The MLS announced today that Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan is MLS goalkeeper of the year. MLS announced the award this morning. The league also named New England defender Michael Parkhurst as the winner of the Fair Play Award (Columbus won the team award).

Probably the two easiest awards to give out in most people’s eyes. Guzan was a lock really for the Keeper award. He was just outstanding this season and beat out Pat Onstad, Troy Perkins, and Matt Reis. Outstanding enough to have English power Arsenal scouting him as well….makes some wonder if he will be in a Chivas uniform next season.

The Fair Play award is always easy since it deals with number of fouls, cards and boring stats like that.

More awards to be announced in the coming days and weeks. Yippie.

I love it when I recieve emails with limited information. I got one earlier with just the rookie of the year finalists, and then 20 minutes later the rest of the awards. Weird how things work out but nonetheless, the MLS has announced the finalists for each of their seasonal awards.

MVP- Juan Pablo Angel, Luciano Emilo, Cuauhtemoc Blanco

Newcomer of the Year- Juan Pablo Angel, Luciano Emilo, Cuauhtemoc Blanco

Defender of the Year- Michael Parkhurst, Claudio Suarez, Eddie Robinson

Rookie of the Year- Dane Richards, Maurice Edu and Adam Cristman

Coach of the Year – Dominic Kinnear, Preki, Tom Soehn

Goalkeeper of the Year- Brad Guzan, Pat Onstad, Matt Reis

No real shockers all over the board. Biggest may be Blanco for MVP. I never once had him on my boards for the MVP voting or chase. But I will say even in limited time he was as much of a MVP candidate as Angel or Emilio. However, I think people overlooked him as the reason why the Fire reached the playoffs and enjoyed a slight hot streak.

Other than that, I can’t say its too shocking overall. I would have liked to have seem Schelotto or Toja in the newcomer finalists. Amazing how people hyped Maykel Galindo as a newcomer of the year, look at what injuries will do to ya.

Any shocks here to you? Let me know.

MLS has announced the finalists for the Rookie of the Year award.

Adam Cristman – New England Revolution
Maurice Edu – Toronto FC
Dane Richards – New York Red Bulls

Solid final three, though I felt Robbie Findley was a stronger candidate than Cristman. Looks like some series northeast voting there if you ask me in those final three. Findley made a bigger impact but Cristman’s club got into the playoffs.

I still think Edu will win but wouldn’t be terribly shocked to see Richards come away with the award.

The playoffs may be in full gear right now but it is also a good time to discuss which MLS coach will be fired for not getting his club to the post-season dance.

Out of the five coaches, who’s teams failed to reach the playoffs I really see two getting the boot in the coming months before next season. I think one is a definite boot while the other may just leave and go elsewhere, perhaps San Jose.

Usually we think in America that if a club/team fails to reach the playoffs that the coach is largely to blame. That isn’t quite the case for a couple times. But for others it easily was the case.

Fernando Clavijo, Colorado Rapids – By far the easiest one to guess which would be fired is Clavijo. Clavijo’s three-year tenure with the Rapids has been mediocre at best having three straight fourth-place finishes in the West and this year’s poor record (fourth worst in MLS) make it clear that the Rapids just haven’t improved under Clavijo.

When Clavijo took over the club he said by the third season the Rapids would be in the MLS Cup. Bold statement for a man that has failed to turn-around every club that he has ever coached. Colorado has posted a 33-39-22 overall record in the past three years and during that time the Rapids have never been considered dangerous or remotely entertaining. I thought they would have been better this season but I was terribly wrong after a month into the season.

I will say this, it all hasn’t been Clavijo’s fault. Really, it hasn’t. The Rapids front-office is amoung the worst in the league, they rearly spend money on players and should have had the bright side to fire Clavijo when they had the chance to this summer. But, Clavijo did have some stupid moments this season, like trading fan-favorite Kyle Beckerman to rival Real Salt Lake, a deal that was horrible for the Rapids.

Don’t expect this dude back next season, and if for some reason he is, expect a riot from die-hard Rapids fans.

