Marvell Wynne makes trouble: my MLS Team of the Week

Two topics to cover this week:

1) Cheating

2) Good performance on losing teams

As for the cheating, Marvell Wynne played as a right back for Colorado in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Seattle. I put him at right midfield on the MLS Week 17 Team of the Week, because Heath Pearce also did well at right back. And as the weekend included just four league matches, the pickings were a bit slim overall, so I didn’t feel too badly about selecting two right backs.

By the way, I am finding Wynne to be a perplexing figure.

He wasn’t great last year as a right back in Toronto, hence his trade to the Rapids. That’s where coach Gary Smith tried Wynne at center back, and I thought he looked pretty good there. Now, the son of the Major Leaguer of the same name is back at right fullback. And he did quite well Sunday. Wynne got forward frequently and delivered two of the best crosses I’ve ever seen the man hit. (Typically, Wynne had the wheels to get forward, but often lacked precision on passes and crosses once into the final third.)  So, maybe he’s really rounding into a more complete player – or maybe this is just a temporary thing. At any rate, he deserves monitoring.

Wynne also illustrates my other head-scratcher today: how often should I include a player from a losing team on the weekly list?  My thought is that it’s a sliding scale. If your team loses, you have to be extra good to deserve inclusion. (Or, be pretty good on a light weekend, if I’m being very honest.) Fact is, Colorado’s Omar Cummings was dangerous for the Rapids, too. Teammates Pablo Mastroeni and Drew Moor had good matches as well. Coloradowas generally the better team; Seattle just got the goals.

Here’s the team. It’s from my Weekly “Five Things to Know” at SI.com. This week’s topics there include the importance of depth in MLS, Thierry Henry’s pair of performances, potential coaching upheaval and more.

Goalkeeper:  Dan Kennedy (Chivas USA).

Defenders: Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Chad Marshall (Columbus), Ugo Ihemelu (FC Dallas), Ante Jazic (ChivasUSA), Marvell Wynne (Colorado).

Midfielders:  Ned Grabavoy (Real Salt Lake), Adam Moffat (Columbus), Steve Zakuani (Seattle).

Forwards:  Maicon Santos (Toronto), Fredy Montero (Seattle).