The Almost-American All-American XI (Or, the AAAAXI)

Some of our long time readers won’t be surprised to learn that compiling the weekly team of honorees is not an exact science. One of the biggest challenges is remembering who is and who is not eligible to make the team. All of us have been around MLS and the US National Team for quite some time, and so never get tripped up by age old discussions about Ronnie O’Brien making the AAXI and being called up for the Nats. But there’s a group of others who regularly come up for nomination because they’re in the gray area of being almost American in some way. Here now is a list of those players nominated this year to be on the AAXI who couldn’t because, well, they aren’t American. Call them members of the AAAAXI:

The Liberians: Chris Gbandi and Willis Forko have spent as much or more of their lives in the United States as fellow African emigree Freddy Adu, so if Adu is eligible, then why not these two?. They were born in Liberia and moved to Texas, Gbandi when he was 10 and Forko when he was 3. Both still list Houston as their hometown. Both played collegiately for the University of Connecticut, where Gbandi earned a degree in Sociology. And both have played some standout defense for their respective teams, FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake. What, then, keeps them from the AAXI? Gbandi accepted a call up from his native Liberia in 2004, when he appeared in a World Cup Qualifier against Senegal, making him cap tied to the Lonestars and thus ineligible for the AAXI. Forko, on the other hand, is not cap tied, but has never become a US citizen and is thus not currently eligible for the USNT. But being Liberian isn’t something that the AAXI staff readily remembers, so one or the other’s name co mes up for consideration every month or so.

The Senegalese: Another African immigrant, Bouna Coundoul, appeared out of nowhere for the Colorado Rapids when Joe Cannon went down with injury early in the season. He appeared in five straight games, and caught the AAXI staff’s attention with one particularly memorable game against the LA Galaxy. Out came the nominations - isn’t Bouna from New York City, after all? Not really, as it turns out. He moved from Senegal to New York with three of his brothers at age 15, and is in citizenship-limbo with Forko. So despite being an American high schooler, and temporarily occupying the top of the goalkeeping charts in MLS, Bouna remains on the Almost-American All-American XI.

The Chivas Contingent: Sure, some of the Chivas roster is straightforward. We all know that Paco Palencia, Juan Pablo Garcia, Claudio Suarez, Ramon Ramirez, and Panchito Mendoza are Mexican citizens, and that Ante Razov, Tim Regan, Jonathon Bornstein, Jesse Marsch, Preston Burpo, and Brad Guzan are Yanks. But look down the roster, and just try and determine clearly who else is eligible for the AAXI. Is Jason Hernandez the next coming of Chris Armas, or part of the Puerto Rican XI (Answer: not cap tied to PR, and so AAXI eligible). Orlando Perez and Mike Munoz were born in California with their families hailing from Jalisco and Guanajuato, Mexico, respectively, so they’re eligible. Rodrigo Lopez was born in Guadalajara and played for the Chivas reserve squad, but he holds dual citizenship. Rene Corona played for Chivas this year, but doesn’t even have a bio on MLSNet. Neither does Carlos Borja. Esteban Arias played at UConn like the aforementioned Liberians, and is California born with family ties to Nayarit. But it turns out that the “Mexican” team Chivas USA features only five players on the roster who are not AAXI eligible.

There are others as well whose names came up this year. For example, Mehdi Ballouchy’s appearances for Morocco at youth levels are easily obscured by his time at Santa Clara University when excited RSL fans think they have someone eligible. Kei Kamara has looked good a few times for Columbus, though his Sierra Leonean roots make him ineligible for now. But the only really straightforward team roster is DC United. Except for Srs. Erpen, Gomez, and Moreno, the whole team has made the AAXI, so they all must be eligible.

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AAXI Week 17, featuring a remarkably “normal” 4-3-3 . . . if normal includes three members of the New York Red Bulls! But any time a team posts a pair of shutout wins, you can expect some good representation on the AAXI if their Yanks are front and center.

Matt Reis – (2)

Reis faced a barrage of shots in his team’s 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo, and had no chance on Stuart Holden’s first-ever MLS goal. But in perhaps the most ironic moment of the MLS season through 17 weeks, Reis complained loudly several times that the Dynamo players were bumping into him in the penalty box. Having Reis complain about rough play in front of the goal is a little like Sigi Schmidt tell Bruce Arena he should lay off the buffet table.

Marvell Wynne – (4)

Wynne anchored two shutouts in what was sort of a miracle week for the heretofore-reeling Red Bulls franchise. True, much of his prowess this week came on the attacking end against both the Crew and the Wizards, and he was the most consistent New York threat in the Columbus game while earning his first assist in the Kansas City match. His speed in recovering back to defense is simply jaw dropping, and once he masters positioning and defensive tactics, look out.