Frank Yallop, LA Galaxy – On one hand I see him getting the boot, on another I see him walking away from the soap opera that is the Galaxy. Then I also see him sticking around because you have to give him a hat tip for turning this club around after everything that they went through this past season.

He inherited a flawed team in 2006 and then had to deal with the Beckham media circus this season. According to league sources, Yallop also had to deal with Alexi Lalas meddling in player personnel decisions, which only made Yallop’s job tougher. In that case, he should get an extention if anything.

Yallop is a hell of a coach and can turn the Galaxy back into the powerhouse that they should be. The real mess is with Lalas, if Yallop can be on the same page with Lalas then this club will be fine and his job will be fine. I honestly see him bolting town for the new gig in San Jose. I would expect him to be able to get a lot of leverage from GM John Doyle.

Jason Kreis, Real Salt Lake – You want to talk about inheriting a mess, look no further than Kreis’ Salt Lake squad. A month into the season Kreis went from player to coach after the firing of John Ellinger, the best move the club ever made. Salt Lake had been terrible at drafting and scouting players but with Kreis things got turned around.

It may have taken some time but by the end of the season the Royals were no longer the league push-over. RSL actually finished 4-4-3 in its final 11 matches and gave its fans the something special by eliminating arch-rival Colorado from playoff contention with a win in the season finale.

Kreis also did a good job with the roster, dealing veteran Chris Klein for young standouts Robbie Findley and Nathan Sturgis, and acquiring Argentineans Fabian Espindola, Matias Mantilla and Javier Morales. Also the trade for Kyle Beckerman was pretty good for Real too. Still a lot is concerned on how he can handle players but I think Kreis will be fine. He did pretty darn good for never even being an assistant anywhere before he took over. I fully expect Real to begin turning their fortunes around in the draft and in the off-season player movement. Also, they open up a new stadium next season, so othey will want some big time players to play there I think.

Mo Johnston, Toronto FC – For an expansion campaign, it wasn’t a horrible season for Mo. When I think of this first season for the Red I think of: amazing crowds, the record-breaking scoreless streak and Johnston’s constant wheeling and dealing.

Toronto finished with the worst record in the league, 6-17-7, but Johnston’s team was actually on an impressive run after a goal-less and point-less first four matches. The Reds put together a 5-3-5 stretch from May to June, which included wins against three playoff qualifiers (Chicago, Houston and FC Dallas).

The biggest thing that hurt the Reds was injuries, something no coach can be blamed for. Johnston did get some good young players through his numberous trades. He acquired defenders Marvell Wynne and Todd Dunivant from his former club, the Red Bulls, and signed English forward Danny Dichio, who became the fan favoriate in Toronto. Johnston also drafted Maurice Edu, a rookie of the year candidate and U.S. national team newcomer.

The Reds rewarded Johnston with a contract extension through 2009, but the pressure will be on next year to provide the type of results the club showed from May to July. I think a healthy TFC will be a good TFC next season if Johnston keeps dealing and drafting well though.

Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew – When Sigi Schmid took over the Crew two years ago, he got a team with some young talent but little star power or depth. Now the Crew have a star in Guillermo Barros Schelotto, but still has many of the same issues it had when Schmid got the team two seasons ago.

The Crew were better in 2007 than in 2006, mostly due to Schelotto’s heroics. Schmid told the Columbus Dispatch that he would be back for another seasoon, which may be a shock to some since the Crew failed to reach the post season for a third striaght season.

Perhaps Crew management realizes that its own unwillingness to spend money has as much to do with Columbus’ struggles as Schmid does and may feel obligated to keep the man who helped land their only real star, Schelotto. I think Schmid will remain the coach there until he decides he can no longer help the club out.

Other coaches that could be on the hot seat:

Bruce Arena, New York Red Bulls – has the offense but now needs the defense to complete the package, I just don’t know how much longer the Red Bulls will give him to do so…

Dominic Kinnear, Houston Dynamo – I know you are thinking that this is stupid, but if the Dynamo lose their series to the Hoops this weekend, expect Kinnear to bolt town and go to San Jose….I know this isn’t a firing but it does mean Houston will need a new coach

A day after the announcement that FIFA would stop the current continent rotation system for the hosting of the World Cup, another country has decided to go ahead and publicly throw their name in the hat for the 2018 World Cup.

