The Neutral Chronicles: The joy of watching a player dominate

Sebastian Giovinco is an absolute treat to watch.

Anyone who has watched more than a couple of Toronto FC games this season knows that. The Italian, in his first season in MLS, has juked and dodged his way to the top of the MLS scoring chart following a hat trick on Wednesday against Orlando City SC, where he scored from a PK, a free kick and the run of play.

He's leading the league in shots and shots on target by a pretty fair margin, something that is a bit of a surprise. When he was signed from Juventus, the thinking was that he would be an attacking midfielder, setting up Jozy Altidore, and the pair would help Michael Bradley and, oh yeah, the rest of TFC finally climb the...uh, summit of the MLS postseason.

But Altidore has been hurt and on international duty for most of the season, and Bradley was also out an extended spell with the U.S. Men's National Team. TFC would be in trouble, right?

Not so much. But that's mostly because Giovinco has carried the team on his back. TFC are in third place in the Eastern Conference at the moment, which sounds fantastic until you realize that they are only four points ahead of the seventh place team, so the margin for error remains small. And considering TFC's history, there are plenty of ways for them to stumble and crash out once again.

One of those would be Giovinco getting hurt or even just running out of energy. I mean, no soccer game is played 1 v 11, and there have been some quality players around him this summer, like fellow newcomer Benoit Cheyrou and former Chivas USA midfielder Marky Delgado, possibly playing the best soccer of his career to date.

But Giovinco is turning games as close to singlehandedly as just about anybody can. And since I'm not a TFC fan, I don't have to sweat out the playoff chase. I simply get to watch a brilliant player, the clear frontrunner for MLS MVP (barring a sharp downturn in form the final three months of the season, the award is his to lose) be awesome, and really play attractive soccer. On a personal level. Really. He's so dominant that who knows, he may only be in MLS for a season or two, if the allure (and money) of European soccer becomes too strong.

He won't win every game for them, of course, and he (probably) won't score hat tricks regularly. But Sebastian Giovinco has made Toronto FC appointment viewing for the MLS neutral, and more often than not, you're not going to be disappointed when you watch him.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!