MLS Team of Week 13

It's a top-heavy 3-4-3, but the few men at the back are solid.

GK Jon Busch (San Jose Earthquakes): For the second week in a row, San Jose beat a team from Texas. For the second week in a row, the Quakes owed much to their 'keeper - who saved a penalty and made the big stops when required.

CB Jeff Parke (D.C. United): DC took a statistical battering from Sporting Kansas City, but clung on to a one goal lead thanks to a defensive performance that limited their opponents to just five shots on target from 16 attempts. Parke was key to the rearguard victory.

CB Wandrille Lefevre (Montreal Impact): L'Impact's surprise win over the best team in the East (New England Revolution) was largely down to a determined defensive performance. Lefevre was Montreal's disruptor-in-chief, tallying eight interceptions and five clearances.

CB Chad Marshall (Seattle Sounders): Real Salt Lake didn't have much trouble getting the ball in Seattle, but only managed one shot on target. Marshall led the Sounders back line to a clean sheet, while the forwards had fun at the other end of the field.

LM Kamani Hill (Colorado Rapids): The guy apparently won't put away easy chances, but ask him to do something truly difficult - like a flying back-heel flick to the far post - and he is your man.

M Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi (San Jose Earthquakes): Mon. Dieu. Monsieur Pierazzi knows how to kick a ball.

M Pedro Morales (Vancouver Whitecaps): The 'Caps needed four goals to take three points off Portland, and Morales scored two of them and helped set up the other two.

RM Christian Maidana (Philadelphia Union): First, he slammed a free kick at Martin Rivero and won a penalty; second, he hung a cross in the air long enough for Conor Casey to get on the end of it; finally, he scored one himself. Philly scored three against Chivas, and Maidana had a role to play in each.

FWD Deshorn Brown (Colorado Rapids): He's not really a right midfielder, but he needed to be on this team for a two-goal game in which he demonstrated his ability to out-jump, out-run, and generally out-think his opponents.

FWD Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC): Defoe knows when to go down - and win a penalty - and when to stay on his feet and make difficult shots look easy.

FWD Fabian Espindola (D.C. United): Is his match-winning long-ranger any less beautiful because he probably didn't mean it? Nope.

Coach Frank Klopas (Montreal Impact): Just when it seemed as though Montreal's season would be over before it had really begun, Klopas guided his team to a narrow away-goal advantage in the first leg of the Canadian Championship and then posted the most surprising result of the week - a win over the form team in the Eastern Conference.