Paintsil, who scored the eventual game-winning goal just before halftime, had nothing but praise for Puig.
“I think he deserves everything,” Paintsil said of the FC Barcelona-formed playmaker, whose 13g/15a on the season propelled the league’s third-best offense of 2024 (69 goals). However, those numbers weren’t enough to make him a finalist for this year’s Landon Donovan MLS MVP award.
“If people don’t see it, we as players, as a team, we see it for ourselves,” Paintsil added. “We are a team and even if he doesn’t really [get] recognized as the MVP and everything, I think for him it doesn’t matter.
“The most important thing that is really in his mind is to win the league. That is [more] important than winning MVP. MVP is a plus for a player, but winning the league is much more important than everything for a player or a club.”
