Week #11 NASL Players of the Week: Tsuyoshi Yoshitake & Jack Stewart
The Tampa Bay Rowdies’ Tsuyoshi Yoshitake has been named NASL Offensive Player of the Week for week #10; Fort Lauderdale Strikers defender Jack Stewart was named the Defensive Player of the Week.
MIAMI, Fla. (June 18, 2012) – Tampa Bay Rowdies forward Tsuyoshi Yoshitake has been named the North American Soccer League Offensive Player of the Week, the league announced on Monday.
Yoshitake, who hails from Mie Prefecture, Japan, played a major role in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 victory at Minnesota Saturday night with a goal and an assist. Rowdies midfielder Keith Savage scored from 20 yards out in the 87th minute after a pass from Yoshitake as Tampa Bay came back from an early 1-0 deficit to hand Minnesota its first loss at home this season. Yoshitake had evened the game just before halftime as he chipped a shot around Stars goalkeeper Matt VanOekel after a failed clearance attempt for his second goal of the year to tie the match at 1-1.
“I am really pleased for Yoshi to be recognized with this honor,” said Rowdies head coach Ricky Hill. “It was his first game back after missing a few matches because of injury and we were obviously delighted to have him in the lineup. He is an extremely hard worker and was rightfully rewarded for his efforts.”
For the season, Yoshitake is tied for second on the team with two goals and his two assists are tied for the team lead. He has played in nine games with eight starts thus far this season.
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The NASL has named Fort Lauderdale Strikers defender Jack Stewart Defensive Player of the Week. Stewart made several key plays in central defense as the Strikers shutout FC Edmonton at Lockhart Stadium 1-0 on Saturday, June 16th. Stewart played the full ninety minutes helping to organizing the Strikers back-line that was reshuffled due to injuries.
“Jack had a really solid game helping to shut down a potent attack between Cox, Saiko and Porter,“ said Head Coach Daryl Shore. “I thought he was the leader of our back line on the night when we got a much needed win and our first shutout in a long time.”
The clean sheet for the Strikers was the first since the second week of the season against Minnesota. Stewart has played several different defensive positions for the Strikers and has played all 90 minutes in each of his 11 starts for the team. Stewart is a veteran professional having previously spent time with three different MLS clubs, two clubs in Scandanavia and two current NASL clubs. This is the first Defensive Player of the Week award for a Striker this season. Strikers’ forward Andy Herron has won two Offensive Player of the Week awards.
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Jack has been a key acquisition for the Strikers this year, doing a solid job as one of the few consistent pieces in a constantly shifting back four for the Strikers due to injuries, call ups, and suspensions. His play has been very good overall, and Saturday he was all over the place back there shutting the Eddies down. Congratulations Jack, well deserved!
Rumor has it that they were going to play the Stars/Strikers match at the Metrodome this weekend. However, the Strikers requested that the match be moved to the NSC as the Dome could not contain Jack Stewart’s ego now that he won the NASL Defensive Player of the Week.
Way to go Jack!
@Soccer Boy – He was actually very humble about it on Twitter, insinuating there might have been “voting fix” at NASL HQ, because anyone that saw his errant back pass to GK Matt Glaeser late in the game that almost ended up in the net wouldn’t have voted for him. LOL Seriously though, outside of that one mistake he played an exceptional game Saturday night, and like I said, he’s been the one constant in an ever-shifting backline for us this year. I said right from the start that his coming to the team in exchange for Martin Nunez was a great acquisition, and he’s proved me right by being a solid presence in the back all year.
By the way, where is this week’s NASL podcast fellas?!?
Hopefully Jack gets another shot at MLS very soon. He has proved himself at D2, but just can’t stick on a MLS roster. I once talked to him and he is keen on making the Canadian National Team after training with them. But knows he has to play well in MLS to ever get capped.