OH YEAH—MLS! While most of us have been preoccupied with the Women's World Cup and the Gold Cup and those Senate hearings, the North American top flight has been chugging along, playing games and signing Italian superstars and making its already-complicated player acquisition rules even more opaque.

Here's a look at the best and worst from the past weekend.

Goal of the week: Sacha Kljestan

The New York Red Bulls midfielder gets the nod with this fantastic strike from distance to help give his team a 2-0 win over Orlando. 

Team of the week: L.A. Galaxy

On Friday night the Los Angeles Galaxy routed the San Jose Earthquakes 5-2 and the win should send off alarm bells throughout the league. Yes, FC Dallas actually has the best record in Major League Soccer—not to mention a one-point lead on the Galaxy and two games in hand. But the addition of Steven Gerrard to go along with Robbie Keane is going to put the Southern Californians on another level.

The truly scary part for the other 19 MLS teams? In about a week the Galaxy will add Giovani Dos Santos, Gyasi Zardes, Omar Gonzalez, Jaime Penedo, and Alan Gordon back to the squad. Those five are currently participating in the Gold Cup. It almost seems unfair....

Farce of the Week: Ethan Finlay Snub

Finlay told ASN last week that he doesn’t play the game for awards but rather he “plays the game to be a champion.”

Kudos to him for that approach but it still doesn’t excuse any of the decision makers (the fans, the commissioner, and head coach Pablo Mastroeni) for leaving Finlay off the All-Star team. It's an absolute joke that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard made the team and Finlay did not.

The 24-year-old has 11 assists to lead the league to go along with six goals—including one in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Chicago. (He also drew a penalty in the opening minutes of that match.) It's not like he is thriving on a poor team, either. The Crew is in second place in the Eastern Conference. 

 
Do better, MLS. Yes, fans want to see the big-name stars but the top players should be rewarded and acknowledged for their achievements.

Worst of the Week: Chicago Fire

The Chicago Fire are having an abysmal season and deserve to be in last place despite having two young Americans in Matt Polster and Harry Shipp who are well worth watching. Frank Yallop’s squad has no direction at the moment and there is no light at the end of the tunnel right now.

Over the past week, the team lost twice to the Columbus Crew and it is hard to think of a reason to head over to Bridgeview to watch this team. While Chicago didn’t get destroyed the way San Jose did to a very talented Galaxy team, the fact is that Chicago didn’t look as if it was having a bad outing in its 3-1 loss to Columbus on Sunday. The more troublesome reality: This is as good as it gets with this group.

Player of the week: Sebastian Giovinco

After fans failed to select him to the MLS All-Star game—how did that happen?—Toronto FC's Sebastian Giovinco is showing everyone why he is the league’s best player at the moment. On Saturday, he scored one goal and got the assist on another as the Reds defeated Philadelphia 2-1. The goal was Giovinco's 12th on the season—big numbers from the little man.

Red Bulls on the Rise

When people think of New York sports franchises, they tend to think of big-spending teams full of high-profile players—the 1998 Yankees or the 1994 Rangers. Either that, or they think of the current Jets and Knicks teams that implode due to the lofty expectations of being in the country's biggest media market.  

The 2015 New York Red Bulls are neither. Instead it is built like a small-market team that is punching above its weight.

With a league lowest payroll of $3,884,228.39 (the only team not to break $4 million), the Red Bulls are nevertheless enjoying an outstanding season. The team is closing in on D.C. United for first place in the Eastern Conference (six points behind but three games in hand) and has won four out of its last five. Also, management has broken with recent tradition and has taken the U.S. Open Cup seriously; the team has reached the quarterfinals.

What's impressive is that the Red Bulls are just finding ways to win. In Saturday’s victory over Orlando, the team battled humidity and a sluggish performance but found a way to shut down Orlando’s attack and score a pair of very impressive goals.

"The humidity really sapped us,” head coach Jesse Marsch said after the contest. “To come away with three points in a game where we didn't play our best—we won ugly—that is a big step in the right direction for us because we haven't managed to do that this year. Even though we didn't play our best we feel very positive about getting the result."

Young Player of the Week: Matt Miazga

While it's true that U.S. U-20 World Cup midfielder Marco Delgado is playing well for Toronto recently and scored a nice goal, Matt Miazga is the fastest-rising young player in the league at the moment.

The New York Red Bull central defender is showing no letdown after returning from the U-20 World Cup where he was one of the better defenders in the tournament. In Saturday’s 2-0 win over Orlando, Miazga played a great game and helped his team to a shutout. He was easily among the league’s best defenders for the weekend and could become the organizations latest of an impressive long line of U.S internationals who began their careers with the organization.

Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.