DC United's Silva earns MLS Player of the Week honor
DC United midfielder Luis Silva was named MLS Player of the Week for week 15 of the MLS season. Silva earned this award for his hat trick performance against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday June 11th.
Silva got the scoring started in the sixth minute of the match with an impressive strike from inside the 18 yard box before adding two more goals before the half ended.
25 year old Silva is a native of Los Angeles, California and played collegiate soccer at the University of California Santa Barbara, where in his senior season he totaled 17 goals and 10 assists in 22 games, before being selected fourth in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft by Toronto FC. Silva was acquired by DC United from Toronto FC about halfway through the 2013 season and featured in 13 matches for United that year.
Although he has yet to consistently show the offensive touch demonstrated in his final year at UCSB, Silva has shown enough potential to justify the allocation money given up by DC United to acquire him. With the moves Toronto FC made in the offseason to bring in big names like Michael Bradley and Jermain Defoe it was clear they had little patience to let their younger players develop.
Toronto FC’s willingness to trade away their fourth pick from just one year ago confirms that and says more about their desire to win immediately than it does about the talent and performance of Silva. This trade is a classic example of a win win. Toronto made a big splash in the transfer market and DC got a solid young player with loads of talent.
Silva is aggressive through the midfield and with a little more experience is likely to find his name on the score sheet more and more often. Much like the rest of the team, Silva has already improved well over last year. With his hat trick Wednesday, Silva has already matched his goal total from last season. A little more seasoning and Silva will likely begin to find himself consistently in the hunt for MLS All-Star honors. #VamosUnited
