Obafemi Martins recorded his fifth brace of the season on Sunday against the Colorado Rapids, earning the Sounders FC striker his sixth appearance on the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week, leading all Seattle players.
Martins has a club-record 17 goals on the season and has scored two goals in four of his last eight matches.
He was joined on Team of the Week by goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth (New England Revolution); defenders Lovel Palmer (Chicago Fire), Bobby Burling (Chivas USA), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City) and Chris Tierney (New England Revolution); midfielders Mauro Rosales (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Matias Laba (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Rodney Wallace (Portland Timbers) and Dax McCarty (New York Red Bulls); and forward Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy).
Sounders FC’s representatives on Team of the Week have been:
Week 1: DeAndre Yedlin.
Week 3: Djimi Traore.
Week 5: Clint Dempsey.
Week 6: Clint Dempsey, Sigi Schmid.
Week 7: Obafemi Martins, Chad Marshall.
Week 8: Clint Dempsey, Sigi Schmid.
Week 9: Chad Marshall.
Week 11: Obafemi Martins.
Week 13: Marco Pappa, Sigi Schmid.
Week 14: Lamar Neagle.
Week 16: Gonzalo Pineda.
Week 18: Chad Marshall, Marco Pappa.
Week 24: Chad Marshall, Obafemi Martins.
Week 25: Zach Scott.
Week 26: Obafemi Martins.
Week 27: Obafemi Martins.
Week 30: Obafemi Martins.
SOUNDERS MOURN PASSING OF LEGENDARY COACH
The first man to take the helm for the Seattle Sounders in the North American Soccer League, John Best, died on Sunday night while vacationing in Ireland.
Best was a five-time All-Star with the Dallas Tornado and won the NASL title as a player in 1971 before taking up the reins with the Sounders in 1974.
On May 12, 1974, he coached the Sounders to a 4-0 victory over the Denver Dynamos in the club’s first home match at Memorial Stadium. After three seasons, he moved north to serve as General Manager with the Vancouver Whitecaps, but returned to the Sounders as GM in 1982, helping Seattle reach the championship game, falling to the New York Cosmos.
The founder of Tacoma Indoor Soccer, Inc., which became the ownership group of the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League, Best is a member of the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame and was among those scheduled to appear at Sounders FC’s 40th anniversary celebration on Friday.
He was 74 years old.
YEDLIN AND OKOLI GET INTERNATIONAL CALLS
Sounders FC youngsters DeAndre Yedlin and Sean Okoli both got calls for international friendlies this week.
Yedlin is among six MLS players called in to the U.S. National Team for a friendly on Friday against Ecuador in East Hartford, Conn. The 21-man roster was announced on Monday and includes Landon Donovan – who will be honored in his final appearance with the U.S. National Team – along with Omar Gonzalez, Bill Hamid, Nick Rimando and Luis Gil.
Okoli, meanwhile, was named to the U.S. U-23 National Team for a friendly against Brazil in Brazil on Monday, Oct. 13. He is joined by former Sounders FC Academy product Jordan Morris, who is in his sophomore season at Stanford University, and seven other MLS players.
Both Yedlin and Okoli will miss Friday’s match against the Whitecaps.
