Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar was named MLS Player of the Week, following his two goals and one assist in a 3-1 win over Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night. Mukhtar is the first Nashville player in club history to win the honor.
Mukhtar had missed the past two Nashville matches, rested to help him recover from minor injury. Mukhtar was at the heart of Nashville’s success in the final third last night. He scored the opening goal after exchanging a quick pass with Abu Danladi. He got the secondary assist for Danladi’s goal just four minutes later, with a clever flick into the path of Taylor Washington. And he capped it off with world class free kick into the top corner.
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— Nashville SC (@NashvilleSC) October 15, 2020
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An unforgettable eight-minute frenzy. #EveryoneN pic.twitter.com/qv4r5CYCPk
Mukhtar was also named to the MLS Team of the Week for his performance. He’s the third Nashville SC player to make the team, with Joe Willis (Week 15) and Dax McCarty (Week 11) the other two. Randall Leal, Daniel Ríos, Aníbal Godoy and Walker Zimmerman have each been named to the bench. Gary Smith also was named the Coach of the Week in Week 11, following Nashville’s 4-2 win over Atlanta United.

Mukhtar leads Nashville SC with three goals, and is tied with Dax McCarty for the lead with four assists. Mukhtar was signed by Nashville SC in December 2019 as the first designated player in club history.
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR)* comprises 75 percent of the vote, while a Twitter fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio and online media.
Here’s the voting breakdown for this week’s award:
1. Hany Mukhtar, Nashville SC – 31.02% (Media 29.62%, Fans 35.19%)
2. Lucas Cavallini, Vancouver Whitecaps – 25.60% (Media 27.16%, Fans 20.93%)
3. Nick Lima, San Jose Earthquakes – 20.37% (Media 27.16, Fans 0%)
4. Nick Hagglund, FC Cincinnati – 5.82% (Media 0%, Fans 23.28%)
5. Brian Rowe, Orlando City SC – 5.14% (Media 0%, Fans 20.57%)
6. Gyasi Zardes, Columbus Crew SC – 3.70% (Media 4.93%, 0%)
EDITOR’S NOTE: The author is a voting member of NASR

