MLS Cup, FC Dallas Vs. Colorado Rapids: David Ferreira, Omar Cummings Amongst 10 Players To Watch

It’s a paradox of a young league that a lack of publicity keeps some of its best players from being stars. Major League Soccer, while enjoying a comfortably established status in its adolescence, remains a very young league. Now at the end of its 15th season, MLS still isn’t a the place where players like David Ferreira and Omar Cummings can bolster their Q-ratings despite being the league’s most valuable and dangerous players.

For those of us obsessed by soccer, it bears reminding that most sports fans won’t recognize the names Ferreira, Cummings, Casey or Mastroeni. That’s what makes tonight’s match so important. For this evening’s MLS Cup, there’ll be a number of people tuning in to satisfy their yearly MLS curiosity, sports fans who’ll be surprised by Ferreira’s creativity, Cummings’ athleticism. Tonight is the league’s annual chance to convert a few new fans.

That’s the virtue of a showcase match, the product of the league’s playoffs. As was the case in England when the FA Cup final was one of the few televised matches, MLS Cup gives the league a chance to create a focal point. Whereas a normal weekend sees discussion of the league divided amongst seven, eight different matches, a championship match dictates conversation. Whether the conversation is the most compelling one possible is almost beside the point. While the league would have loved a New York-Los Angeles final, having a singular topic of conversation - a common dialect, for one week - is most important.

And that brings me back to what was supposed to be my point: MLS, and creating stars with a young league. Right now, the league’s highest Q-ratings probably belong to David Beckham, Thierry Henry and Landon Donovan, all transcendent figures who the layperson’s more likely know for something other than MLS. Even Donovan, most sports fans think of (almost exclusively) as a national team player. When that layperson tunes in today, they’ll get a chance to latch on to a few new names, hopefully giving them reason to come back to the league in four months, when the 2011 regular season starts.

So if you are that layperson or you know of one that needs an ad hoc (ad nauseum) guide to tonight’s most interesting players, here are 10 men to watch in this evening’s MLS Cup.

10. Jeff Cunningham, Forward, FC Dallas
Cunningham is currently in a fight with former DC United forward Jaime Moreno for the league’s all-time goal scoring lead. Moreno took back sole possession of the honor on the last day of the regular season, but if Cunningham can have an impact on this match, he’d have no reservations about letting the Bolivian wear the crown for another winter. Today, the former Toronto player returns to BMO Field where he spent an unsuccessful season-and-a-half before being traded to Dallas.

The 31-year-old Colombian has quietly been the league’s best left back. He’s able to get forward to fill space when left wing Brek Shea cuts in while maintaining above average defense. Perfect? No, but he’s the league’s best combo back patrolling a left flank.

Today, his defending will be more important. as Colorado forward Omar Cummings tends to drift right to supply partner Conor Casey. Cummings is the bigger, stronger of the two, but Benitez is one of the few people in the league with the speed to stay in front of him.

Larentowicz and Wells Thompson to Colorado. Preston Burpo, Cory Gibbs, a pick and allocation money to New England. At the time, there were a lot of questions as to why the Revolution gave up Larentowicz, and as the season went on and Larentowicz’s partnership with Pablo Matroeni solidifed, the exchange came to look like an outright steal. In the playoffs, the Ivy Leaguer has further highlighted the theft, playing as well as anybody through the tournament’s first two rounds.

It would be a cliché to call him hard-nosed, but it’s true. Larentowicz is the exact kind of worker you want as the fulcrum of an MLS midfield. Plus, if there’s ever a power outage at your stadium (cough, Home Depot, cough), I’m pretty sure Larentowicz glows in the dark.

Even if I didn’t point him out, you would notice Shea. Long blonde hair, svelte 6’4” frame, and often seen gliding into FC Dallas’s counter attack, the long time U.S. National Team prospect had a break out season for coach Shellas Hyndman. He finally settled into an attacking role, earning his first senior national team cap along the way.

Dallas’s depth on the wing means Shea might start on the bench, with Atiba Harris and Martín Chavez favored. If he does get time, the few national team fans who might not watch MLS will get glimpse of USMNT’s future.

While Larentowicz has been an example of what you need in the middle, Hernández has been the standard. His play at the base of Hyndman’s midfield garnered him consideration for MLS’s Best XI, an honor usually reserved for player who pile up stats. Hernández is not that kind of player, being one of the league’s few true destroyers. They’re only just starting to track what players like Hernández do, but when the converted defender missed a handful of matches at the end of the season, a struggling Dallas defense got a woeful glimpse of life without their captain.

Like Hernández, Mastroeni has seen time in defense, but thanks to 63 appearances with the U.S. Men’s National Team, the 34-year-old is best known as a midfield hardman. Thanks to the presence of Larentowicz, Mastroeni has been able to jump into attack more often this season, becoming more adventurous as the season’s progressed, the familiarity the duo’s developed allowing each to switch between attacking and defending roles.

Having just finished his 13th season in Major League Soccer, Mastroeni is making his first MLS Cup final appearance.

The hardest working forward in the league, Conor Casey redefines opportunistic. That word tends to describe somebody that takes advantage of the opportunities presented. Casey creates his own chances, his determination and physical strength making him the league’s prototype number nine. If you’reun familiar with the Rapids, look for the man occupying the central defense, allowing Omar Cummings the freedom to drift right while giving the central midfielders room at the edge of the box. And if that doesn’t work, but look for the reflection of BMO’s lights shining off his pristine shaved scalp.

Often goalkeepers can go unnoticed, and when they do come to our attention, they’re often doing no more than a `keeper’s supposed to do. Hartman is one of the exceptions. At 36-years-old, his reflexes remain remarkable, and despite playing through a leg injury that’s kept him from taking goal kicks, there seems to have been one moment in each playoff match where you say “most goalkeepers would not have done as well with that shot.” Today, those reflexes could be the difference, particularly as Hartman moves across his line to play Conor Casey’s headed shots.

Dallas’s number 10 plays to the role, one of the league’s true play makers. Coming off a season that won him the league’s Most Valuable Player award, the 31-year-old Colombian is the key to a Dallas approach that sees them at their most dangerous with Shea, Harris and/or Chavez bursting into counter attacks. Without a distributor pulling strings in the middle, those transition chances would fall flat. That they don’t is the reason Ferreira was the league’s MVP.

But while Ferreira is the league’s Most Valuable Player, Cummings is its most dangerous. He is the league’s best combination of speed and strength in attack. His 14 regular season goals put him amongst the league’s leaders. When he goes right and looks for Casey in front of goal, Colorado’s at their most dangerous. If Cummings is “on,” he’s unstoppable for most Major League Soccer defenses. His speed could be too much for central defender Ugo Ihemelu, while he could be too strong for Benitez. He and Ferreira are both capable of capturing a neutral fan’s imagination, but unlike Ferreira, Cummings can win a match by himself.