MLS 2017 Team of Week 8: Cyle Larin and 10 other guys

This week's TotW takes a few liberties to get to a 4-3-3...

GK - Joe Bendik (Orlando City):

Cyle Larin scored two goals for Orlando, but it took six saves from Bendik to make them sufficient to take all three points out of Yankee Stadium this week.

LB - Kemar Lawrence (New York Red Bulls):

For the second week in a row, RBNY won 2-0 and Lawrence looked like the team's best defender, arguably best player. He looks again like the player who was in the best-left-back-in-CONCACAF conversation in 2015.

CB - Adolfo Machado (Houston Dynamo):

The Dynamo picked up a routine home win over slumping San Jose in Week 8, but it was also Houston's first clean sheet of the season. Some credit is due the Dynamo's defense, and Machado gets selected to TotW to represent the back line that shut out the Quakes.

CB - Eriq Zavaleta (Toronto FC):

Active at both ends of the field, as TFC kept Chicago off the score sheet until it was too late to make a difference - and the fact David Accam scored for the Fire meant Zavaleta's first goal of MLS 2017 was also the match-winner in TFC's first home win this season.

RB - Maynor Figueroa (FC Dallas):

The veteran Honduran left back is on the right for TotW because he needs to be in this lineup somewhere. Played his part in helping FCD shut out KC this week, and scored his first goal for his current club, which also happened to be the game-winner.

MID - Carlos Gruezo (FC Dallas):

There aren't many 22-year-old players in MLS that have played in Bundesliga and have been to a World Cup. Gruezo's pedigree is impressive, and the talent that brought him those achievements shows best in close games of the sort FCD played against Sporting Kansas City this week.

MID - Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers):

A goal and an assist in a 2-1 win is going to put any player in contention for TotW. A goal like the one Nagbe scored this week is worth a spot on its own merits.

What a goal by Nagbe!!! #PORvVAN pic.twitter.com/rfNvoJQPYe

— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) April 22, 2017

MID - Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders):

TotW is abusing Dempsey's versatility and throwing him in the midfield just to be able to shoehorn him into the lineup after he provided a goal and an assist to Seattle's 3-0 win in LA this week.

FWD - Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC):

It took Giovinco a little while to warm up this year, but he's back doing what is expected of him: scoring goals and winning games. He got two this week to help TFC record its first home win of MLS 2017, 3-1 over Chicago.

FWD - Anthony Jackson-Hamel (Montreal Impact):

Fresh off winning the Goal of Week 7 vote for his match-winner against Atlanta, Jackson-Hamel guided Montreal back to a tie in Philadelphia with an off-the-bench brace that completed his team's comeback from conceding three goals in the first 40 minutes.

FWD - Cyle Larin (Orlando City):

His brace led OCSC to its third consecutive win, fifth overall in MLS 2017, and first on the road (also second over NYCFC, as it happens). Larin now has six goals in six league games to date this season, and his team has five wins in six matches. Seems if Larin stays hot, Orlando will too.

Coach - Jason Kreis (Orlando City):

Orlando has only played six league games this season, but it has already beaten NYCFC twice - at home and, most recently, at Yankee Stadium. It may yet prove to be the case that Orlando is basically good at home and better than NYCFC anywhere, and that's about it. For now, however, OCSC is a team that has won five of its first six games in MLS 2017, and just demonstrated it can win on the road. Kreis' Orlando has emerged as the opponent most teams around the league will hope to avoid until or unless its hot streak dies down.