Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Michael Farfan is without a doubt the most valuable player picked in Major League Soccer’s amateur draft this year.

Even without his sick play against D.C. United and Sporting Kansas City, that would be unquestioned. You don’t often get two starters with one second round draft pick.

But that’s what the Philadelphia Union did in one of the player personnel coups of the year, buying one Farfan and getting a second Farfan as close to free (the league minimum in salary) as possible in MLS.

Right now, everyone’s going batty about Michael Farfan. Eyelids are flapping like window shades. Jaws drop. “Did you see that?” becomes a common refrain.

That beautiful lofted through ball to Sebastien Le Toux for the goal.

The hop over a defender’s leg, followed by the smooth touch and the like-it-was-nothing left-footed goal from outside the 18.

Splitting two defenders off the dribble with a slick touch to himself around one of them.

But don’t forget the other twin.

Because Gabriel Farfan can play.

We’ve seen hints of his flair on the ball, but they’ve fewer and farther between, perhaps due to style but also what’s been asked of him at left back.

His brother, Michael, has played his way out of the fullback role, in part probably because he wasn’t drafted to play there — and in part because he clearly refused to accept the concept. That isn’t to say he’s not a team player. But his eyes are always ahead, looking to attack, looking to dance, looking to create. Instinct is what it is. He was one of many Union players that manager Peter Nowak deployed out of position, and he won’t be the last.

Garfan, on the other hand, has a nasty little mean streak that’s starting to emerge. No, he’s not tactically ready to be a top-line defender yet, and it may well be that he’ll never belong on the back line, another Nowak positional experiment destined to be rectified by time, facts and circumstance. Garfan has good attacking instincts, great ball skills, and a desire to attack not all that dissimilar from his brother.

But he also has a key part of a defender’s mentality: He gets pissed on the field. He hits back, and he’ll even hit first. He’ll go after the whistle, and he’ll go hard. One day, that guy’s going to knock some guy on his back and look down on him like Arnold Schwarzenaager in Commando and just confess to lying.

[/exaggeration]

We’re starting to see what kind of player Michael Farfan will be, and it’s the highlight reel kind.

Gabe is still finding his footing, but he looks like a keeper. It may be at left back, but more likely it’ll be at midfield if he gets another legitimate crack there. My guess is he’d be shining a whole lot more if he wasn’t forced to learn a new position and instead could flourish at what he does best.

Either way, time will bring proof of just how valuable a draft pick his brother was, and the value won’t just be measured by Mike’s play. As Adam Cann put it, the twins can be Farfantastic, and they’re just getting started.