As you all know (or some of you may not), things have changed here at Total-MLS in an order to bring you more coverage of our beloved league and sport. One of our new additions will be an Unsung Player of the Week award. Most sites do players and Best XI’s for every week of the league and we felt that we would highlight some players who rarely see the limelight. Now some choices down the road may have been selected to a Best XI or could very well have been selected as player of the week.
Now, many of you may be asking what an unsung player of the week is. It’s very simple: a player who helped his team secure three points but is not likely to get highlighted by the media and most likely did not show up on the score sheet for the match. It looks like this leaves us to only highlight defensive midfielders, keepers, and some defenders but not so. Forwards, wingers, and attacking mids do the little things during the course of a game that go unnoticed and if they don’t score and only have secondary assists, we have a winner.
For the first week I went it alone with my choice and it may seem a bit bias but I hope to persuade you from thinking that. This being said, in the future I look forward to your picks for the Unsung Player of the Week. Tweet at the @TotalMLS account, or me directly @Drickelini, and let us know who you think it should be. You never know, we may just agree with you.
The first Unsung Player of the Week award goes to the New York Red Bulls left back, Anthony Wallace. Wallace made only his third appearance for the Red Bulls and it was his second straight star. After piling on the pain for the Revolution with a goal last week, Wallace and the Red Bulls took on Orlando City for the first time in MLS league play. Wallace had the distinct pleasure of marking Kaka for the majority of the game, even after OCSC went down to 10 men. Kaka never had a shot on goal, let alone an errant shot that missed the goalmouth. Kaka was mostly successful through the center of the pitch when he roamed there. Wallace had four clearances from inside the Red Bulls own 18, he had a couple of recoveries and tackles in the final third, and had two key interceptions at the top of NY’s own 18 yard box. The Red Bulls beat Orlando, 2-0, and recorded their 5th clean sheet of the season. Wallace is getting highlighted because normally it is the defensive pairing of Young Matt Miazga and Damien Perinelle who get the praises after a defensive performance the Red Bulls displayed. It is doubly impressive of a player who really only sees the field for the teams USL side (or maybe MLS having USL teams is actually working and Robbie Rogers wasn’t an anomaly).
What do you think? Did another player stick out to you that no one else is talking about? We look forward to hearing from you.
(image courtesy of newyorkredbulls.com)
