When New York City FC and the LA Galaxy meet on Saturday at Yankee Stadium (3:30 pm ET; ESPN in US | MLS LIVE in Canada), the spotlight will almost certainly be on the star attacking players who will take the field.
Names like David Villa, Frank Lampard, Giovani dos Santos and Gyasi Zardes will be looking to light up the opposing defenses and lead their teams to victory. But two players fans should also be focusing their attention on are among the best left backs in MLS.
Ronald Matarrita and Ashley Cole have both performed exceptionally in their first seasons in the league, despite dealing with injuries. Matarrita ranks No. 3 in the Audi Player Index among left backs who have played at least 10 games this season. He will be looking to improve on that number after missing some time due to injury over the last month.
Cole does not feature in the top 10, falling just outside at No. 11. He could make a jump up with an impressive performance against NYCFC, as he is currently just four points behind Connor Lade.
Here are the rankings for the entire season, which are an average of each player's Audi Index score per game:
RANKING |
SCORE |
PLAYER |
CLUB |
1 |
269 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/damarcus-beasley" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">DaMarcus Beasley</a> |
HOU |
2 |
267 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/jimmy-medranda" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Jimmy Medranda</a> |
SKC |
3 |
262 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/ronald-matarrita" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Ronald Matarrita</a> |
NYC |
4 |
256 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/fabinho" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Fabinho</a> |
PHI |
5 |
244 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/marc-burch" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Marc Burch</a> |
COL |
6 |
225 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/ambroise-oyongo" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Ambroise Oyongo</a> |
MTL |
7 |
225 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/jordan-harvey" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Jordan Harvey</a> |
VAN |
8 |
188 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/justin-morrow" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Justin Morrow</a> |
TOR |
9 |
186 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/maynor-figueroa" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Maynor Figueroa</a> |
DAL |
10 |
181 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/connor-lade" style="color:#000;border-bottom:1px dotted #909090;">Connor Lade</a> |
NY |
