Sean Henderson (1996)
Adrian Paz (1997-1998)
Jorge Dely Valdes (1999-2000)
Imad Baba (2001-2002)
Zach Kingsley (2002-2004)
Joey DiGimarino (2004)
Jeff Cunningham (2005)
Terry Cooke (2006-2009)
Colin Clark (2010)
Brian Mullan (2010-2014)
Marcelo Saravas (2015)
Shkelzen Gashi (2017-2019)
Jonathan Lewis (2019)
Diego Rubio (2020)
The two options here are obvious (and both right mids/wingers), Cooke and Mullan. I loved watching JDV play, but he's not in the same tier as those two.
The only league-wide honor either one has is Mullan winning MLS Cup 2010. Cooke is second all time in assists in team history behind Chris Henderson (those two are also 1-2 all time in corner kicks taken) and tied for fourth in game-winning assists.
Both players were part of the team for five seasons (though Mullan joined late in the 2010 season), but Cooke has 30 more appearances in that time, despite only being on the squad for 9 more games than Mullan was. From a goal creation perspective, Brian Mullan had 3 goals and 12 assists, plus 2 playoff assists (he's credited with an assist in the 2010 Cup run, but I can't find which goal it was), while Terry Cooke had 4 goals and 34 assists, plus a playoff goal and 2 assists.
A few minutes ago when I started writing this entry I thought the pick was going to be Mullan. Certainly his leadership has been pointed to by many as a key to that Cup winning run and I figured that would make his the choice. Looking at the number though, I think the answer to the best #11 is a personal favorite player of mine, one I've had a chance to talk to on multiple occasions, Terry Cooke.
Now that we've completed the "traditional" numbering system, lets look at what our "best by the numbers" looks like in the traditional formation:
That's a solid midfield and attack, but that back line is just a penalty waiting to happen with Larentowicz and Beckerman in the center.
Posts
1 comment:
Very interesting that the "best 11" only includes 1 CB and no FBs.
Post a Comment