He's not the only 5-time winner, unless you mean the only defender. Donovan won six, and there's also Brian Mullan. Agoos should be there if you make it a 4-4-2.
Lewis left before he could make a big impact. Brad Davis has been mentioned, and I'll put in a word for Manny Lagos, but he's not really Best XI material.
The thing about that era of Donovan's career is that he never racked up big MLS numbers because he missed so much time for national team duty. MLS scheduling at that time made effectively no accommodations to the international calendar, and Donovan peaked at 23 regular season appearances during his first five seasons. He also had only one 10-goal season, but anyone who was watching saw what a massive impact he made on his teams. Additionally, his playoff accomplishments were never considered for single-season awards, but were certainly considered by whoever voted on the 10-year Best XI.
Did Stu art Holden get enough years in for mention? He played mostly winger on those Houston teams. DaMarcus Beasley also is an odd mention, because of the bifurcated nature of his career in MLS, but he ended up with nearly a decade of time here.
Alonso was the best DM from 2009-2019. I didn't really watch any MLS pre 2007 due to availability and lack of interest so I can't speak to the earlier decade.
I disagree. He never racked up big numbers because he was mostly played out of position. If Landon had grown up in Europe, he'd have been an out and out striker along the lines of Vela/Martinez today. Growing up in the United States he (like d-mid Claudio Reyna before him) was shoe-horned into the #10 position because of his technical ability on the ball and vision. His big run at striker came with the latter Beckham Galaxy teams, but he'd spent the prime of his career either at the 10 or out on the wings (thank you Bob Bradley).
In San Jose he wasn't usually a central midfielder, but more of a withdrawn forward in a 4-4-2, paired with a more traditional striker (Ronald Cerritos, Ariel Graziani, Brian Ching, etc.). Yallop liked to play 2 d-mids in the central midfield (RIchard Mulrooney and Ronnie Ekelund) and to use the wings to lead the attack. Sometimes he was moved back into the midfield to make room for DeRosario to play forward, but DeRo didn't have his true breakthrough until he was moved into the #10 rjole after Donovan and Mulrooney left.
Interesting debate here. The peak value vs longevity stuff is interesting. Rimando is the poster boy for this in my view. But if you are gonna be on this type of team, for me, at some point, and for some duration, you have to have been THE best at what you did. Goal scorer. #10. Winger assist guy. Traditional #9. Destroyer. 6/8 hybrid. Goal scoring winger. 8/10 hybrid. Attacking fullback. Dominant aerial CB. Two way wide mid. Whatever. Now, some guys maybe only had that for 1-3 years (Stern John, Ibra, Vela, Almiron, Christian Gomez, etc) but shined really brightly. Some guys were in the 4-5 year range (Schelotto, Nowak, Keane). Maybe some guys had a bit of brilliance and then dropped off, but continued to play & rack up stats. Some guys only had a couple of fantastic years & then were gone. I can see an argument for those types on the team. They guys I struggle with are the guys who are good to very good, but never the best. Dim stars, I call them. They shine forever but are not as bright. I put Rimando in that category. I mean, I put him at the TOP of that category (Kevin Hartman, etc), but still a dim star. Guys like Ralston, Hejduk, Agoos, Armas, Pablo, Joseph, Alonso, they may not have have hit MVP level due to the positions they played, but one can certainly argue they were the best at what they did. Heck, even Brad Davis was the best left footed crosser for a bit. But I tend to put Rimando in there with Brian Carroll types. I get why they are in the convo, but I tend not to pick them. However, GK is kind of unique in that most if the studs didn't play as long or moved to Europe (Friedel, Howard, Guzan, Steffen, etc). Still, Jeff Cunningham is #3 in goals, with lots of assists as well, have not heard his name mentioned.
Jeff Cunningham I thought of instantly. One of my favorite non-Galaxy MLS players. I was surprised he didn't get mentioned earlier, but I guess he never won a Championship? But truly one of the great MLS goalscorers.
