Quick show of hands: Who had New England Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen and New York Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips up for MVP consideration before the start of the year?
Put those hands down. There's no way you did.
Both players weren't even surefire MLS players just a short time ago – Nguyen was cut in Vancouver in 2012 and BWP tried out for several weeks last summer before RBNY signed him.
They've come out of nowhere this year and Nguyen (the highest scoring midfielder in MLS) and BWP (the highest scoring player in MLS, period) are big reasons why the Revs and Red Bulls sit just two games away from MLS Cup.
But which of the two is most indispensable to his team? Or put differently: If both players were forced to miss this Eastern Conference Championship series (the first leg is on Sunday at 1:30 pm ET on NBC), which team would be most adversely affected?
The majority of stats suggest it's the Revolution without Nguyen. He's the star playmaker manning that critical attacking midfield role, linking defense with attack and his combination play gets the rest of his teammates involved in the action. Oh, and he can score goals, too – 18 of them during the regular season, second most ever by an MLS midfielder (WATCH my personal favorite here).
Nguyen also has three more game-winning goals (nine) than Wright-Phillips, way more touches per game (61.5 on average, including playoffs), more passes per game (47.1) and the third-best shooting accuracy in the league (69.5 percent of all his shots ended up on goal). So it was no surprise that he got called up by the US earlier this month and he's going back in January.
But as special as Nguyen is -- the Revs suffered shutout losses in the only two matches he missed -- I bet the Revs could slot a Kelyn Rowe (less elusive and tricky than Nguyen) or Daigo Kobayashi (less mobile than Nguyen) as a playmaker and still get by.
You can't say the same in the case of Bradley Wright-Phillips. He's literally irreplaceable for New York.
Who's playing forward for the Red Bulls if BWP is not there? Tim Cahill? Sure, he's a body you can throw up there, but he's not a scorer.
Saer Sene? He hasn't started a single regular season game all year for RBNY and looks more comfortable as a winger than a center forward. Let's just say the Red Bulls got lucky that Wright-Phillips proved as durable as he was in 2014 (RBNY went 0-2-3 in matches he didn't start).
It can be argued that BWP is the reason the Red Bulls have an even better team in 2014 – and a better shot at MLS Cup – than they did in their Supporters' Shield winning campaign from last year. In BWP the Red Bulls have the final outlet for the quality soccer they create and Thierry Henry excels as a passer when he has an expert player in front of him who knows how to make runs.
But that's still all opinion. Here's the fact to trump all opinions: BWP's 27 regular season goals make up 49.1 percent of the Red Bulls' total goal production (Nguyen's 18 represent 35.3 percent of his team's goals). That's a single player worth half of his team's goals. And he has scored in more than half of his appearances (18 of 32 games).
Those are numbers that smack you right across the face. But BWP does so much more during the course of a match that doesn't show up in the boxscore: namely, the hold-up play with his back to goal and the ability to lay it off to a teammate and make a run (e.g., the goal that iced the series vs. DC). The Red Bulls have no one else who could fill the same role.
He's not as flashy as Nguyen and doesn't have his hair, bandana or newfound national team cachet. And BWP also doesn't have the star power of guys like Obafemi Martins and Robbie Keane, who both beat him out for the three finalists spot in the Volkswagen MVP voting. Heck, MLS' goal king is even overshadowed on his own team by the DP names (Henry and Cahill).
But if Wright-Phillips doesn't bag at least a couple of goals against the Revolution, the Red Bulls can likely kiss their MLS Cup dreams goodbye.
