Nice honor for some Union players here.

After claiming the Supporters’ Shield and seeing Jim Curtin win Coach of the Year and Andre Blake Goalkeeper of the Year, a trio of guys were named to the MLS Best XI of the 2020 season:

Blake and Mark McKenzie are no brainers.

Andre was the best GK out there and McKenzie would be my second-best center back in MLS, behind Walker Zimmerman.

Aaronson’s inclusion, however, is a joke.

Yes, he’s an exciting young kid, and yes he scored an awesome transfer to Europe and has a great future ahead of him, but he was not even close to being MLS Best XI this season. Not even remotely close. He’s just on here for promotional purposes, because he’s the burgeoning American star and there’s a lot of hype currently surrounding him.

Brenden had four goals and seven assists this season while playing 1,914 minutes. That’s a 0.33 assist/per 90 number and doesn’t even sniff the top 15. The G/90 of 0.19 should be higher for somebody playing in his position.

Here are some other ranks from Football Reference:

  • key passes – 39th
  • shot creating actions – 31st
  • shot creating actions per 90 minutes – 96th
  • goal creating actions – 10th
  • goal creating actions per 90 minutes – 37th
  • goals per shot – 104th
  • shots on target per 90 – 73rd

 

So on and so forth. I’d take at least five guys ahead of Brenden, in his position, if you gave me a blank team sheet to work with.

Congrats to all three of these guys, but only two should have been on there. Brenden is a fantastic young player but got the benefit of the hype train, which is rather astonishing, because the Union NEVER get that kind of treatment. Times are changing!