-1 early in the second half, before Espinoza netted his second goal and tallied an assist on Jackson Yueill’s goal to tie the match. San Jose completed the comeback when video review awarded the team a penalty kick in stoppage time, and Espinoza stepped up to convert. It marked his first MLS hat-trick and first career multi-goal game.
The MLS Player of the Week honor is the first of Espinoza’s career. He is the first Earthquakes player to win the award this year and is the club’s fourth different player to win the award since the start of the 2021 season, joining Cade Cowell (Week 3, 2021), Chris Wondolowski (Week 4, 2021) and Chofis (Week 26, 2021).
Espinoza’s performance is just the third time in club history that a player tallied 3+ goals and an assist in a single game (Chris Wondolowski – July 14, 2012; Steven Lenhart – June 11, 2011).
The MLS Player of the Week presented by Continental Tire is selected each week of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while a Twitter fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of…
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