Think Taylor Twellman; a man who fits your description perfectly.

Folks, lets wait until Dax is about 26 or 27 years old and we will see who is a starter for the MNT. He just turned 22 this April. Every year he gets better and better. Last year was a big maturation year for him. Think of what he went through. Olympic qualifiers, a back injury that almost saw him miss the chance to travel to China, and then difficulty (mentally as well as physically) upon returning to MLS. He probably thought himself a bit better than he actually was at the time, and needed to go through what he did last year. To me, Dax passed the test with flying colors. I am proud of the young man.

Here is something you cannot teach, nor measure with statistics. Heart. Fight. A work ethic. Dax has that quality 100%. Give me a team full of professionals with that attitude and I will show you a championship squad. Perhaps more important than winning hardware though, is the enjoyment of the game it gives me as a fan to watch it. Right now, Dax still makes a good number of passing mistakes every game, but those mistakes are getting fewer and fewer as time moves forward. Again, I urge you to withhold judgment until he reaches that age by which all footballers are truly judged in terms of salary value and national caps. I have a strong suspicion that Dax will play a solid role on the USMNT in the future.

As for him being the MVP this year, that is difficult to say, because the squad has changed so much, but he is at least an honorable mention. I think you have to give the nod to JC because of his incredible second half of the season. He had like what….1 goal in the first 10 games and is now in the running for the golden boot. That is an impressive run for sure!

Chill out on Dax people! He has the heart of a lion and represents the shirt like few others do.

I will grant you that Sala is no Hartman. But I do not believe that his distribution is unworthy of complaint. Either your statement is an indictment of the distribution skills of every other keeper in the league, or you and I have differing opinions on what we expect from keeper passes, like not kicking it out of bounds or serving up 50/50 head balls to our 5′6 midfielders.

I want to sign off on this for now but Knapper is killing me. I think it may seem he loses the ball more because he gets so many touches, but I’ve never kept stats on this. I’ve always been under the impression that he keeps the ball very well. Buzz, I know it’s a lot of game tape but have you seen anything like this as a stat?

I finally figured out why I kept calling Dave van den Bergh VDH.

One of my favorite writers is Victor Davis Hanson and National Review always refers to him as VDH.

I disagree with Peter’s game grade of Sala. He could have had the rebound from the second goal go off to the other side, but he more than made up for it the rest of the game. He had two great saves that kept the score 3-2 and allowed FCD to score another 3. It’s amazing how many balls are played back to him. He has the best feet of any keeper in this league and anyone who complains about his distribution doesn’t know a thing about the game.

I also disagree about Dax. I think he’s one of those players as Americans we just want to love, well, because he’s American, and I do think he had a good game, but there’s no way he’s this season’s MVP. I’m of the opinion he’s just too small to play in this league, and agree with those who say he might do better somewhere else. The guy loses the ball as much or more than anyone on the field and I think a lot of our issues in the midfield are because of him.

And, I’ll tell you what, I learned some stuff during the discussion. (Besides how bad my spelling is!)

Opinions are great, we should all keep an open mind – myself included.