Australia announced today (or last night…they are like a day ahead of us aren’t they) that they would put a bid for the 2018 Cup along with England and the US.  Football Federation Australia (FFA) chief executive Ben Buckley said Australia was ‘very serious’ about bidding for the 2018 World Cup now that it was open to countries outside of North America.

Buckley said the FFA had undertaken preliminary work looking at potential stadiums and the financial feasibility of hosting the World Cup. FIFA’s executive committee voted unanimously on Monday to ditch its policy of rotating the World Cup between the six continental confederations.

The hosting winner won’t be announced until 2011 but this means there is still plenty of time for countries to put in hopeful bids to FIFA. Sadly though, I really doubt the Aussies have a realistic chance of being the host for the 2018 Cup but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future they do get a bid for hosting one.

England and the US are still the front-runners for the 2018 Cup. Even with the rotation system out of the question, these are the two countries with the best shot of hosting due to the number of quality stadiums. Expect the US to bank on the fact that there are more 70,000+ stadiums in the country to play games in than in England in getting this bid. The more people there, the more money and so on.

Still, one has to believe that England will get the bid. But time will tell.

Probably the biggest blow to the US being able to host the 2018 World Cup came today as FIFA has decided to get rid of the current rotation system that is in place in picking a host for the Cup.

That means that rather than CONCACAF being assured of hosting 2018, the bidding for the 2018 World Cup will now be open to the highest bidder and/or country that is in Europe willing to go through with every FIFA demand or need.

England looks like the early favorite to host the event, but don’t expect the US Soccer Federation to give up without a fight. There are plenty of big money corporations that will put up the cash to help the USSF get the Cup as another Cup here means lots of dough for them and the cities that the games are in.

I think really this is a poor move on FIFA’s part since they aren’t willing to not have a Cup held on FIFA European soil until 2022. Expect plenty big companies to pony up the cash in both the US and England…and probably Spain and Italy as well.

Its no real surprise today that some people out there are complaining about the weekend’s games. Not because their club lost or drew (in the case of New York and New England), but because it was too defensive or lacked any real offense.

Think about the last time the league was in playoff mode and in one weeked on action that saw four games and only yielded three goals and a scoreless draw. Think about that for a minute because it has never happened before. Usually there are more than three goals and in some games we have seen more.

Now there are some folks out there wanting change again. I have always been one to complain about how the playoffs are set up but more people seem to be getting on board due to the boring defensive showing. Think about it too, no high seeds won a game this weekend. All games were upsets to a degree. But that is what you get sometimes when you have a playoff series that is two legs. Its typical really of that kind of format to be defensive.

But is this all really a bad thing? Sure the upsets are a little surprising and can be annoying for some but is changing the current format of the home-and-home really going to change anything? I don’t think changing it back to the best of three will do anything to really help this out. Home-and-home is a little more competitive in my opinion even if it doesn’t reward much for the higher seed.

Really, as I have always said the change needs to be made to the number of clubs entering the playoffs. I did see one change that wouldn’t be too terrible if they kept eight clubs in the playoffs. With the higher seeds getting a bye and the wild-cards actuall playing NFL-style wild card playoff games. I think that way put it into a single elimination and put the low seeds against one another and the winners face the higher seeds. That way the conference champions take a week off and get rewarded for hard work while the lower seeds battle it out to face them.

However, I doubt the MLS will actually ever change this format. They’ve gone through a couple different formats and none have been all that great. Its either shorten the regular season (won’t happen) and bring back the best of three, or keep what you have. I still think the best is to lower the number that gets in but we all know that if it hasn’t happened by now then it will never happen. A true and great playoff format will never really happen in this league.

But what we have now may actually be the best that we got, sadly enough. It does create the best confusion amoung us and keeps us talking about it, which is what the league wants. They don’t want people to not talk about the playoffs now do they?