The 10th week of play in Major League Soccer saw plenty of electrifying individual displays. 

Three players scored hat-tricks, while four others found the back of the net on two occasions in a week that saw 39 goals fly in. 

While the stellar offensive performances across the league dominated the headlines, there were also some impressive defensive games turned in by some of the league's best.

After sorting through all of the terrific displays on the pitch this weekend, we compiled the latest MLS Player Power Rankings, a list that sees its first change at the top since Week 6. 

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Welcome to our weekly look at the winners and losers from the latest week of play in Major League Soccer.

This week, a pair of managers once again find their way on to the list for their actions, while a slew of players are recognized for their skillful play.

While a ton of praise was handed out to many players and teams in Week 10, there were some big losers, including a few players that made troublesome defensive lapses. 

Continue reading for the complete list of winners and losers from Week 10 in MLS. 

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The 10th week of play in Major League Soccer delivered us with a plethora of storylines to watch after 39 goals were scored in 12 games. 

The electric offensive play across the league this week taught us plenty of things about the teams who lit the net on fire and fell flat in blowout losses. 

Because of the onslaught of goals, plenty of individuals made statements about their play as well. 

Continue reading for the eight biggest takeaways from MLS Week 10. 

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Week 10 in Major League Soccer was not short of terrific performances. 

Three teams scored five goals and three players scored hat-tricks in a week that saw 39 goals scored across 12 games. 

Among the superb players on the pitch were a pair of rookies who made the race for Rookie of the Year a bit more interesting than it already was. 

Continue reading to see which players filled out the MLS Team of the Week, which is shaped in a 4-4-2 formation.

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Dom Dwyer of Sporting Kansas City isn't just looking up to his teammates anymore. Without question, his mates are looking to him.

"He’s a very hungry forward and he is relentless when it comes to being around the box," his coach Peter Vermes told media including the Kansas City Star. "He found some very good opportunities and the second goal he finished was a fantastic finish."

It's that finishing ability that Dwyer seemed to just lack as he rose to the top of the league in shots attempted but didn't have the ratio of goals he wanted to show for it. Until Saturday in Montreal.

Dwyer finished with two goals on four shots to crack the top five in scoring. His efforts were bound to pay off, as the forward out of London is an extremely hard worker on the pitch.

If he can maintain his performance to this point in the season, he's certainly in the discussion for a spot on the MLS All-Star Game roster as a reserve player. His rising stock and impossible to dislike attitude make him a sure candidate and puts him in line to be a superstar in the league.

Dwyer is a huge reason why Sporting KC currently find themselves alone in first place in the Eastern Division. His rising shots on goal numbers are a good indicator as to why, as he's simply finding ways to put the ball in to threatening situations.

Sporting have an excellent system going with Graham Zusi feeding Dwyer, as Zusi nears the top of the league in assists. Fundamentals and teamwork are all helping Dwyer out tremendously as well.

You can catch Dwyer in action next on Wednesday, May 14, as Sporting return home to face the Philadelphia Union. That game will kick off at 7:30pm CDT and air on the Sporting KC Television Network with Callum Williams (play-by-play), Diego Gutierrez (analyst) and Jake Yadrich (sideline).

Follow Dan Irwin on Twitter @danirwinsports or on Facebook.

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In this week's MLS Insider, we are told the story of United States legend John Harkes, who played 90 times for his country and twice won the MLS Cup with D.C. United.

[MLS Insider]

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There were few raised eyebrows when Clint Dempsey decided to return to England for a loan spell with Fulham during the MLS off-season.

The US international had failed to make a significant impact for the Seattle Sounders since making a sensational $9 million switch from Tottenham Hotspur in August 2013, and with the World Cup looming, he had to do something to regain his form and show that he still has what it takes to lead the line for his country.

With just one goal in nine appearances for the Sounders, Dempsey didn’t make the impact many expected he would after impressing in England’s top flight since his move from the New England Revolution in January 2007.

Whether he was lacking match fitness, whether his head wasn’t right or whether he struggled to adapt to greater attention from opponents anxious to prove themselves against the national team’s captain, Dempsey did not look like a player worth the significant investment made in him.

But since returning from a seven-game loan spell back at Craven Cottage, in which he failed to score, Dempsey has been on fire.

The 31-year-old leads the MLS scoring charts with an impressive eight goals in seven games as Seattle top the Western Conference by two points from Real Salt Lake after nine games.

Dempsey has been instrumental in the team’s rise to the top, his partnership with fellow Designated Player Obafemi Martins proving too hot to handle for opposing defences in the early part of the campaign.

