New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman today captured the Honda MLS Player of the Week for Week 22 which ended on Sunday. Twellman scored the game-winning goal with only seconds to play as the Revs edged out D.C. United 2-1 on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. With the goal -- his 11th of the season -- Twellman ties Jeff Cunningham (Colorado Rapids) and Carlos Ruiz (FC Dallas) for the League-lead in the race for the Budweiser Golden Boot.
Twellman thought he had opened the scoring in the 15th minute, when he headed in a pass from Steve Ralston over the head of goalkeeper Nick Rimando. However, the referee signaled that Twellman was offsides and called the goal off.
United's Santino Quaranta would score the first goal in the 36th minute, however the lead only lasted until the 48th when an own gave evened the score at 1-1.
With the game becoming more physical in the second half, the referee added four minutes of injury time. Only seconds before the final whistle blew, Revs forward Pat Noonan laid the ball back to Andy Dorman who lofted an early cross from the right into the goalmouth. Twellman rose up over United defender Facundo Erpen and flicked a curling header into the upper right corner - the 11th Revolution goal scored after the 85th minute this season. Of Twellman's 11 goals on the year, four have been game-winners and five have been scored from the 89th minute on.
Twellman, who earns his second Player of the Week award in 2005, narrowly edged out San Jose Earthquakes defender Danny Califf for the weekly honor. Chris Henderson of the Columbus Crew also received votes. The Honda Major League Soccer Player of the Week is selected every week throughout the MLS regular season by a panel of journalists from the Professional Soccer Reporters Association (PSRA).
2005 PLAYER OF THE WEEK WINNERS
Week 1: Edson Buddle (Columbus Crew)
Week 2: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Week 3: Jon Busch (Columbus Crew)
Week 4: Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution)
Week 5: Amado Guevara (MetroStars)
Week 6: Freddy Adu (D.C. United)
Week 7: Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)
Week 8: Ronnie O'Brien (FC Dallas)
Week 9: Carlos Ruiz (FC Dallas)
Week 10: Nate Jaqua (Chicago Fire)
Week 11: Zach Wells (MetroStars)
Week 12: Jeff Cunningham (Colorado Rapids)
Week 13: Pat Noonan (New England Revolution)
Week 14: Joe Cannon (Colorado Rapids)
Week 15: Matt Taylor (Chivas USA)
Week 16: Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)
Week 17: Mark Chung (San Jose Earthquakes)
Week 18: no winner (All-Star break)
Week 19: Youri Djorkaeff (MetroStars)
Week 20: Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)
Week 21: Amado Guevara (MetroStars)
Week 22: Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)
