Best Rapid

Soccer's dazzling "bicycle kick" -- a 180-degree flip, with the shot taken as head and foot are absolutely reversed -- is not attempted often and rarely yields results. But on April 22, 2000, in Columbus, Ohio, veteran Colorado Rapids defender Marcelo Balboa scored with it -- and catapulted himself into TV sports highlights around the globe. Aside from that, Balboa played his usual brand of smart, dogged defense all season long and, at the tender age of 33, helped get the Rapids back to the playoffs against eventual MLS champion Kansas City. The Cerritos, California, native is now the only Rapid left from the team's inception in 1996, and last season he was still the best.