The Texan has scored goals throughout his career, but not with the prolific abandon he has done in recent weeks. He hasn’t scored too many spectacular efforts either, or shown an ability to take on opponents with mazy dribbles, blistering pace or unexpected tricks or flicks.

But with over 100 caps for the USA, and 36 goals, Dempsey has been putting his vast experience to good use, relying as much on his positional sense and instinct as he is on his composure and calm in front of goal.

Dempsey, who spent most of his childhood living in a trailer park and attributes much of his motivation to the devastating death of his then 16-year-old sister Jennifer to a brain aneurysm in 1995, has also tallied three assists to his eight goals, while Martins’ four goals and four assists illustrate the threat posed by two of the MLS’s big hitters.

Ives Galarcep of Goal.com sums up Dempsey’s early impact succinctly when he says: "Clint Dempsey has buried concerns about his European success translating to MLS dominance as he has found a rich vein of form and has helped Seattle to an outstanding start to the season."

Wearing his favoured No. 2 shirt, which he also wore at Furman University and Tottenham, Dempsey has been a revelation for the Sounders and his form is also something which has delighted national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Speaking to MLSsoccer.com towards the end of April, Klinsmann admitted: "[I'm] very happy that Clint has picked up the rhythm and found his confidence and is part of almost every goal that Seattle scores. That’s really a good sign, it’s great for us going into the final weeks before we hit the preparation for the World Cup knowing that he’s building his confidence more and more and more.

"And it’s due to his hard work that he put in for January, February, being at Fulham. It was not a successful time, but he built a foundation for the months afterward so he seems to now be at the right time, at the right spot."

Dempsey has been the most fouled player in the MLS since his arrival last August, and with that kind of attention comes understandable frustration from time to time. And that frustration led to a two-game suspension for striking Toronto FC’s Mark Bloom in Round Two, which ruled him out of games against the Montreal Impact and the Columbus Crew.

As such, his season didn’t really get going until April 5, when he hit a stunning hat-trick in a sensational 4-4 draw at Pacific North-West rivals Portland Timbers.

That performance began a remarkable run which saw Dempsey net twice in a 3-2 win at FC Dallas, contribute two assists in a 2-1 win at Chivas USA and another brace in a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids.

Speaking about the run, Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid told Q13 Fox Sports: "I think it’s the best one I’ve seen, for sure. In terms of a stretch of games right now and being dominant and imposing his will on the game, I haven’t seen anyone doing what Clint has done this last few games."

For his part, Dempsey has felt good about the form which has seen him become a mainstay in the MLS’s Team of the Week and earned him a couple of Player of the Week gongs. Speaking to the club’s official website Soundersfc.com, Dempsey revealed: "You always feel good when you’re contributing, scoring goals or getting assists. I’m in a good rhythm at the moment and it’s about continuing that form."

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Over the past two years, with so many key components to the United States men’s national team choosing to either stay in Major League Soccer or make a return to the league after stints in Europe, the league’s importance to the national team has never been higher.

In addition to Landon Donovan, who has been in the league since he was a teenager, Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley have returned, while Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez and Graham Zusi have spurned offers in Europe to stay home.

Additionally, Clarence Goodson, Maurice Edu and Michael Parkhurst returned this past year and a number of other MLS players—notably Kyle Beckerman, Eddie Johnson, Brad Evans and Chris Wondolowski—are expected to compete for playing time on the United States’ World Cup team headed to Brazil this summer.

So with the potential of 13 players (adding in Nick Rimando) on the United States’ World Cup roster coming from MLS, including six players who will most likely start for the red, white and blue, the USA’s performance in Brazil should deliver a clear-cut verdict on the quality, or lack thereof, in MLS.

Or, maybe not.

If the U.S. offense can manage to score against its considerable group-stage foes Ghana, Portugal and Germany, it will likely come from the efforts of Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley and Jozy Altidore. And while all four have played in MLS, only Donovan has spent the majority of his career in MLS.

Dempsey was a promising young striker when he left the New England Revolution for Fulham in 2006, but he truly honed his skills in the English Premier League between 2007 and 2013. Bradley was a youngster for the then-New York MetroStars in 2004 and 2005 but became a top midfielder after stints with Heerenveen, Borussia Monchengladbach, Chievo Verona and, finally, AS Roma.

And Altidore, who also played with New York (by then known as the Red Bulls) as a teenager, is still curating his talents in Europe with his most successful stint to date his 2012-13 campaign with AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands.

