Real Salt Lake forward Joao Plata became the fifth player from the club named to MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week this week after a standout performance to instigate the attack in RSL’s 1-0 win over Minnesota United FC on Saturday.
Plata finished the night with six shots and nine chances created to help spur RSL’s dynamic attack, which had Minnesota on the ropes the whole match. With a shots advantage of 29-5, RSL was knocking on the door all night, but it wasn’t until a Yura Movsisyan goal in the 84th minute that the Claret-and-Cobalt finally broke through.
“It was like Willy Wonka where you go out and buy 100,000 candy bars, and then you just casually buy one when you think all of the tickets are found and lo and behold there is one there. I think that was a good analogy,” Head Coach Mike Petke smiled after the match. “We created a lot so that is good thing, but again learning to convert is a little frustrating.”
Plata has two goals and two assists on the season at the halfway point.
Joining him on Team of the Week were goalkeeper Luis Robles (New York Red Bulls); defenders Maynor Figueroa (FC Dallas), Jordan Harvey (Vancouver Whitecaps FC) and Ike Opara (Sporting Kansas City); midfielders Miguel Almiron (Atlanta United), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC) and Romain Alessandrini (LA Galaxy); and forwards Ignacio Piatti (Montreal Impact), David Villa (New York City FC) and Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls).
For more on this week’s selections, click here.
Team of the Week
Week 4: Matt VanOekel
Week 6: Albert Rusnák and Yura Movsisyan
Week 7: Mike Petke
Week 13: Sunny
Week 16: Joao Plata
