Photo by ISIphotos.com
Major League Soccer will be announcing its 2009 MLS Best XI later this afternoon and while some of the picks are easy to make, some others will be very difficult.
Picking this year's forwards was especially tough, with a half dozen worth candidates for the Best XI nod. You can see the quality on display this season when you see the SBI's selections for MLS Best XI, Second Best XI and Third Best XI.
MVP Finalists Landon Donovan, Shalrie Joseph and Jeff Cunningham all made the squad as expected, while MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Zach Thornton also gets the nod.
The SBI selections for the 2009 MLS Best XI feature nine players who took part in this year's playoffs, and includes players representing four different countries.
Here are our selections:
SBI MLS Best XI
————Jeff Cunningham——–Fredy Montero—————
—————————-Landon Donovan————————-
Brad Davis—————Dwayne DeRosario——–Stuart Holden
—————————–Shalrie Joseph—————————
Jhon Kennedy Hurtado—-Chad Marshall———-Geoff Cameron
——————————Zach Thornton—————————
SECOND TEAM
—————-GB Schelotto————Omar Cummings————–
Claudio Lopez————–David Ferreira———Freddie Ljungberg
—————Kyle Beckerman————-Jeff Larentowicz ———–
Wilman Conde————-Bobby Boswell—————–Bryan Namoff
—————————-Donovan Ricketts——————————
THIRD TEAM
———————Conor Casey———-Robbie Findley—————
Dave Van Den Bergh——–Sacha Kljestan————-Steve Ralston
—————–Osvaldo Alonso———-Amado Guevara—————
Tyrone Marshall————-Omar Gonzalez—————Carey Talley
——————————–Kasey Keller———————————
————-
Some thoughts on the selections:
Tough choice between Fredy Montero and Omar Cummings, but Montero was just so key to Seattle's attack for a large part of the season (at least until Freddie Ljungerg got going).
Another tough call was Stuart Holden over Ljungberg. It was probably more DeRosario over Ljungberg to be honest, but in the end I just couldn't overlook Ljungberg's lack of impact in the first half of the season (yes, I'm aware he had issues with migraines and such, but you're chosen based on what you do, not what you could have done).
One first-teamer I struggled with was MLS Defender of the Year Chad Marshall. Why? He only played in 18 matches. Folks who think Boswell (29 matches) or even Omar Gonzalez (30 matches) would have a valid argument that their contributions as a whole were greater than Marshall's. Also, the Crew defense didn't exactly fall apart without Marshall. All that said, he's still so dominant when he's in the lineup that it's tough to leave him out.
Wondering how Schelotto only made second team? Consider how little he contributed in the second half and you realize that it actually wasn't that tough to leave him off.
A tough second team call was Larentowicz over Alonso. I really could have gone either way, and actually switched to Larentowicz late after considering how strongly he finished the season and how key he was to the Revs reaching the playoffs. Alonso, as amazing as he was in the first half of the season, wasn't quite as strong later on in the year, but still put forth a stellar season.
On the third team, I really thought Ricardo Clark and Jonathan Bornstein played well enough to get on, but ultimately missed the cut, as did Marco Pappa and Darrius Barnes.
The very last cut from the squad? Juan Pablo Angel, who deserves tons of credit for still scoring 12 goals on an absolutely terrible New York Red Bulls team. As impressive as that was, I had to give the nod to Robbie Findley, whose 12 goals helped RSL get into the playoffs.
Lastly, I didn't bother with naming the teams based strictly on specific positions, so no, there are no fullbacks on the first team (and no left backs on any of the teams). Best left back in MLS this season? Gino Padula overcame a rough start of the season to come on strong for Columbus, while Chris Wingert also enjoyed a good season. And no, choosing three defenders, five midfielders and two forwards wasn't my idea. It's the MLS format. I suppose I could have gone with my own, but that "formation" does make it easier to select these teams since the league has more quality midfielders than defenders.
————
What do you think of these selections? Which pick do you disagree with the most? Which player is missing from all three lists that you thought should have been on?
Share your thoughts below.
Not only see Freddie starting in the EPL next season, but know it.
Freddie struggled early in the season. No question. He was coming back from an injury/surgery. Then he had the whole odd migraine thing going on…. another distraction. So let’s just take it from mid-season on. The surgery corrected a problem that most involved felt was the core reason for ALL of his injury woes in the past 3 years. He took a bigger beating here than he’ll ever see in the EPL. Trouble holding? Really? Really?!? Wow, the guy rarely turns the ball over, despite the fact that his teammates often don’t have a clue about how to run to space and support him.
