Major League Soccer Player Ratings: August 11, 2014

Welcome back to Evans Rankings. It has been a crazy past five months but it is good to be back where this whole journey started. We have shifted our focus here at Evans Rankings from a team ranking system to a player ranking system which I developed during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I decided that I liked it so much that I wanted to expand to Major League Soccer and the English Premier League. For now, those will be the only two leagues that are covered here. The overall Top 25 Rankings will be posted here as well as some weekly award pieces, if you are looking for a player-by-player breakdown for any team in particular then look for which tab they would qualify under on the top bar here and you'll be able to find them.

For today's post we are looking at the overall Top 25 players in Major League Soccer according to the Evans Rankings MLS Player Database.

Rank	Player	Points	Club
1	Robbie Keane	40.45	Los Angeles Galaxy
2	Bradley Wright-Phillips	38.95	New York Red Bulls
3	Diego Valeri	37.73	Portland Timbers
4	Pedro Morales	36.88	Vancouver Whitecaps
5	Dom Dwyer	35.56	Sporting Kansas City
6	Erick Torres	35.02	Chivas USA
7	Javier Morales	33.23	Real Salt Lake
8	Thierry Henry	33.00	New York Red Bulls
9	Obafemi Martins	30.99	Seattle Sounders FC
10	Giles Barnes	30.54	Houston Dynamo
11	Joao Plata	30.09	Real Salt Lake
12	Federico Higuain	30.04	Columbus Crew
13	Drew Moor	29.80	Colorado Rapids
14	Will Johnson	29.80	Portland Timbers
15	Harry Shipp	29.75	Chicago Fire
16	Clint Dempsey	28.40	Seattle Sounders FC
17	Lee Nguyen	28.37	New England Revolution
18	Sebastien Le Toux	28.35	Philadelphia Union
19	Will Bruin	28.21	Houston Dynamo
20	Dillon Powers	28.11	Colorado Rapids
21	Stefan Frei	28.05	Seattle Sounders FC
22	Eric Alexander	28.03	New York Red Bulls
23	David Ousted	27.80	Vancouver Whitecaps
24	Bobby Boswell	27.44	D.C. United
25	Jon Busch	27.40	San Jose Earthquakes

How Our Points Are Calculated:

It is a little complicated but our points system is based on the statistics that a player accumulated over a season. Each individual stat is given a numeric value which is then added all together to determine their point value. Here is a breakdown of each stat's numeric value:

STAT	Points Per	Notes
Each Match Played In	0.50
Each Match Started	0.25
Minutes per Match	0.01
Goals Scored	1.00
Assists	1.00
Shots	0.05
Shots on Target	0.10
Offsides	-0.10
Fouls Committed	-0.05
Fouls Suffered	0.05
Yellow Cards	-0.50
Red Cards	-1.00
Wins	0.10	GKs only
Losses	-0.10	GKs only
Draws	0.05	GKs only
Saves	0.10	GKs only
Goals Allowed	-0.10	GKs only
Clean Sheets	1.00	GK and DEF only

Predicting the 23-Man US National Team (March 14th edition)

It has been over a week since the United States Men’s National Team lost 2-0 to Ukraine in their last friendly on a FIFA Matchday. The match was in doubt for most the time leading up to kickoff due to the violence in Ukraine and a weird story about a Cypriot referee’s car being blown up. It was a very important fixture for Jurgen Klinsmann though as it would be his last opportunity to take a look at his European-based players before the deadline to name his 30-man provisional roster in May.

The United States still has one more friendly scheduled before the provisional squad deadline in a friendly with Mexico in early April at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ. This friendly will likely be filled with North American-based players from Major League Soccer and Liga MX as clubs will not be required to release players for this match.

Here is what I think the 23 man squad to Brazil looks like as of today, also including the seven players that I think will make the provisional squad.

Goalkeepers (3):

Starter
Tim Howard	Everton
Backups
Brad Guzan	Aston Villa
Nick Rimando	Real Salt Lake

This position grouping is set in my eyes as Howard will not be demoted at this point; he is one of the best American goalkeepers of all-time and this is certainly his final World Cup at age 36 when the tournament kicks off.

Guzan has been the back-up for a number of years now and will likely be the favorite to take over for Howard when the next cycle of World Cup qualifying starts.

Rimando will turn 35 during the World Cup but he has proven that he still has the abilities that he possessed in his youth. He had an amazing match against the Los Angeles Galaxy last weekend making nine saves including a last-minute penalty save. He will probably not see the field but he should be rewarded with the World Cup experience.