-------------------------------------Brian Ching -------------------Jaime Moreno--------------Damani Ralph --------Preki---------------------De Rosario---------------------Stuart Holden --------------------------------Pablo Mastroeni ----------Robin Fraser-----Carlos Bocanegra------Eddie Pope -----------------------------------Pat Onstad Coach: Sigi Shmid
uh... thats a very Dynamo laden Best XI. How could you possibly defend Onstad? Stu Holden, nah! Ching as your first choice striker, laughable.
Because those players won MLS silverware. MLS Cups and as well repped MLS at the CONCACAF regional match level very well when that was a very difficult task considering the wage bill gap. Brian Ching was MLS Cup MVP in 2006. Had the goal of the year that season as well. Stuart Holden would go on to play for the U.S. at the 2010 World Cup and parley his MLS success into a leap to the EPL in a starting role as a field player. Again, at a time when this was not seen too often from American field players. De Rosario is the greatest footballer in his nation's history. Pat Onstad is the greatest goalie in his nation's history and his GAA there in the 0t's was spectacular! What leagues were you watching in 2005-2010???
Not to diminish winning a championship--you need good players to do that, but hey, Wells Thompson won an MLS Cup too. While a lot of these guys being mentioned are deserving of consideration, there are lots and lots of reasons why this team or that team might win a Cup or not. If Winston Griffiths' shot was a quarter-inch lower or if Avery John's head was at a slightly different angle, there would be a different set of players in that Cup-winning category, but it doesn't change their overall careers. The question with any "all-time best" team is whether it's a lifetime achievement award (the entire career) or whether you just count the time he spent in MLS (or with your club) We Revs fans used to have this argument with Walter Zenga (lifetime achievement, but only 2 seasons with the Revs) vs Matt Reis, who had a stellar career, almost all in a Revs kit. I would count only the MLS years for a certain player. Otherwise Babe Ruth would be the greatest Braves player ever, or at least until some other guy came along and broke his record. And the beef I have about Meola is that he was so abysmal regarding his positioning that he would dive to make a "spectacular" save that would have been routine for a properly-positioned keeper who was 2 steps over.
2005-2010? Same MLS as you, just not through Orange colored lenses. All of them were excellent players, but MLS Best XI over the first 25 years, not so much. Without going through the exercise, Ching would be lucky to be included a top 10 striker list. Heck, he’d struggle to be named the best Dynamo striker. Stu Holden had some great years, but unfortunately, injuries and longevity in MLS take him off the list for me. Pat Onstad, deserves consideration, but over Kevin Hartman or Nick Rimando? Nope. I’d probably put Jon Busch and Luis Robles over him as well. On the other hand DeRo is certainly at least an honorable mention on this list! Edit - De Rosario probably of all of them is on the list.
This is a really good start. I would not have included Omar and Chris, and probably not Nick. Not sure who I would include a GK, but it wouldn't be Meolo even though he probably had the best year ever as a GK. Hartman comes to mind and possibly Onstad. As far as Omar replacement, I would go with Agoos or Boca. I will leave it up to others to figure out the Wondo replacement. Lastly I would go with a 4-4-2. The first 15 years of MLS was primarily 4-4-2.
Hmmm... and this also brings up an issue with how do you address players of different eras. Take Brian McBride, as noted earlier, easily one of the best forward in MLS’s earlier years, but compared to current forwards like Vela and Martinez, not so much. Some of that is certainly peak vs career value, but Martinez is entering his 4th season with Atlanta United, so he’s entering the career discussion. I’d also throw in Valeri, who, IMHO, runs circles around most the midfield options thrown in so far. Not to mention Chara and Alonso at DM would also be a good shout compared to most early MLS DMs. *shrug* “Best of” lists are always the worst, in part because you have the old timers throwing up the guys from the past while ignoring the new guys, the newbies throwing up the new players while ignoring the guys from the past, then some guy who claims he has a stat that adjusts for eras and is THE definitive determiner for “Best of”
Yeah, that and the fact that if you disagree with my opinion, that automatically puts you in the "don't know what you're talking about" category.
Onstad was a 2 time MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. I think he is a perfectly defensible choice. DeRo is fine. Rico Clark or Davis is not outlandish. Stu is pushing it a bit, but he was very good. Ching is off the rails given the alternatives.