The best players on the LA Galaxy? The names roll off your tongue: newly crowned 2014 Volkswagen MLS MVP (Robbie Keane), the greatest American soccer player of all-time (Landon Donovan), a World Cup centerback (Omar Gonzalez) and the highest-scoring Homegrown player in MLS history (Gyasi Zardes).
But you can make a strong argument that the most important players on the 2014 Western Conference Champions -- although perhaps not the best players -- occupy the heart of midfield.
Since David Beckham’s departure after the 2012 season, the Brazilian duo of Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas have formed the go-to center mid partnership for manager Bruce Arena and his 4-4-2 formation. They have proven to be the true engines of the team over the past two years and both had outstanding seasons in 2014 without much fanfare.
For starters, Sarvas collected a total of 11 assists this season, good for 8th in MLS. Next to him, Juninho may not have scored a single goal (although this playoff strike was pretty huge), but he still averaged 72.5 passes per 90 minutes this season, by far the most of any player in MLS.
As a team, the Galaxy averaged 481.7 passes per game in 2014, which is also the most in the league. If you divide Juninho’s passes per 90 (72.5) by the Galaxy’s passes per 90 (481.7), you get what's called a pass usage rate (read this to find out more about it).
Juninho’s usage rate of 15.1 percent was the second highest in the league, behind only Michael Bradley’s ridiculous 17 percent. Sarvas (13 percent) is also in the Top 25 in the league.
| Highest Pass Usage rate (reg. season) | ||||
| Team | Players | Usage Rate | ||
 | Michael Bradley | 17.0% | ||
 | Juninho | 15.1% | ||
 | Wil Trapp | 15.0% | ||
 | Kyle Beckerman | 15.0% | ||
 | Vincent Nogueira | 14.8% | ||
But Juninho and Sarvas weren’t just involved in their team's play more than most players. The Galaxy duo also passed the ball more efficiently than a majority of midfielders, too. Juninho ranked second in the league in passing accuracy while Sarvas came in 16th. Both players also ranked in the Top 20 in terms of passing accuracy in the final third.
What? The passing stats are not enough for you? Well, Juninho averaged 3.2 tackles per 90 minutes this season (11th in MLS) and both players were in the Top 20 as far as ball recoveries per 90 minutes.
Simply put, Juninho and Sarvas get the job done on both sides of the ball.
To prove just how much ground they cover, just look at their heat map from Sunday's Western Conference Championship second leg in Seattle and compare it to the Sounders' midfield partnership of Osvaldo Alonso and Gonzalo Pineda. Juninho and Sarvas are clearly more of a presence in the final third:
Juninho and Sarvas (LA Galaxy)
Alonso and Pineda (Seattle Sounders)
And now in MLS Cup on Sunday (3 pm ET on ESPN, UniMas, UDN, TSN1 and RDS2), the Galaxy center mids will face the prospect of having to outplay arguably the most influential midfielder in MLS, US World Cup veteran Jermaine Jones, who has formed an efficient pairing with New England Revolution Homegrown player Scott Caldwell.
Here's the latest heat map for the Revs duo from their Eastern Conference Championship 2nd leg. It looks nothing like the Juninho-Sarvas artwork above, but could it ultimately prove more effective in a cup final?:
Jones and Caldwell (New England Revolution)
Which central midfield do you think has the edge in MLS Cup? Will Juninho and Sarvas outperform Jones and Caldwell? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below:
