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It's taken long enough, but the rest of the league finally seems to have noticed the New England Revolution after Sunday's 5-0 backyard beatdown of the LA Galaxy. After turning in probably his most complete performance yet, Diego Fagundez has been selected as the MLS Player of the Week for Week 14 by the NASR.
To give you an idea of how dire - or how unnoticed, depending on your perspective - the Revs have been in recent times, the honor becomes New England's first weekly award since Week 10 of 2012. Whether or not some players deserved more recognition last year or earlier this year is an argument for another time, but it seems as though the rest of the league has finally realized that the Revs are for real.
Diego helped kick off the scoring in Sunday's match by assisting on Saer Sene's opener in the 33rd minute. Sene started the move and applied the finish, and a defensive lapse on the part of the Galaxy certainly contributed, but Fagundez's sumptuous touch to play Sene into the box on the give-and-go was a neat bit of skill. It was put in the perfect spot with the perfect weight on the ball.
Fagundez proved his maturity and awareness in the 71st minute when he assisted on Lee Nguyen's goal. While half of the Galaxy squad looked on, confused by the difference between the linesman's call and the head referee's decision to give a foul against Landon Donovan, Diego recognized that the head ref's word was law and played a quick free kick on the floor to Nguyen. Lee's strike was helped by a deflection, but nevertheless doubled the advantage.
The 18-year old finally capped his performance with a goal in the 87th minute. He worked a one-two with Kelyn Rowe before finishing his fellow midfielder's pass inside the near post. The goal extended his scoring streak to four straight games, just one away from the Revolution team record of five straight games with a goal, set by Clint Dempsey in 2005.
Diego is the team's leading goalscorer and has to be considered an early favorite for Team MVP. Some will argue that he was passed over for Player of the Month honors in May after matching the output of winner Jack McInerney, but nevertheless the weekly honor here will likely go down as yet another feather in what is sure to become a heavily-laden cap for Fagundez.