Sunday, August 12, 2007

10 Bright Spots of Week 20: Altidore's brace, Goodson's gamewinner

1. Jozy Altidore: he's got to be here as his play drew applaud from both Bruce Arena and Mo Johnston, who felt his wrath; he also handled himself well after being pelted with beer-filled plastic bottles and other things by the traveling Toronto FC supporters; or should this actually go to the Giants Stadium security guards? regardless, as this Jozy-Juan partnership progresses I am assuming we can expect a bunch of goals and possibly some consistency for a recovering Red Bull squad

2. Clarence Goodson: his goal was the gamewinner in FC Dallas' thrill ride victory over Columbus, 3-2 and it was the peak of a recent spell of great form for the center back; even better, the goal came in injury time while the Hoops were a man down thanks to Marcelo Saragosa's 81st minute ejection; between Goodson and Moor - Dallas has made me swallow my bad comments about the back four and hopefully they continue to do so

3. Juan Pablo Angel: yep, he's back on the list as his scoring streak started over at square one; Angel grabbed the first goal for the Red Bulls' in their 3-0 shutout victory over Toronto FC and although he isn't back to where he was earlier in the year, he was being picked out nicely by the New York fullbacks and saw a lot of the ball showing yet again why he's this league's most potent scoring threat

4. Taylor Twellman: the old 1860 Munich product really has carved himself a niche in Boston and has learned how to demoralize a team in one fell swoop; Twellman provided the only goal needed in the 55th minute to keep the Galaxy searching for those elusive points in their quest to reach the MLS playoffs with a hobbled David Beckham in tow

5. Luciano Emilio: 4 out of 5 of the top five are goalscorers and their presence at the top shows consistency; Emilio is exactly that and with his goal to sink Beckham and the Galaxy in front of 47,000 at RFK Stadium, he now leads the league in goals scored; he also has beat out Twellman this year for best positioning as the Brazilian seems to always be in the right place at the right time; the craziest thing is that if he would correct his inability to finish the sitters, he could have 16 or 17 by now

6. Colorado Rapids fans: not in as dire straits as the Real Salt Lake faithful, but the Rapids have been playing arguably the worst soccer of any MLS team as of late; after a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Seattle, the Rapids were gifted a 1-0 win over one of the hottest teams in the league, Houston (who has now lost two tough ones in a row); a win is a win, even though it was Dwayne DeRosario who scored the goal for Colorado

7. Dax McCarty: many people are hit or miss with this young talent as well as with his performance as super-sub in the U-20 World Cup; his recent MLS form cannot be argued with though as the midfielder helped Dallas overcome Charleston in the Open Cup and leads the team in assists with 6; add his presence to the rediscovered ability of Arturo Alvarez, the resurgence of the defense, and you got yourself a tough team in Dallas

8. Chris Leitch: why was this guy ever cut? Leitch - a couple years ago - played massive minutes for the Red Bulls but he was eventually waived, picked up by Columbus, and now back to Leitch after the New York defense went thin; Leitch has been decent in his first two appearances for the Red Bulls and Arena is nothing but happy with him

9. Kenny Stamatopoulos: the Reds' most recent goalkeeper makes it on for sheer effort, despite conceding three goals to a high-octane Red Bulls' offense; he faced 21 shots - 11 on goal - and kept it at 3-0.

10. Mo Johnston: for dealing with 8 starters out and being an all-around class character; I had the privilege of speaking with him and his reputation precedes him; plus - anyone that jokes about Tyrone Marshall as a striker can make my list

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