Real Salt Lake midfielder Javier Morales was voted Major League Soccer Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) for Week 2 of the 2011 MLS season after scoring twice and setting up a third goal in RSL's 4-1 demolition of the LA Galaxy last Saturday. Morales collected 12 of the 21 first-place votes on this week's ballots, while teammate Paulo Jr. finished second with five. Real Salt Lake swarmed the 2010 Supporters' Shield winners from the opening kickoff, beginning when Morales sliced the defense with a pass to Paulo Jr., who fed Andy Williams for a 1-0 lead in just the second minute. With Morales as the catalyst, the home team's offense continued to click, and soon Paulo Jr. was taken down in the box by goalkeeper Josh Saunders. Morales calmly converted the penalty with a stutter-step delivery to put RSL up 2-0 after just 10 minutes of play. Morales added to the lead in the 41st minute when he received a quick throw-in from Chris Wingert and fired the bouncing ball from the corner of the 18-yard-box over the head of Saunders for a commanding 3-0 lead before halftime. This marks Morales' fourth career MLS Player of the Week award, following a pair of similar honors in 2010 (Weeks 1 and 20) and his first such distinction after Week 6 of the 2009 campaign. The award was the 17th weekly honor given to a Real Salt Lake player in the club's now seven seasons of play and the fourth bestowed upon Morales, leaving him just one shy of Jeff Cunningham's franchise-high mark of five. In addition, Álvaro Saborío and Robbie Findley have collected two awards each, while Pablo Campos, Fabian Espíndola, Chris Klein, and Yura Movsisyan have each garnered the honor once. Real Salt Lake's next match comes next Tuesday, April 5, when it travels to San Jose, Costa Rica for the decisive second leg of its CONCACAF Champions League semifinal series against Deportivo Saprissa (8:00 p.m. MT, live on FOX Soccer and TeleFutura). RSL, the first MLS club to advance this far in the expanded tournament format, holds a 2-0 advantage from the first leg at Rio Tinto Stadium back on March 15. The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season by a panel of journalists from NASR. The group consists of members of print, television, radio and online media. More information and membership information can be found at http://www.soccerreporters.com.