And, yes, Riley is not only the most popular player in Seattle, he is among his teammates, thus the recent reward given to him by them. Class act all the way. Discipline problems? Don’t be silly! Watch the highlights of every goal scored against us this year (I have), the guy was legitimately beaten on about 6-8 occasions, three of which led to goals. I’ll take that any day, especially from a cast off.
Now, perhaps this is just a one-off phenomenon and next year he settles back into being inconsistent and unreliable. But this season, he and hurtado were the defense, along with a certain goalie.
Just to be clear, I didn’t mean to critisize the teams you put forth. Obviously a forward that scored 12 goals on a winning team had a better year than one who scored 12 goals on a losing team.
I was more lamenting the fact that if you put Angel on any of the teams that has someone who can distribute from the midfield he would probably score 20 goals instead of 12.
Ives,
I saw that at the bottom after I posted what I did above. Knee-jerk reaction by me. I still disagree but I understand your take on it now, but saw JPA wasn’t there and had a knee-jerk reaction.
lol, ives how come he gets a response and i dont! Still waiting!
(SBI-A response to what exactly?)
poop
No, Ives, I think your numbers are wrong.
I get 6-2-3 in matches Beckham played in (21 points, or 1.91 PPG), and 6-4-9 in matches in which Beckham didn’t play (27 points, or 1.42 PPG). And after April, LA was 6-3-5 in matches in which Beckham didn’t play (23 points, or 1.64 PPG). So the Galaxy were better with Beckham even if we are just looking at the post-April matches.
That said, it looks to me that the Galaxy turnaround really began with the 1-0 win over Houston on 6/28 – before Beckham arrived. Beginning with that match, the Gals began a stretch of 4 wins in a row, and 7 wins in 10 matches.
(SBI-You’re right A.S., I had an extra win, where LA had lost. LA was 4-1 in its five matches without Beckham from that Houston win on, and 6-2-3 in matches with Beckham. LA really came together in June as it learned to play without Donovan (who was at Confederations Cup) and kicked into another gear with Donovan and Beckham. Yes, Beckham played great when he was here, but the notion that Beckham sparked LA out of a funk and “taught” LA how to win is misleading. Beckham had some great games and helped LA finish first in the West, but he still didn’t do enough to make MLS Best XI.)
You are looking at the wrong statistics. Before Beckham’s return, the Galaxy couldn’t win; after his return they won most of the games they played and came within a point of taking the Supporters’ Shield. If Ralston had been as effective as Beckham, the Galaxy would be playing New England this weekend.
(SBI-Ren, LA won three straight right before Beckham’s ’09 debut so I’d say they had figured out how to win. They also won both games Beckham missed after he arrived, so they managed to win without him.)
Im a sounders fan, but do you really see Freddie starting in the EPL next season? Really? Where?
Do you really see the Sounders just letting him out of his contract and going back to England even if he could? Really? He wouldn’t be able to do what Beckham has done because he hardly held up in the MLS this season and clearly didn’t have the speed or ability to hold the ball that he had in the past. He did come on later in the season but really? really?
Riley did well but he has some discipline problems. I like to see another Seattle defender listed and I guess Tyrone is as good a pick as Riley. Riley is popular here but the most popular player in seattle by far? here is comes again…really?
And, of course, no player has suddenly emerged after a few stale years and a change of scenery? I’m telling you, he’s been a revelation. Utterly solid and a critical piece to our offense.
who would you pick your son or the ginger ninja oh wait he called up the other ginger
Seattle speaks. Riley was so valuable that NE left him exposed. Watched him for years and Kevin Alston is already better than Riley will ever be
His wife is a Dallas native, so they wanted to be closer to “home”.
I wouldnt say clearly, but your point is valid. Im looking at it like this: If Beckham played 900 minutes compared to Ralston’s 1700 thats nearly half of the minutes Ralston played. 7 assists and 7 goals compared to 3 and 2 on Beckhams part, is again, nearly half. So in a sense the numbers are more similar when looked at more closely. But again, Ives’ best XI is based on a number of variables, so…
Ans – he’s never played for Bradley and that is critical for MLS people to make the NAT team. I’m not sure that he isn’t better than junior
I’d vote for Blanco if there was an “All Floppers” team. He’s the most shameless diver since Carlos Ruiz and I’m actually glad to see him take his diving show elsewhere