A lot a Major League Soccer men just cannot catch a break at the moment.
Let’s use Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Juninho, for example. He’s an absolute crackerjack in L.A.’s midfield at the moment, covering ground, working the passing lanes to near perfection and scoring some glorious goals. It might look like Player of the Week stuff … except a certain Argentine now operating out of Ohio is hogging all the PoW acclaim.
It’s just that Federico Higuain is all the rage right now around Major League Soccer. And around ProSoccerTalk, too, where he is our MLS Player of the Week.
Truly, has any one man so singularly changed a team’s fortunes, and so quickly? Dallas’ David Ferreira certainly made his team look like something completely different upon his return two months ago, but not even Ferreira created such a radical reversal.
(MORE: ProSoccerTalk’s MLS Team of the Week)
Just look at last week: Higuain had both assists as the Crew rallied from a goal down on the road (never, ever an easy ask) to steal three points out of Philadelphia.
That was on Wednesday. Three nights later, back in Ohio, the Crew fell behind by a goal once again, this time to Montreal (a club playing wonderful soccer lately). No worries, however.
Higuain assisted on goals in the 80th and 93rd minutes as the Crew collected another three points in the summer assault on a Eastern Conference standings.
A month ago, Columbus was getting close to “playoff afterthought” territory. Now, Robert Warzycha’s team occupies the fifth and final playoff spot – and owns at least one game in hand with the closest threats.