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The first New York Red Bulls player to make an official MLS Team of the Week starting lineup in 2017 is Aaron Long, who caught the selectors' eyes with his contribution to RBNY's 0-0 draw with RSL in Week 4.
RSL 'keeper Matt Van Oekel - who kept a clean sheet while deputizing for Nick Rimando - was also in the team, while RBNY's Luis Robles made the bench for his performance in the opposite goal. Tyler Adams' breakout performance for the Red Bulls' first team was also worth an honorable mention and a spot on the TotW bench.
#NERevs and #CrewSC lead the pack.
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 27, 2017
Team of the Week: https://t.co/9h15ss3IO7 pic.twitter.com/lb0nmNuII9
There were only three games played in Week 4 of MLS 2017, which explains why RBNY had quite so many players in the 18 considered the best the league had to offer for this round of matches. The 0-0 home draw can fairly be described as disappointing for a team that expects to win the majority of its home games. But the clean sheet had to be earned against a visiting RSL side that gave as good as it got.
Congrats to Aaron Long for being RBNY's first official MLS TotW starter this season - and Robles and Adams for their first selections to the league's best 18 of the week for this year.