Beyond Nick Rimando, who was the best player in the MLS Cup final?
Gabriel, Charlotte

Nick Rimando was a worthy winner of MVP honors after backstopping Real Salt Lake to their first Major League Soccer championship on Sunday. The 30-year-old goalkeeper—capped once for the United States in 2002—made four important saves during the 120 minutes of open play, and denied both Jovan Kirovski and Edson Buddle during the penalty shootout while intimidating Los Angeles Galaxy captain Landon Donovan into missing the net completely.

But if I had to single out another player for honorable mention, it would no doubt be Salt Lake skipper Kyle Beckerman.

The 27-year-old was a constant presence in the center of the park. And as the match progressed from a full 90 minutes to an extended 120, he seemed to get better and better. With Kirovski and Mike Magee visibly fading toward the end of overtime, and with David Beckham’s tender ankle giving him problems throughout the final half-hour, Beckerman’s influence was all the more apparent.

Galaxy, as it happened, were rather fortunate to make it through the additional 30 minutes unscathed. Beckerman and midfield partner Andrew Williams were largely responsible for that. They put striker Robbie Findley in the clear with a number of good chances, but their fitness—so obviously superior to that of Donovan, Beckham, Magee and Kirovski—was what turned the match in the end.

And when referee Kevin Stott signaled the end of overtime, you just got the feeling that Real Salt Lake were not going to be denied.

What’s wrong with Bayern Munich? Should they fire van Gaal?
George, Spokane

Before we get ahead of ourselves, some perspective: Bayern Munich are just six points back of first place in the Bundesliga with 21 matches to play. They are also alive and well in the DFB Pokal, where they’ll host second division Fürth in a February quarterfinal. No, things haven’t gone according to plan on the domestic front, but the season is anything but a write-off at this point.

That brings us to the Champions League. Mathematically, Bayern could still progress to the Round of 16. They won’t, of course, and will find themselves in the Europea League after Christmas. The truth of the matter is that both Bordeaux and Juventus are far better sides and deserve to progress from Group A. Take that for what it is.

Yes, Bayern have problems. They were forced to acquire 35-year-old goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt from Benfica after losing confidence in Michael Rensing. Danijel Pranjic hasn’t been able to replace Lucio, whom the club allowed to leave for Inter Milan. Franck Ribery has been injured all season, and Arjen Robben—after debuting so wonderfully for the club—has battled injury as well.

Some of that is down to pure, bad luck. Some of it is incompetence. For one—Lucio should never have been allowed to leave the club. Two—the lack of quality goalkeeping should have been addressed long ago. Head coach Louis van Gaal is responsible for neither of these things, and under no circumstances should he be forced to walk the plank if Bayern’s fortunes continue to plummet.

But someone should. And his name is Uli Hoeness.

The 57-year-old has been involved at the Bavarian giants since 1970, first as a player, then as a director. These days he sits beside the coach in the dugout, offering advice and counsel and serving as a link between the coaches and chairman Karl-Heinze Rumenigge and supremo Franz Beckenbauer. In his role as general manager, he’s also one of the primary decision-makers when it comes to player transfers. He also has the power to fire the head coach. And he’s done so, again and again.

Since the end of Ottmar Hitzfeld’s first stint in 2004, Hoeness has employed no fewer than five coaches. He even brought Hitzfeld back to Allianz Arena for a second,18-month go-around in 2007. He gave Jürgen Klinsmann his first job in club football—an unmitigated disaster—and was the driving force behind the hiring of van Gaal—the man he may now fire in a matter of weeks.

Hoeness also let Felix Magath and Jupp Heynckes slip between his fingers. Despite delivering two titles and two cups over three seasons at Bayern, Magath was sacked in January 2007 to make way for the returning Hitzfeld. He landed on his feet at Wolfsburg, however, and took the Lower Saxony club to the title last season.

But the loss of Heynckes has proved an even greater embarrassment for Hoeness, and one he should not be allowed to forget. After replacing the departed Klinsmann in March of this year, the 64-year-old guided Bayern to a second-place finish and a spot in the Champions League. As a reward, he was cut loose by the club at the end of June. The result? He got a job at Bayer Leverkusen, where he is currently looking down at the rest of the league.

Follow Jerrad Peters on twitter at Twitter.com/peterssoccer. You can send your questions to jerradpeters@gmail.com.