WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Keeping up with a tradition of last year on the last day of each month I typically try and do a monthly award thing. Usually it’s a decent barometer of what the end of year awards will possibly look like. Some awards change from month-to-month but others stay on board. As always if you have your own, feel free to post below.

For those who are new to the site, the way things go is I will go through some individual awards and then on to the Best XI of the month. A new thing for this season will be the goal of the month (with the highlight to boot!).

WVH Player of the Month: Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy – Yeah, eight goals and two assist on the month. Let me say that first part again, EIGHT GOALS. Lando is quickly setting records, from what I’ve seen out there he has set a record for most goals in a five game span (previous record was six). Before this weekend I would have probably gone with a number of other guys for this award but when someone goes on a rampage like this in a month’s time you have to take note.

Others in consideration: Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas; Alejandro Moreno, Columbus Crew; Will Hesmer, Columbus Crew; Amado Guevara, Toronto FC; Sasha Kljestan, Chivas USA; and Blanco, Chicago Fire.

WVH Goalkeeper of the Month: Will Hesmer, Columbus Crew – His club is at the top of the table and for good reason, it is mostly due to his play in goal. Sure the defense in front of him has been playing very well as of late but Hesmer has made a number of quality stops that have helped keep Columbus as the pace setter early on this season. And we can’t forget that he’s already saved two PKs this season.

Others in consideration: Greg Sutton, Toronto FC; Dario Sala, FC Dallas; and Jon Busch, Chicago Fire.

WVH Defender of the Month: Michael Parkhurst, New England – Despite all the injuries and roster changes for the Revs one thing has kept constant, the play of Parkhurst in the back. Others had good months but I think as a whole Parkhurst was the most consistent (I know Chicago fans, he was horrible in week two against your Fire but everyone in this discussion had at least one bad game).

Others in consideration: Chad Marshall, Columbus; Gonzalo Segares, Chicago; Nat Borchers, RSL; and Adrian Serioux, FC Dallas.

WVH Youngster of the Month: Sainey Nyassi, New England Revolution – I’ve been very impressed with the play of this young Gambian so far this season. I know some people will say at times he disappears too much for stretches of the game but for the most part he hasn’t given New England fans hope that they will be fine during this slew of injuries that they are dealing with. (Note about this award: it isn’t a rookie of the year thing, but its mainly an award for anyone under 23)

Others in consideration: Jozy Altidore, New York; Arturo Alvarez, FC Dallas; Maurice Edu, Toronto FC; and Sasha Kljestan, Chivas USA.

WVH Coach of the Month: Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew – Sigi gets his 100th win over the weekend and gets the coach of the month nod from me based on his team’s play in April. They are atop the standings and honestly the biggest surprise of the season so far. Maybe this has been building up all along in Columbus and we are finally seeing what Sigi built there.

Others in consideration: Steve Morrow, FC Dallas; John Carver, Toronto FC; Steve Nicol, New England; and Denis Hamlett, Chicago Fire.

WVH Goal of the Month: Sasha Kljestan’s “Wonder-goal” against LA:

Others in consideration: Colin Clark (COL) making Abel Xavier (LA) look stupid in week one; Amado Guevara’s (TOR) free kick against KC in week five; Marcello Gallardo’s (DC) volley against RSL in week five; and Jozy Altidore’s (NY) run against New England in week four.

WVH’s Best XI for April:

Keeper:

• Will Hesmer (Columbus) – My keeper of the month, plain and simple.

Defense:

• Michael Parkhurst (NE) – The Revs defense would be in total shambles if it wasn’t for the defending defender of the year.
• Chad Marshall (Columbus) – Just like the rest of his team, Marshall’s play has really stepped up and it has put the Crew at the top.
• Gonzalo Segares (Chicago) – Maybe the most underrated defender in the league right now.

Midfield:

• David Beckham (LA) – Without Becks crossing the ball, Landon wouldn’t have eight goals. Simple as that.
• Shalrie Joseph (New England) – Stepping up a bunch this season while other key parts of his club are out with injury.
• Sacha Kljestan (Chivas) – one of the lone bright spots right now for the Goats, we saw just how valuable his play is for this team when he sat out the Dallas game with that red card.
• Kyle Beckerman (RSL) – I think it may be fair to say that RSL would be a total disaster right now if it weren’t for Beckerman in the middle.

Forwards:

• Landon Donovan (LA) – Eight goals, enough said.
• Alejandro Moreno (Columbus) – finally we are seeing someone step up in Columbus in the scoring department
• Kenny Cooper (Dallas) – Cooper scores and Dallas wins.

Honorable mentions: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus), Amado Guevara (Toronto), Matt Reis (New England), Nat Borchers (RSL), John Thorrington (Chicago), Tomasz Frankowski (Chicago), and Jozy Altidore (New York).

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