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Crew's Rogers wins MLS Player of Week award

Mon 12th, May 2008

New York, NY (Sports Network) - Columbus Crew winger Robbie Rogers was voted Major League Soccer's Player of the Week for Week 7, it was announced on Monday.

With two late goals on Saturday, the speedy Rogers sparked a Crew come-from- behind 3-2 victory at the San Jose Earthquakes, keeping his team in first place in the Eastern Conference after week seven. It was the Crew's fifth straight league victory.

"I told Robbie the confidence has to come from within you," Crew coach Sigi Schmid said. "If you need confidence to come from the coach and from outside sources you are not going to make it as far as you want to make it. I just told him just keep fighting and it will come. The only change we made (this season) was in New York during halftime (on April 5). We moved him from the right side to the left side. The rest has been all Robbie."

Down 1-0 in the 73rd minute on Saturday, Rogers received a long pass through the 'Quakes defense from Emmanuel Ekpo, took one touch and buried a left- footed shot under Earthquakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon.

"We talked during halftime on getting Robbie Rogers back into the game because the first 20 minutes we were very effective attacking on the left-hand side," Schmid said. "I thought the substitution with Emmanuel Ekpo on the right side was good. We felt he could get some space to play in and he was able to make a difference for us."

Rogers completed the brace to make it 2-1 just eight minutes later when he broke through the defense again and gathered a pass from forward Alejandro Moreno before taking a touch around Cannon and shooting into the net for his fifth goal of the season.

Both teams would go on to score one more goal each, as the match finished 3-2 in favor of Columbus. Rogers leads the Crew in goal scoring with five goals and is tied for second in the league's Golden Boot race with Dallas forward Kenny Cooper. Despite being shutout on Saturday, Los Angeles forward Landon Donovan still leads the league with eight goals.

This marks the first Player of the Week award for Rogers, and the second awarded to a Crew player in 2008. Guillermo Barros Schelotto received the honor in Week 3.

The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from The North American Soccer Reporters (NASR). Full disclosure of the votes can be found at www.soccerreporters.com.

Below are the 2008 player of the week winners to date:

Week 1: Terry Cooke (Colorado Rapids)

Week 2: David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 3: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew)

Week 4: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 5: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 6: David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Week 7: Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

Where the players come to play and STAY.