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MLS Player of the Week/Weak

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There were several quality performances, and some truly stunning goals, this weekend in the opening series of MLS games. Picking a player of the week wasn’t easy, but it boiled down to one player being the leader of a thoroughly dominating performance.

Colorado winger Terry Cooke shredded the Los Angeles Galaxy, scoring the opening goal off a rebounded shot and setting up two more goals in the Rapids 4-0 mauling of the Galaxy. There were better goals scored this weekend, and better assists, but Cooke gets the nod for his overall performance, even if it did come against the team I will from now on call the HerbaLife Traffic Cones (at least until they post a shutout).

SBI will be giving out a player of the week honor every week, as well as a player of the WEAK award for the player with the worst performance. The choice for POWeak wasn’t as difficult a decision. That distinction goes to Galaxy defender Abel Xavier, who delivered the defender’s version of the Nightmare Hat-Trick, giving up a penalty kick (albeit on a weak call), getting absolutely abused on a goal and getting a red card.

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Player of the week contenders included Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Wil Hesmer, Adam Moffat and Claudio Lopez. POWeak finalists included Duilio Davino (for his costly error leading to Chivas USA’s equalizer), Colin Samuel (for his missed penalty) and Bakary Soumare (for his own goal).

What do you think of the selections? Who were your choices for POW and POWeak? Share your selections below.

Comments

  1. I second, Player of the week: Sainey Nyassi (New England). In on all the action and scored one hell of a goal.

    Xavier deserves negative POW 10x over. He was terrible.

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  2. Cooke was good, but Gomez ran the show. Also, what is John O’Brien up to these days? And what do you think of the idea of promotion/relegation in US soccer?

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  3. Wow, Ives, do you have any new updates on the Five Points SSS project in Kansas City? They SOOOO need to start breaking ground on that, like, yesterday. I won’t say it looked minor league but I do think I saw Annie cheering on Nuke Laloosh in the stands. Oh well, at least it was nice to see a team from the local rec league get to play on TV.

    Seriously though, the Wizards are going to need to move their little tea party to a bigger house sometime in the next couple years for any games on national TV. Kansas or Mizzou’s football stadiums should suffice. Even a near empty football stadium with turf and football markings but with decent camera angles is preferable to the home video quality of the recording from that facility. Was the Spanish announcer audio intrusion during the game due to them not having a press box? It was beyond weak. I mean it really looked like a scrimmage out there. It’s a shame because KC continues to look like a better than average MLS level side this year.

    Also, I agree with the comments about the laissez-faire officiating for several matches, especially Columbus/Toronto and Chicago/RSL. It also looked amateurish, almost like the refs were afraid to call fouls. If that kind of lack of officiating goes on long enough it can ultimately endanger players and even instigate brawls on and off the field. Considering how relatively tightly most other leagues call their games the MLS’s officiating encourages an overly physical style that squashes instead of rewarding skill and puts MLS out of touch with the rest of the world and develops bad defending habits in young US players. Ironically enough, instead of that kind of officiating opening up play it even ends up shutting it down further. I hate a bad dive and worse theatrics as much as anyone but swallowing the whistle to that extent is counterproductive on the other extreme.

    Okay, complaining aside this was a pretty good opening weekend for MLS. There was good offense and the passing, combinations and touch on the ball seems to be continuing to improve overall for most teams. The pace was lagging but the skill was there. The home fans were loud at every facility and the announcing was professional at every match (though the game announcers in Columbus, while earnest, do seem a little bit unsophisticated about the game). This could be an unexpectedly good year for the league who might not have to rely on pimping out Beckham as much as they fear (well, maybe the Galaxy still will).

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