Ritchie Kotschau – (1)

Kotschau played a terrific game in the center of the Columbus defense. He might not be as fancy as a selection as Robin Fraser was the last two years leading the Crew defense but Ritchie has come over from Colorado and been a typically steady man in the middle, and played very well against a talent pair of LA forwards. Of course, anyone watching the game on ESPN2 needed to watch closely to see if Kotschau deserved the mountains of praise he was receiving from Eric Wynalda. He did.

Ryan Cochrane – (3)

Cochrane had one of his best games of the year while dealing effectively with the likes of Taylor Twellman, Pat Noonan, Andy Dorman, and Clint Dempsey. He and Eddie Robinson played very well together, which hasn’t always been the case this season. Cochrane doesn’t go in for the crunching tackles that seem to make Robinson’s day, but he was good positionally the whole game. When things did break down a bit at the back, Robinson was almost always there to clean things up. The best look the Revs got at goal all night was Dorman’s cross/shot that Craig Weibel kicked past Dynamo GK Pat Onstad. Other than that the Revs had zero shots on goal and credit goes to Cochrane and Robinson.

Dasan Robinson – (4)

Yea, the kid noone heard of before the season began keeps making the AAXI, but he keeps earning the nominations. Saturday the rookie again stepped up and showed why he deserves to be mentioned at the top of the list for ROTY. Robinson marked, or helped mark Freddy Adu and Jaime Moreno out of the game, and made a game saving clearance off of the line to save the Fire after a scrum inside the box. He is strong, smart, and plays beyond his years. The kid not only has a future in the league, he could possibly be one of its top defenders before you know it.

Carey Talley – (2)

Real Salt Lake picked up a host of players in the off season, and fans of the club can be forgiven if Talley wasn’t a guy many were excited about. But he has emerged as one of the only positives in a second dismal season in Utah. Against FC Dallas, Talley played well on both sides of the ball in what was a largely forgettable game. He had no fault on the last gasp goal that won it for Dallas, and was one of only two or three RSL players who played with heart and intensity enough to resonate along the Wasatch Front.

Chris Henderson – (3)

Not only did Henderson run his guts out, make dangerous passes, and score - he did so at the age of 50 years old. Okay, he hasn’t been around quite that long, but “the last player cut from the USNT roster for World Cup 1994″ has been around forever. We hate to alarm you people, but Energy Drink United showed some fire last week, and the Bruce Arena era may be beginning with Richie Williams as coach. It’s odd, but the one player Red Bulls fans could agree was crap for the first twelve weeks of the season is on the AAXI in back to back weeks.

Ricardo Clark – (4)

Okay, we admit it: it was a relatively weak week for Yank midfielders in MLS. But, Clark helped keep the Revs in check all night and made some nice runs forward. He attempted one of his patented blasts from outside the 18, which was blocked - but when a defensive midfielder teams with center backs like Cochrane and Robinson to allow zero shots on goal, then he’s done his job well even if a long range shot or two doesn’t go in.

Jonathon Bornstein – (3)

Made the AAXI a few times as a defender and maybe even a midfielder, but this time he lined up as forward, and oh what a game he had against Colorado. He had a hand in all three Chivas goals, scoring three and forcing a rebound save from Joe Cannon that Paco Palencia put into the net for the other Colorado goal. His first goal was incredibly calm and collected, as he slid to his right after beating Dan Gargan and Pablo Mastroeni to fire one home past Cannon. Maybe it doesn’t matter where he lines up? There’s a reason why Jorge Campos thinks Bornstein may be a good find for Mexico. Let’s hope that he decides to play for the US.

Edson Buddle – (2)

Nominated for his pretty sweet footwork and setup of the Henderson goal, the Red Bulls’ lone remaining starting forward (Mr. Peguero? Mr. Djorkaeff?) came back to Columbus and made his mark by doing the things Crew fans saw way too little of during his day in the Black and Gold. He ran off the ball, at the defense and passed with vision rather than waiting for all offensive attempts to come through him.

Alecko Eskandarian – (5)

Esky is back, again. This week he came on as a sub at halftime against the Fire and was quiet temporarily - until he leveled the game with a sweet strike. From then on he threatened the Fire several more times. Even with every Fire defender in range knowing the guy was going to cut back to his left, Eskandarian still sold the move and buried a nice shot. He gets the nod from the AAXI staff for his impact on the game - and a good thing, too, since we were close to going “DC-less” this week!
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• Header by ismitje .
• List compiled and edited by ismitje, with input from the AAXI contributors.
• Basically, ismitje has lately been the Justin Mapp of AAXI contributors.
• All typos and errors should be blamed on Max Bretos.