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5 things we learned in MLS: Week 11

A lesson in consistency and the art of scoring goals.

By Adam Whittaker Snavely

1. Tommy McNamara Will Hit This Shot

So, Tommy McNamara, who looks vaguely like Mix Diskerud but does not play for the national team, did this on Sunday.

That's a great goal, and a winner for NYC for a big three points on the road in Portland. Some might say you just run into that kind of superhuman goal now and then, but that goal looks familiar...

Oh yeah:

And also:

If you give TommyMac that look, he's going to bend it far post and he's going to put it on frame. Plan accordingly.

2. Coming Up Roses

Keegan Rosenberry was one of the bigger surprises of the draft for the incredibly high position that the Union drafted him at (3rd overall). Now, Rosenberry is one of the bigger surprises of the draft because he's been arguably the best player to come out of the 2016 SuperDraft thus far, beating out #1 pick Jack Harrison (who has yet to play for NYCFC, sidelined by injury), college and pro teammate Joshua Yaro, the consensus toast of the Draft after the MLS Combine, and USMNT-capped Brandon Vincent.

Rosenberry won't win Rookie of the Year, not if Jordan Morris continues his tear through MLS defenses. But that doesn't mean Rosenberry shouldn't win it if he keeps playing the way he has, either, because he just spent Week 11 stonewalling Gio Dos Santos, Robbie Keane, Didier Drogba, and Ignacio Piatti, helping the Union to two draws they would have had no business being remotely close to last year. The kid can defend. Enough said.

3. Nguyening

Pretty much everybody (myself included) knew New England would be pretty lethal with the addition of Kei Kamara to their forward ranks, as Lee Nguyen and Diego Fagundez lurked just behind in the attacking midfield.

Of course, who needs Kei Kamara when you can just do this:

I can't think of any defense off the top of my head that has enough defenders that can contain the threat of Kei Kamara inside the box, Fagundez outside of it, and Lee Nguyen any which way around it at the same time. Something's gotta give, and if that trio heats up, the Eastern Conference is in trouble.

4. Canadian Slaughterhouse

Question: What had seven goals, twenty nine shots, five yellow cards, one red card, and one Jozy Altidore hamstring injury? Answer: the Vancouver Whtiecaps 4-3 victory over Toronto FC. Just when it looked like TFC would put everything together and run away with the league, another team manages to punish them on the break. Vancouver rope-a-doped like their lives depended on it and came away from BMO Field with all three points despite conceding 61% of possession and taking less than half as many shots as Toronto. With a 50% conversion rate, that's what we would call "high quality shots."

5. Forever Young?

Speaking of the Caps, Blas Perez got those joints feeling 32 again with this little ditty:

Vancouver's problem at forward has been readily apparent since Octavio Rivero devolved into a walking trash can around mid-summer last year, Masato Kudo looked like he was beginning to put things together on the field with his first goal against Portland, but then broke his jaw in a horrific collision with Chicago Fire keeper Matt Lampson a week later. Perez is 35, and while he is a master of the dark arts up top, the Whitecaps still need a better solution to be as a consistent goal-scoring threat. This bike is certainly nice, but not if the Caps think they can ride Perez and Rivero to silverware this year.

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