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SANDY -- Real Salt Lake forward Robbie Findley was voted Major League Soccer's Player of the Week for Week 32, the final week of the League's 2009 regular season.
Findley scored two goals last Saturday night in RSL's 3-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids at Rio Tinto Stadium, a result that clinched a playoff spot for the Utah side for the second straight year.
Findley's goals on Saturday night gave the Phoenix-native a new single-season high of 12 goals, eclipsing the mark of eight set during his rookie season in 2007. The dozen tallies also earned Findley his second RSL Golden Boot award as the team's scoring leader and put him in a five-way tie for third place in the chase for the League's scoring title.
"It was a great feeling to score some goals, and they were the result of some great balls played into me. The first goal started with Andy Williams and then good recognition by Fabian Espindola to play it across the goal, and on the second one it was another great pass by Andy on a through ball," said Findley. "We knew it was a big game we were getting into, so we knew what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to keep the season going. We were all over them from the first minute through the 90th minute, and everybody stepped up and did their job, which is what it took to win."
In a do-or-die affair for RSL's postseason chances on Saturday night it was Findley providing an early spark for Real Salt Lake in the 15th minute, when he headed a Fabian Espíndola cross into the upper-right corner of the net from close range. Findley found the back of the net again in the 33rd minute, when he settled a long pass by Andy Williams and popped the ball over Rapids GK Preston Burpo before sending a left-footed shot into an open net to extend the lead to 2-0.
The 24-year-old Findley was drafted by the Los Angeles Galaxy with the 16th overall pick in the 2007 MLS SuperDraft and scored twice for the SoCal side in nine games before being acquired by RSL in a midseason trade. The Oregon State product has established a new franchise scoring mark with 24 goals while also adding nine assists in his 72 games with RSL.
This marks the second Player of the Week award for Findley, who also won the honor in Week 10 of the 2008 season, and the fourth for an RSL player in 2009, tying the Utah club with Colorado, FC Dallas and Seattle Sounders FC for the most weekly award recipients this season.
Thanks in part to Findley's team-high three game-winning goals, Real Salt Lake finished the regular season 11-12-7 with 40 points, earning the squad the fourth and final Wild Card slot and a spot opposite the defending MLS Cup Champion Columbus Crew in the Eastern Conference bracket. Real Salt Lake will open its second straight trip to the postseason at Rio Tinto Stadium this Saturday, Oct. 31, at 4:00 p.m. MT, in the first game of a home-and-home Eastern Conference Semifinal Series versus The Crew.
