REDMOND — For the second time in as many weeks, a Sounders FC player has been named Major League Soccer’s player of the week.
Midfielder Mauro Rosales, who scored Seattle’s fourth goal, and assisted on the third in a 4-3 win over Colorado, earned the honors a week after forward Fredy Montero took home the award for scoring two goals in a win over Portland. Defender Jeff Parke has also been named player of the week this season for Seattle.
Rosales, a 30-year-old Argentine who signed with Seattle during the first week of the season, has a team-high six assists as well as two goals.
Mixed emotions
Sounders midfielder Servando Carrasco was disappointed like a lot of American soccer fans that the U.S. women’s team couldn’t hang on for a win in Sunday’s World Cup final, but the rookie midfielder did get to see his longtime girlfriend, Alex Morgan, score one goal and assist on another for the U.S.
Morgan, who played collegiately at Cal while Carrasco was a member of the men’s soccer team there, came on as a substitute to start the second half and scored the first goal of the game. She later assisted on Abby Wambach’s goal in extra time.
“It was a huge game for her, but obviously she was disappointed,” Carrasco said. “They’ve worked extremely hard to be where they are today.”
Carrasco said he was able to talk to Morgan daily via Skype during the World Cup, but that on Sunday they didn’t talk much about the game.
“I didn’t want to talk too much about the game,” he said.
Carrasco said he has taken a lot of grief from teammates, but added, “I like it. I’m so proud of her.” The most grief came earlier this month when the team bus passed a billboard in L.A. that featured a huge picture of Morgan. The team stopped and took a team photo in front of the ad.
Of note
Defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, who suffered an MCL sprain in Seattle’s July 10 win over Portland, was able to do some straight-line running while the team practiced … Some seats remain for Wednesday’s game against Manchester United, but according to a team official only a limited number of tickets are still available. As of late last week, 64,000 tickets had been sold … Monday’s practice was held on Microsoft’s Redmond campus. Microsoft’s video game console, Xbox, is the Sounders FC jersey sponsor.
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