I was wondering who everybody thought would be part of an MLS Best 11 so far this season after the first three weeks. Is Edson Buddle a lock up top? Where does Landon Donovan fit in? Also, does MLS select a team of the week or just a player of the week?
I didn't see any games the first week, so this will cover just the last 2 weeks of play. Also, I didn't see the untelevised games - DC vs Fire, Colorado vs FCD. And there is a bias against Colorado players, who I haven't seen much of. But I think that this team is still fairly representative of the best soccer so far in this MLS season. In honor of the best team in MLS right now, I think the formation should be a 4-3-3. GK: Busch RB: Albright CB: Vanney CB: Curtin LB: Guerrero (NOT! Burciaga Jr.) CM: Dempsey CM: El Pando CM: Djorkaeff LW: O'Brien RW: EJ FW: Donovan I admit, I chose Burciaga Jr. based on reputation (nevermind...). I had a hard time choosing a LB (Wade Barrett?), and a second central defender; after Vanney (who I think has been lights out) its tough to choose between Curtin, Conrad, Caballero had a great game on saturday against a good offense, Borchers? etc. Perhaps the midfield lacks some bite, but I think those 3 have been the best midfielders thus far by a fair margin (Judging, admittedly, all 3 on the basis of just one game for each, but form is temporary and class is permanent). Don't laugh about Djorkaeff! – he was outstanding on saturday and the largest reason why the Metros were (and I can't tell you how much this pains me...) exciting to watch. Mulrooney and Klein are just a step below, and then Gomez and O'Rourke. The forwards at least were obvious choices, and I think each of those 3 could make a strong case for, if not MVP, maybe "first draft pick" in some hypothetical Bigsoccer draft. Buddle is a nice striker but hes clearly not at the level of Donovan, GAM, or ROB. Same goes for Ching. By the way, I think this is a great idea, something this board should do weekly perhaps. Maybe people could put forward nominations and we could pull off something like the outstanding "All-American XI" run by Nutmeg and Chicago 1871 last year. Edit: Just to be clear, I think the feature this time would be even more interesting if we broadened the scope to include foreign MLSers. This would give us an evaluation tool to see how our future american stars are really stacking up with some of the cream of Concacaf. Edit again: I'm not sure how I forgot him, but Ivan Guerrero seems like, for me, the class of the league's left backs.
GKBusch LBBurciaga Jr. CBCurtin RBCaballero LM Brad Davis CDM Mulrooney CAMDempsey RMO'Brien F Sergio Galvan Rey F Eddie Johnson F Edson Buddle Guillermo Ramirez was a close one, as well as Jimmy Conrad. You could argue for Bigsoccer's boy Landon Donovan, but how can you take out Sergio? Just how? Oh, and Ching is close too...
Hm; GK Busch D Caballero D Curtin D Conrad M Davis M O'Brien M Gomez M Dempsey F Ching F Buddle F Donovan
I prefer an All-American list - not CONCACAF. We can include Ching even though he's Hawaiian. Too bad none of us get to see Colorado.
----Buddle--------EJ------- ----------Donovan---------- --Guerrero--Dempsey---O'Brien- ---------Mastroeni---------- --Vanney----Pope----Marshall--
I definately think that you should open up a best XXI to all players, not just Americans. Players are players regardless of their nationality when they step on the pitch. They should be evaluated as such.
Ching in place of Johnson? Not only to you blead teal, you obviously breath and eat it too.....to the point where your brain no longer functions properly.
GK: Busch RB: Caballero CB: Vanney LB: Burciaga RW: O'Brien CM: O'Rouke CM: Donovan LW: Davis ST: Buddle ST: Johnson ST: Sergio Glavan Rey Many players have stepped up and I really believe the first 3 weeks of MLS have been great. I hope it's a sign of more excitement to come. I chose O'Rouke over Mastroeni for the simple fact that we know Mastro's the best, but O'Rouke could use the press.
I don't think one of these should really pop up until like week 10, but for shits and giggles: GK: Jon Busch, CLB D: Chad Marshall, CLB D: Ivan Guerrero, CHI D: Mike Petke, DC D: Greg Vanney, DAL M: Shalrie Joseph, NE M: Brad Davis, SJ M: Pablo mastroeni, COL M: Richard Mulrooney, DAL F: Edson Buddle, CLB F: Landon Donovan, LA also as a note to those pondering about good left backs, etc. when it comes to the best XI it usually doesn't matter, as long as he plays defense it's normally accebtable, the four defenders on last year's bEST XI were all center backs.
GK: Jon Busch, CLB D: Chad Marshall, CLB D: Ivan Guerrero, CHI D: Mike Petke, DC D: Greg Vanney, DAL M: Clint Dempsey, NE M: Brad Davis, SJ M: Danny O'Rourke, SJ M: Richard Mulrooney, DAL F: Edson Buddle, CLB F: Landon Donovan, LA (No SGR, one game only.) So, who's going to start the Worst XI so far? I advance nominate David Stokes, Brad Guzan and Matt Tayor.
Actually, Stokes has played pretty well following a horrible start against Harbour View. Bobby Boswell has also done well. In fact the player who has struggled the most in DC's back line has been Petke and I'm very surprised you listed him in your best XI. The other interesting but not surprising item is that not one from DCU other than Petke has been selected for Best XI. Clearly John Busch deserves a nod. Perhaps EJ based on his earlier performance asgainst the Galaxy, but both he and Marshall should not be on the list based on the Columbus performance against DC.
Never mind Harbour View, what about against Pumas? He was clearly several classes below the players he was supposed to be marking. I think he was out of position on three of the 5 goals. Petke hasn't been great, nor Marshall, but aside from Vanney and Guerrero who has? I suppose I should drop Marshall and add EJ in a 3-4-1-2 (LD in the hole). Petke could be replaced by Pope, or else I'm open to suggestions.
Ching has scored twice for a not-so-great team and has been a big influence in getting both their points (and almost another in Chicago). Johnson has scored twice for a good team, with no goals in the 0-0 when they needed him, and a goal in stoppage in the last game when it was already over. I think Ching's contribution is more worthy. But that may just be due to the fact that Eddie Johnson is a F*C*er. It's real early for this, but I'd go for: GK: Jon Busch, CLB D: Ezra Hendrickson, Chivas D: Bobby Boswell, DC D: Chad Marshall, CLB D: Ivan Guerrero, CHI M: Chris Klein, JC M: Clint Dempsey, NE M: Richard Mulrooney, DAL M: Brad Davis, SJ F: Brian Ching, SJ F: Thiba, Chivas Just trying to rock the boat. I haven't really watched enough of certain teams to really be fair...