So, on the offensive side of things, the USMNT’s best players (save Donovan) have all been developed primarily in Europe.

However, if the U.S. is able to defensively shut down the potent attacks of Ghana, Portugal and Germany, the case for MLS as a legitimate developmental league will be much stronger. In Brazil, the U.S. will likely have two MLS players at center back, Matt Besler and either Omar Gonzalez or Clarence Goodson (although Goodson has only recently returned after six years in Europe).

Geoff Cameron, who came into his own with the Houston Dynamo, will likely start at right back. And DaMarcus Beasley is a favorite to start at left back. Although it has been many years since Beasley has played in MLS, he was already coming into his own before leaving the league for Europe in 2004.

But with the mixed pedigree of many American players, a definitive verdict on MLS based on the United States' World Cup performance will be difficult. However, if one of the few players of a “pure” MLS background proves to be the difference for the U.S. in Brazil, the case for the league will be much stronger.

Those players would include the aforementioned Beckerman, Wondolowski, Zusi, Gonzalez, Besler and Donovan—all six of whom have played their entire careers in MLS (Donovan has had three loan stints to Europe and did play seven first-team matches for Bayer Leverkusen in the 2004-05 season). Of those six, four (Donovan, Zusi, Besler and Gonzalez) are projected to start while Beckerman and Wondolowski are thought to be fighting for positions on the roster.

So, in the end, the prospects of using the USMNT’s performance in Brazil as a definitive verdict on MLS are slim. If these six were to be the key difference-makers for the U.S. advancing out of its group—or worse, the key goats for why it didn’t—the potential in using their play to evaluate the league as a whole will be stronger.

If not, we may just have to wait until 2018.

Follow me on Twitter @JohnDHalloran

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Major League Soccer's ninth week of play saw a bevy of attacking talent come to the forefront, as 30 goals were scored in nine matches. 

Because of that high goal total, plenty of attack-minded players found themselves high up on the latest edition of the MLS player power rankings.

Only one defender was able to crack the top 10 in a week that saw Joao Plata, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Obafemi Martins skyrocket up the chart. 

Continue reading on for the complete list of 20 players who made the Week 9 edition of the "Bleacher Report MLS Player Power Rankings."

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Sporting KC's Dom Dwyer has come a long way from his days at Tyler Community College in Texas. The skilled striker out of London has had an unconventional road to seeing his dream play out, but is right where he wants to be and playing as well as anyone in MLS today.

Dwyer has had more than just his pedigree as a staple of his resume. The Englishman can proudly boast that he is an MLS player, because it's something he's aspired to accomplish.

"I had dreams of coming to MLS," Dwyer had told The Kansas City Star following the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. "But I never really thought I would until last week."

As a sophomore at Tyler CC, Dwyer scored 37 goals and won the national junior college player of the year award. After a move up the NCAA ladder to attend the University of South Florida, he scored 16 goals in 21 games. It was undoubtedly evidence that he was MLS material.

Sporting KC picked Dwyer in the first round of the 2012 draft, No. 16 overall. He did make on-field appearances early in his career with the team, but has now morphed into a much more aggressive, well-rounded player.

Dwyer is currently No. 5 in MLS in shots attempted, and only four attempts behind the leader Clint Dempsey. He's also in the top 20 with respect to goals scored, in a log jam with several players at four goals. His hard style and experience as a leader is helping him into a role that he's filling nicely for the departed Teal Bunbury.

Not even a year has elapsed since Dwyer scored his first MLS goal against the New York Red Bulls. Yet already his determination and hard work ethic are clearly visible, and his numbers are backing up his confidence.

One of his better attempts at goal came against Real Salt Lake at Sporting Park when an acrobatic bicycle kick was only narrowly missed, in what would have certainly been MLS Goal of the Year and likely more than that.

His thoughts are something he likes to wear on his sleeve, and by thoughts we mean his humor and by sleeve we mean his Twitter account. Dwyer took a picture of himself with team ownership, insinuating that it was a negotiation tactic on a contract:

Owners 💵💵💵😁 #NewContractTactics 😉 “@SportingKC: #SportingKC's @Ddwyer14 stepping up his selfie game #selfiesunday pic.twitter.com/kCZZCIGjlq”

Whether he's achieving the goals he's set for himself, working hard on the field or having some fun off of it, Dom Dwyer is going to be a winner in Kansas City and in MLS. Look for him to make the MLS All-Star team as a reserve and be a fan favorite for Sporting, perhaps for years to come.

Follow Dan Irwin on Twitter @danirwinsports or on Facebook.

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