The passing of MLS All-Star Week traditionally means the kickoff to the unofficial second half of the Major League Soccer season, and the stretch run towards what is usually an exciting playoff race.
It is also the point in the season when it is time to look at which players have enjoyed the best season’s to date. Over the past few days, SBI has presented mid-season staff picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Now it is time to present the SBI staff selections for the MLS mid-season Best XI.
Selecting these teams is never easy, and it is impossible to come up with a consensus that will make everybody happy. Our goal is to try and come up with as strong a list of selections as possible, strictly taking into account performances in MLS play only, while also having a first team squad with the best players listed at their natural positions (as much as that can be a bit impossible considering teams use a variety of formations). National team accomplishments and U.S. Open Cup endeavors are not factored into the voting process. Voting was based on player MLS accomplishments prior to the All-Star Game.
Now, without further ado, here are the SBI staff selections for the Mid-Season MLS Best XI:
SBI MID-SEASON MLS BEST XI
FIRST TEAM
Dom Dwyer—–Bradley Wright-Phillips—Obafemi Martins
——————Diego Valeri——Javier Morales——————-
—————————–Kyle Beckerman—————————–
Seth Sinovic———————————————Sean Franklin
—————-Bobby Boswell——–Chad Marshall—————–
——————————–Nick Rimando—————————–
SECOND TEAM
Thierry Henry ———–Erick Torres———Robbie Keane
————Federico Higuain———Benny Feilhaber——-
—————————Michael Bradley———————-
Chris Wingert—————————————-Zach Loyd
—————-Matt Besler————Nat Borchers————-
——————————Bill Hamid—————————
THIRD TEAM
Joao Plata————-Jermain Defoe——-Fabian Espindola
—————-Lee Nguyen———-Pedro Morales————–
—————————-Perry Kitchen—————————
Ray Gaddis——————————————Tony Beltran
—————-Matt Hedges———-Aurelien Collin————
——————————-Luis Robles————————–
FOURTH TEAM
Sebastien LeToux——-Clint Dempsey————–Blas Perez
——————–Juninho————-Dillon Powers————
—————————-Osvaldo Alonso————————-
Justin Morrow—————————————-Dan Gargan
————–Chris Schuler———–A.J. De La Garza———–
——————————Erik Kronberg————————-
FIFTH TEAM
Graham Zusi————-Landon Donovan—————–Lloyd Sam
————Cristian Maidana————-Justin Mapp——————
——————————Will Johnson———————————
Waylon Francis—————————————Steven Beitashour
————Michael Parkhurst——–Amobi Okugo——————-
——————————–Steve Clark——————————–
—————
What do you think of our selections? Who failed to make the first team that you think should have been on the team? Who didn’t make any of the five teams that you believe deserved a mention?
Share your thoughts below.
I think it’s really interesting that you have Zach Lloyd and Matt Hedges on the list, but not Fabian Castillo, Mauro Diaz, or Tesho Akindele. Dallas has let in more goals than most other teams. They also score more goals than most other teams. The brightest stars for Dallas are not defenders, as much as I love Lloyd and Hedges.
Given that this is really the “Best XXXXXV”, the biggest omission is FC Dallas’ Tesho Akindele. He’s probably not among the best MLS 11, but certainly deserved to be somewhere on the many teams presented here.
Tesho is showing very well for a rookie but when his play over the entire first half of the season is compared to many of the forwards on this list, it hasn’t been all that impressive. Of course, there are plenty of intangibles that aren’t factored in like off-the-ball movement, but by-and-large I think his exclusion wasn’t unfair.
Fabian Castillo and Mauro Diaz on the other hand…
How is the first team not completely made up of Chicago Fire players? *SARCASM*
How anyone in the World Cup makes the 1st team baffles me…. first team snubs for me are Feilhaber and Morales
Perry Kitchen <<<<<< Osvaldo Alonso. Just, wow Ives.
Otherwise, nice work. =)
Robles is the only reason R/B have done anything this season. Place him above Hamid, good as well, but not the 1 reason for his team being where it is
We don’t need five teams. You’ve just named 1/4 of the league’s starters. Why stop there? Why not name19 teams?
I agree with almost all if this
DC UNITED!!! And what about espindola???
As someone who watches RSL closely every week, Schuler has had a better season than Borchers.
I could also argue that no RSL man has had a better season than Joao Plata, but he plays a different role than the teammates you have ranked ahead of him, so it’s hard to compare.
What? No sixth team?
Juninho is underrated, a real key to the Galaxy and better than 4th team.
I know I’m a quakes fan, but Wondo and Busch are the main reasons the quakes still have a shot at playoffs
From the Sounders games I have watched, Dempsey has had a bigger role in their success than Martins. I could nitpick some of the other selections, but this was the biggest error IMHO.
Vincent Nogueira deserved to be on one of those teams. Easily the most calm and silky smooth player on the ball the Union have ever had. Le Toux and Maidana may have the stats, but for my money Noggy has been the best player on the team and deserves to be considered for new comer of the year.
I think Nogueira is the best player to every play for Philly but his position just isn’t the kind that draws a lot of attention
Oh absolutely and he’s 26. He’s really singlehandedly gonna be the core of this team for a while. Maidana has been very good, Le Toux has been racking up goals and creating great pressure and Casey has been revived yet again but there’s no doubt that Noguiera has been the best player on the field in almost every game he’s played in for this club.
Feilhaber over Morales but otherwise I agree.
O/T but are Gonzalez or Dwyer gonna be sold by month’s end? Both can probably fetch like 3-4 million for their clubs
Dempsey is a far better player than Donovan
That’s why he’s on the fourth team, and LD is on the fifth team.
I think fourth team is pretty absurd for him though – this list is pretty biased for recent performances. Dempsey has the third highest goals/game in the league (behind BWP and Defoe) and has more assists in less games than both. He hasn’t been as hot since coming back, but even in playing half the games of nearly everyone else on the list, he’s 9th in the league in scoring. Espindola and Plata ahead of him? That’s nuts!
I can’t wait for Donovan fans to come down hard on Ives for putting him on the fifth team.
I think you got Schuler and Borchers confused. Love them both, but I think Chris has surpassed Nat as the best in RSL’s backline. Nat is still the leader, but Chris has played great.
ok…i disagree with that first, Borchers in my opinion has been way better. but to explain another reason, this is all season, borchers was out for many games…
Amen, Borchers has been good and steady as always, but Schuler for me has been the best defender in the league this year. He has absolutely been a wall all year and nobody seems to get past him. I also believe if healthy, he may be the best American CB we have for the USMNT.
How far out of contention for these lists is will trapp?
Giancarlo Gonzalez?
Diaz???
+1, FCD attack is woefully under-represented.