Six Degrees: American Center Backs Share this story Larrys Mabiala), a Croatian ( Bill Tuiloma), and an American ( Zac McGraw). Which of these guys do I think has the best chance to someday win MLS Defender of the Year? Despite not yet playing a single MLS minute, my money’s on McGraw. Why? Simple: he’s an American center back. 2) For no good reason, I recently went digging around on Wikipedia, where I found their list of every MLS Best XI and discovered some interesting things. Since the Timbers joined the league in 2011, the Best XI teams have listed 29 forwards. Four times, one of those forwards was American. That’s 14%.