Team of the Week: New England

In a key battle for playoff positioning, the New England Revolution posted a hard-fought 3-1 win over Toronto FC. The win moved the Revs six points clear of Toronto for fourth place in the east while Toronto holds a game in hand.

The game took place in Canada but it had a distinct American feel to it. Current U.S. national team starters Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley started for Toronto while Jermaine Jones manned the midfield for New England. Occasional and former U.S. internationals Teal Bunbury, Charlie Davies, Herculez Gomez, and Juan Agudelo took part as did 2015 U.S. U-20 midfielder Marco Delgado.

Head coaches Greg Vanney and Jay Heaps also suited up for the U.S. national team during their playing careers.

The Revolution were outshot and out-possessed but worked very hard and showed a lot of character in securing the win. Heaps' squad was able to limit the impact of Bradley, Altidore, and Sebastian Giovinco as well as capitalize on its limited chances.

"It wasn't our best game by any stretch but we really worked hard,” Heaps said afterward. “The guys fought like heck.”

Clunker of the week: NYCFC

It’s still too early to pass judgment but so far Frank Lampard's contributions in MLS have more in common with Rafa Marquez than, say, Robbie Keane.

Defensively he's been poor and offensively he hasn’t accomplished much of anything. Combine that with his suspiciously delayed arrival in the league and suddenly the squeaky-clean Brit looks a bit tarnished.

Against Dallas this past weekend, New York City FC coach Jason Kreis made telling substitutions when he benched David Villa at halftime and Andrea Pirlo and Lampard were taken off not long into the second half. New York City was down 2-0 at the time but managed to play better without its high-priced designated players.

Few expected New York City to be a top team in MLS in its expansion year, but what is so disappointing is that Pirlo and Lampard have been completely ineffective.

Player of the Week: Lee Nguyen

Last season Lee Nguyen stood out as one of the top players in MLS. But he didn’t get off to a strong start in 2015 and many pundits wondered aloud if his 2014 was an aberration.

That talk has quieted down. Nguyen has been fantastic since June, registering four goals and seven assists as he helped .

Against Toronto on Sunday, Nguyen was what separated the Revolution from its Canadian opponent. First, he assisted on the Revolution's second goal to make it 2-0. Then, with the score 2-1, he stripped Michael Bradley in a dangerous position to gift Kelyn Rowe a golden scoring chance that doubled New England’s lead.

An honorable mention goes to Columbus Crew forward Kei Kamara for his two-goal effort in a 2-1 win over Philadelphia. The brace gave Kamara 20 tallies on the year and extended his league lead in that category.

Goal of the Week: Adrian Winter

Swiss midfielder Adrian Winter scored twice Sunday to lead Orlando City to an important 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City and keep his team’s slim playoff hopes alive.

3-1. Winter with his second of the game. #ORLvSKC pic.twitter.com/bek7KoI2Ez

— Ben Jata (@Ben_Jata) September 14, 2015

His second goal was a wonder to behold and featured deft combination play with English midfielder Lewis Neal. It put the exclamation point on a nice performance from the expansion team.

Young Player of the Week: David Romney

The 22-year-old central defender from the University of San Francisco is proving once again that the Los Angeles Galaxy can do no wrong these days.

Romney, who is related to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has featured primarily for the Galaxy II this season. On Saturday, however, he made his second MLS start against Montreal and the six-foot-two central defender did well to help keep the Impact's Didier Drogba off the board in a scoreless draw.

"He played a good game," Bruce Arena said. "Solid, it’s probably his second start for us I think. He is a strong physical player, passes well, good in the air."

Romney is age-eligible for the U.S. Olympic team and can play left back as well but has yet to get a look from head coach Andi Herzog. While he has emerged too late in the cycle for qualifying, he is one to watch the rest of the season and could be in the mix for the Olympics should the Yanks make it all the way to Rio de Janeiro.

National Team outsiders stepping up

The U.S. national team’s poor showings at the Gold Cup and in the ugly 4-1 loss to Brazil highlighted many of the squad’s shortcomings. Coincidentally or not, this past weekend saw many of the top players from outside Jurgen Klinsmann’s player pool raise their games and make their presences felt.

Will it put any of them into the mix to get a call-up before January? Probably not. But based on form, you could argue that any of the below players deserves serious consideration.

Lee Nguyen was the ASN player of the week in MLS as mentioned above.

Benny Feilhaber picked up yet another assist and should have had a few others in Sporting Kansas City's loss to Orlando.

Steve Birnbaum scored a goal for DC United in a 1-1 draw with Colorado on Saturday.

Matt Hedges may be the best American central defender in MLS this season and the FC Dallas captain delivered another quality outing in a 2-1 win over New York City FC.

Dax McCarty went a full 90 for the Red Bulls in a 3-2 win over Chicago and was instrumental in helping his team regain control of the match after it fell behind by two goals.

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