MLS Week 5 Review: Saint Ben Olsen

By: Daryl | May 6th, 2007

Nice Guy Ben Olsen Is Benjamin Olsen the nicest guy in MLS or what? He was at it again on Thursday night, tough in the tackle but a kind word, a big smile and generous helpings of stubble for everyone. Plus his now traditional act of helping opposition players back to their feet even if (especially if) it was one of his tenacious tackles that put them on their ass in the first place.

He’s such a good guy that Bruce Arena took him to the World Cup last year largely on the basis of his personality as opposed to his midfield skills (which are decent but… you know.) Furthermore, you have to be a bona fide saint when even Eric Wynalda has nice things to say about you.

Unfortunately I’m not authorized by any church to canonize MLS midfielders, so St. Ben will have to wait. But I am authorized to give out the weekly Offside MLS Awards, and here they are:

Canadian franchise of the week: Toronto FC
Toronto had the best weekend in their short MLS history. They didn’t play.

Suspicious referee of the week: Terry Vaughn
This gentleman refereed the 1-1 tie between DC United and the Revs on Thursday night, and by “refereed” I mean “raised Steve Nicol’s blood pressure to 500/350.” First he gave DC a penalty after a pretty lame Jaime Moreno dive, then he showed poor Shalrie Jospeph a straight red for a pretty harmless tackle on Ben Olsen.

Most determined goal: Kyle Beckerman
Colorado Rapids got an indirect free kick inside Real Salt Lake’s area. Herculez Gomez buried it, but the ref disallowed it because the ball had been played before he’d blown his whistle. So Gomez struck it again, it hit the wall and bounced out to Kyle Beckerman who put an end to all this nonsense by lashing it home. 2-0 to Rapids and MLS has another uneven rivalry, the Rocky Mountain Cup series now being 6-2-1 in the Rapids favour.

Welcome back: Dwayne DeRosario
Where you been DeRo? The man who dragged Houston Dynamo to the MLS Championship in 2006, and beat Chelsea with a beauty of a strike in the All-Star game has made a slow start to 2007 with no goals. But he scored two in the space of five minutes, leading the Dynamo to a 3-1 win over Colorado Rapids, who can no longer claim an unbeaten record at their shiny new Dicks Sporting Goods Stadium.

Most awesomest comeback: Real Salt Lake
Clint Mathis had score twice, and NYRB were 3-1 up in the 89th (!) minute. But a penalty from Jeff Cunningham and a fantastic injury time equalizer from Chris Brown and RSL pulled level, making a memorable first match in charge for Jason Kreis. Video highlights here (you’ll need Windows Media Player). On that note, for all the complaints about MLS it’s great that they make highlights available online for free.

Most non-awesomest defending of a lead: New York Red Bull
See above. And they hadn’t conceded a single goal until today.

Latest winning goal: Jose Burciaga Jr.
Burciaga slalomed through the Columbus Crew defence before firing home his last minute winner for Kansas City Wizards, the only goal of the game. Video here (again, Windows Media Player, etc)

Coach in trouble: Preki
After stamping his authority all over Chivas USA this week, Preki and his team got stamped on by a previously winless DC United, who beat them 2-1. Some Chivas fans are less that happy with the rookie coach.

Hot striker on striker action: Chris Rolfe and Taylor Twellman
I always like to see strikers working back and doing a spot of defending. Have only read about this, but apparently Chicago’s Chris Rolfe made a saving tackle on Revs’ Taylor Twellman in his own area as the World Cup reject/MLS top scorer was shaping to shoot. Rolfe also managed to score later on, and even though Double T didn’t, the Revs still got themselves a 3-1 win.