Official MLS 2017 Team of Week 8: Aaron Long in the lineup, Alex Muyl on the bench

Aaron Long was the first New York Red Bulls player to make the starting lineup of an official MLS Team of the Week selection this season. Now he is the first RBNY player to do so twice this season (and he's still the only Red Bull to have made a TotW starting XI in 2017).

The top performers from Week 8 https://t.co/UDVRMpzvEN pic.twitter.com/cLkFQynOYb

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 24, 2017

The accolade is for his role in RBNY's 2-0 win over Columbus Crew on April 22: the Red Bulls' third consecutive home win of 2017, and the team's fourth consecutive shut-out at Red Bull Arena.

The 24-year-old has quickly established himself as a first-team regular for RBNY this season. He has played every minute of all 10 competitive games the team has played so far this season (eight in MLS, two in CONCACAF Champions League), after playing most of last year with NYRB II. It was with the II team that Long made clear he could contribute to RBNY, converting so successfully to the center-back position (he had previously been considered a midfielder) that he won the USL Defender of the Year award in 2016. Now he is an every-day starter in MLS, and has regularly out-performed more experienced colleagues on the RBNY back line.

Also in the league's official Week 8 TotW: Alex Muyl, who is on the bench for the all-MLS selection for the second week in a row. Against Columbus, Muyl scored his second goal of MLS 2017, just a week after scoring his first. The TotW selectors clearly like the look of the player in goal-scoring form, since he seems to make the league-best squad every time he scores.