1. Juan Carlos Toja – his first time at the top; Toja handcrafted an FC Dallas comeback tie at RFK Stadium against one of the hottest teams in the league; with a brace of plays exuding borderline psycho work ethic and determination, the Colombian has found his spark that he was missing in
Argentina
2. Steve Ralston – not the best of games against the Red Bulls but his MLS assist record shall be rewarded nevertheless; any guy that passes Carlos Valdaramma on a record chart deserves what honors he gets; Ralston won the tackle at midfield from Clint Mathis and distributed the pass to Shalrie Joseph which eventually led to Andy Dorman’s rocket blast – ultimately, the goal won the game and put New England up in the season rivalry
3. Luciano Emilio – yea, his effort gets knocked down a couple due to the end result of D.C’s 3-3 tie with the Hoops (squandering a 3-0 lead will do that to you) but the truth is, Emilio keeps finding ways to find the net and puts away those chances that just fall in front of him; many strikers find a way to miss those, when it’s harder to miss than make
4. Houston Dynamo defense – an MLS shutout record for 685 minutes certainly means something but it isn’t an amazing defense; in this league, it’s consistency – playing organized and tough game in and game out; a wily mix of veterans (Eddie Robinson, Cochrane – the youngest – Wade Barrett, etc.) has kept the Dynamo in the opponent’s half and never worried
5. David Beckham – we’ll give him a spot on the top ten just because we can call him an
MLS player now; 5,000 fans were itching to meet him at Home Depot Center and those same 5,000 booed the mayor of Los Angeles; anyways, it will be fun to see how all this Beckham-mania pans out
6. Stuart Holden – who would of thought with the kind of the week he had Holden would be bumped down to 6
th!?; could of put him above Beckham but it’s okay, he won’t mind; the 21 year old, thanks to an unfortunate Brad Davis injury; has pushed his way into the starting line-up and immediately he has added a different component to Houston’s unbeaten push; he cracks shots from outside and hustles off the ball all while showing the composure of seemingly an
MLS veteran; Thursday he had a goal to go with his goal and assist from the week before - can the form continue?
7. Andy Dorman – though part of the 1-0 sleeper against New York, it was Dorman who broke that deadlock with a wicked right foot strike that sailed by the flat-footed Jon Conway; the Welsh midfielder has caught the scoring bug with 7 at the All-Star break, already surpassing his total of 6 from last season
8. Boris Pardo – I don’t know who he is or where he came from but Toronto FC has found a way to start taking goalkeepers off the street and put them in uniform; actually he is a Seton Hall University graduate and played a bit professionally in Chile for Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile; Djekanovic started and completed the game so no use for Boris
9. Adrian Serioux – simply for returning from a nasty injury, playing 66 minutes, not getting injured again (Michael Owen-style), and doing what he needed to do; a win for FC Dallas would have been nice though; Serioux will be thrust straight into that backline as Alex Yi is now out with injury for a while
10. Eddie Johnson – hi, I’m Eddie Johnson – I go away for a little while – suck – and then come back to the MLS and learn how to score all over again; a little bitter yes but he did provide the little kick in the ass the Wizards needed to get over a scrappy and, albeit, desperate, Real Salt Lake squad
Because I Think…’s Worst of the Week: Juan Pablo Angel, a stretch but I thought it would be interesting to have the contrast of first to worst; Angel was easily frustrated this past weekend against New England tussling with Shalrie Joseph and Andy Dorman at different moments in the game; it was Angel’s elbow (whether intentional or not) that on Joseph late in the game that capped a rather frustrating performance from the Bulls
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