Chicago Fire streaking striker Mike Magee would not let a weekend come and go without yet another strike.
He went without a goal in the Fire’s mid-week win over San Jose, although Magee did arrange Chris Rolfe’s 84th minute game-winning goal (which you can watch here if you like.) But the recently relocated LA Galaxy forward did supply his team’s only goal Sunday in a loss to Sporting Kansas City. (Watch that one down below.)
So the numbers look like this:
- He remains tied for the league lead in goals with 11. Montreal’s Marco di Vaio had a goal over the weekend to keep pace.
- Magee has five goals and two assists in six matches since joining the Fire. That’s why he was just named MLS Player of the Month for June.
- The man that has recently achieved “nickname status” around Toyota Park, now being referred to as Magic Mike, has eight goals in nine matches for Chicago including U.S. Open Cup contests. The Fire remain alive in the Open Cup, now in the 100-year-old tournament’s semifinals.
On Sunday’s ESPN broadcast, analyst Taylor Twellman introduced this element into the ongoing Magee narrative: he suggested that Magee was Major League Soccer’s unquestioned Most Valuable Player if Chicago makes the playoffs.
Chicago is currently eighth – and they are going to struggle to climb much higher if they cannot get better in the back. Bakary Soumare and Austin Berry aren’t cutting it.
Then again, Columbus doesn’t look to have the horsepower at present either, now missing Eddie Gaven and Brazilian center back Glauber for the season. Houston has forgotten how to score and even Montreal is showing too many signs lately of slippage.
So … as long as Magee stays anywhere close to this form – it’s unrealistic to expect this current rate of about a goal a game all season, but anything close is still fantastic – there’s always a chance. And if so, at least one man who knows Major League Soccer as well as anyone says the MVP race has been decided!
Here is No. 11 on his ongoing season of goal-scoring wonder:
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