Defenders (7):

Starters
RB	Brad Evans	Seattle Sounders FC
CB	Omar Gonzalez	Los Angeles Galaxy
CB	Matt Besler	Sporting Kansas City
LB	DaMarcus Beasley	Puebla
Backups
	Geoff Cameron	Stoke Ctiy
	Clarence Goodson	San Jose Earthquakes
	Michael Parkhurst	Columbus Crew

Three of the starting spots are locks in my opinion with Gonzalez, Besler and Beasley occupying those spots. The right back has been a question for a long time now with Brad Evans currently leading the pack in the race for that role.  One of the biggest complaints about Evans is that he is not a natural right back, so why is he starting over somebody who plays right back full-time for his club in Geoff Cameron?

It would be unfair to judge Cameron based on his play in the Ukraine friendly as the center-backs were caught out of position on multiple occasions leaving Cameron is vulnerable spots. Evans is better than Cameron when it comes to pressing forward into the attack which could end up being the reason why he starts in Brazil.

There is no doubt in my mind that Cameron will make the roster whether he is starting or not. Cameron is a very versatile player who can play right and center back as well as in the defensive midfield. Cameron is the third center mid behind Bradley and Jones in my opinion ahead of Kyle Beckerman.

Midfielders (9):

Starters
CM	Michael Bradley	Toronto FC
CM	Jermaine Jones	Besiktas
LM	Landon Donovan	Los Angeles Galaxy
AM	Clint Dempsey	Seattle Sounders FC
RM	Graham Zusi	Sporting Kansas City
Backups
	Kyle Beckerman	Real Salt Lake
	Fabian Johnson	TSG Hoffenheim
	Eddie Johnson	DC United
	Mix Diskerud	Rosenborg

This starting midfield is a lock barring injury. The interesting battles here will be for the backup positions. I like Fabian Johnson because of his ability to play winged midfield and defense.

Forwards (4):

Starters
CF	Jozy Altidore	Sunderland
Backups
	Aron Johannsson	AZ Alkmaar
	Terrence Boyd	Rapid Vienna
	Will Bruin	Houston Dynamo

Klinsmann has stated the Altidore is a player that he’d like to build the team around but with Altidore’s recent struggles to get onto the pitch, keep an eye on Johannsson who could be creeping up the depth chart.

I put Will Bruin on this list because I think that he could have a huge next few weeks in MLS which could vault him over Magee and Wondolowski on the depth chart for USMNT; Bruin has two caps.

Provisional Cuts
	Juan Agudelo	FC Utrecht
	Chris Wondolowski	San Jose Earthquakes
	Sacha Kljestan	Anderlecht
	Alejandro Bedoya	Nantes
	Eric Lichaj	Nottingham Forest
	John Brooks	Hertha Berlin
	Tim Ream	Bolton Wanderers

Matches involving these 30 players this weekend (All Times Pacific)

15-Mar	TSG Hoffenheim	Mainz	7:30 AM	F. Johnson
	Hertha Berlin	Hannover 96		Brooks
	Everton	Cardiff City	8:00 AM	Howard
	Stoke City	West Ham United		Cameron
	Sunderland	Crystal Palace		Altidore
	Bolton Wanderers	Brighton & Hove Albion		Ream
	Nottingham Forest	Doncaster Rovers		Lichaj
	Lille	Nantes	8:30 AM	Bedoya
	Caykur Rizespor	Besiktas	10:00 AM	Jones
	Aston Villa	Cheslea	10:30 AM	Guzan
	Rapid Vienna	SV Josko Ried	11:00 AM	Boyd
	Seattle Sounders FC	Toronto FC	1:30 PM	Evans, Dempsey, Bradley
	Houston Dynamo	Montreal Impact	5:30 PM	Bruin
	Sporting Kansas City	FC Dallas		Besler, Zusi
	San Jose Earthquakes	Real Salt Lake	7:30 PM	Rimando, Beckerman, Goodson, Wondolowski
16-Mar	Twente Enschede	AZ Alkmaar	4:30 AM	Johannsson
	NEC Nijmegen	FC Utrecht	6:30 AM	Agudelo
	Anderlecht	KV Oostende	10:00 AM	Kljestan
	Puebla	U.A.N.L	11:00 AM	Beasley

Los Angeles Galaxy	Bye
Columbus Crew	Bye
DC United	Bye
Rosenborg	Season Starts on 3/29

Check back again next Friday and every Friday from now until the World Cup to see how my 23-man and provisional cut lists change.