Giovinco named MLS Player of the Week

Nine games without a goal. Frustration mounting. Expectations, equally so. For Sebastian Giovinco, winner of the 2015 MLS Golden Boot, this scoring slump was a nightmare come true.

Then, D.C. United came to town Saturday.

With a pair of free-kick goals and a third to round out his hat trick, Giovinco broke out of his slump, surpassed David Beckham as the league's most prolific dead-ball striker, became Toronto FC's all-time top scorer at 35 total goals, and was then named MLS Player of the Week for Week 20.

His third career MLS hat trick puts him at 11 goals and seven assists thus far in 2016. He'll hope to ride his rediscovered form to more plaudits Thursday night when he and the MLS All-Stars take on Arsenal at Avaya Stadium in an exhibition match.