Harrison Afful clinches Man-of-the-Match accolade

Ghana defender Harrison Afful was named Man of the Match following his impressive performance in Columbus Crew’s 2-1 win away to Philadelphia Union on Sunday.

The right-back provided his first pair of assists as he spent most of his time in the opposition’s half despite being a defender.

The 29-year-old was only playing his fourth game for the side since making his free transfer move to the MLS two months ago.

Afful’s surging attacking runs and incisive crossing came in handy for Greg Berhalter’s side.

Twice, the Ghana international’s cross from the right wing found striker Kei Kamara who made no mistakes in burying the balls to ultimately hand Columbus the impressive away win.

Kamara whose movement caused a lot problems for Philadelphia, headed in the opener at the back post after Harrison Afful’s cross has skimmed off the head of Union centerback Richie Marquez.

The Sierra Leonean was at it again just five minutes later – feeding off another good service from Afful this time with a sliding effort.

Afful who played for Tunisian giants Esperance joined Crew on the recommendations of former MLS star Joe Addo.

And Sunday’s performance was considered too good enough that he polled 50% of the votes to clinch the Man of the Match award.

Two-goal hero Kamara polled 31.3% with Clark and Finley following with 18.8% and 0.0% respectively.

His main attribute of providing effective crosses on the overlap is thought to be the main thing that convinced Berhalter into signing him – a decision which already appears to be paying off.