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In a crucial matchup at Subaru Park against Toronto FC that could have decided the Philadelphia Union’s quest to win the club’s first-ever trophy, Sergio Santos came up clutch. Notching the team’s first hat trick since C.J. Sapong back in 2017, the Brazilian forward was named the MLS Player of the Week.
Santos, who scored three goals in 69 minutes in a 5-0 victory over their neighbors to the North, won 51.66 percent of the vote among competitors such as Sporting Kansas City’s Alan Pulido (leading vote-getter among the fans at 48.55%), New York City FC’s Maximiliano Moralez, Nashville SC’s Walker Zimmerman and Randall Leal, and Portland Timbers’ Diego Chara. The voting is conducted by MLS Communications and consists of votes from the North America Soccer Reporters, who accumulate 75 percent of the vote for the league’s player of the week, while the rest of the 25 percent consists of fans who voted through a Twitter poll run by the league.
After an impressive win, and a shutout nonetheless, against one of the top teams in the league, Kai Wagner, Andre Blake, and Jim Curtin were featured with Santos on the MLS’ Team of the Week. Also, José Martinez and Kacper Przybyłko made the bench, which led to six Union players to be honored by the MLS.
The Union, who are now in first-place due to goal differential, aim to win the Supporters’ Shield after the Supporters’ Shield Foundation reversed their previous decision not to award the trophy to the league’s top team. After failing to win in their three U.S. Open Cup finals, the club is aiming to finally bring back some silverware to the City of Brotherly Love.
Philadelphia will look to continue its great form, and keep their undefeated home record, in a mid-week matchup at Subaru Park on Wednesday, October 28 against the Chicago Fire at 7:30 p.m. ET on PHL 17. Meanwhile, the club will also travel to Columbus, where they suffered a 1-0 defeat on September 2 due to a Lucas Zelarayán goal, to battle the Crew at MAPFRE Stadium at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.