New York, NY (My Sportsbook) - FC Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham was named Major League Soccer's Player of the Month for September on Friday.

Cunningham, who leads MLS with 16 goals, scored seven goals and recorded three assists while leading FC Dallas to a 3-1-1 record during the month.

Dallas opened the month with 6-11-5 record and sat well out of the postseason picture, but behind Cunningham's play FC Dallas is now 9-12-6 with 33 points and is still alive in the hunt for the MLS Cup playoffs.

Cunningham's seven goals in September increased his season total to 16, one in front of Colorado's Conor Casey atop the Budweiser Golden Boot race.

His 120 career goals ranks second all-time behind D.C. United's Jaime Moreno, who has 130 career goals.

This marks the second career Player of the Month honor for Cunningham. He last won the award in August 2006 as a member of Real Salt Lake. Cunningham and FC Dallas are back in action on Wednesday at San Jose.

Below are the 2009 player of the month winners to date:

March: Fredy Montero (Seattle Sounders FC)

April: Brian McBride (Chicago Fire)

May: Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)

June: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew)

July: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

August: Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew)

September: Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)