WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

It almost seems like being the best rookie this season is like a death wish. Either you start out on top and fade quicker than anyone thought, get hurt or…well get hurt some more. That seems to be the nature of things right now in the league for our crop of rookies.

Usually by now we have a solid understanding of who will win what award by the end of the season. The thing is this award may be the most up for grabs right now because of injuries and players finding themselves out of favor with their coaches.

Take the number one pick in the 2008 SuperDraft Chance Myers. He started the year out and before the mid-season he was out of favor with the Wizards coaching staff. Not because of attitude but because of performance. Usually number one picks are suppose to be good but Myers certainly was not. His decision making seems careless, which has caused numerous goals scored against KC.

Then you have LA’s Sean Franklin. For a while we figured he was the best rookie, then injuries took their place and knocked him off the top. More recently poor play has hurt his chances of getting this award, not to mention the overall play of his club.

Then you had New England’s Kheli Dube. Finally it seemed like we had a rookie that knew what he was doing. Playing well, scoring goals and making people in New England forget they had an injured Taylor Twellman on the bench. What happens to Dube? He got hurt and hasn’t been seen from in about a month now.

So who has stepped up since then? Anyone? The door was open when Dube went down for guys like Chicago’s Patrick Nyarko and Chivas USA’s Justin Braun. But both went down before anyone could even place their name at the top of a list.

So what’s the list look like now? Some names are still there but some are rising to the top very quickly anymore.

1. Andy Iro, Columbus Crew: When things are going for you club you begin to find players who are the reason for it. We know about Schelotto in the middle, Hedjuk in the back, and Moreno up top. But this rookie in the middle of the defense has really impressed lately. He just scored his first career goal this past weekend and has been a force in the Columbus defense lately. Will it last? Will he get hurt now?
2. Kheli Dube, New England Revolution: Even though he’s been out lately you still have to look at him for this award. Four goals from a Supplemental pick is pretty impressive any year. And yes this high while being hurt means this rookie class has not been that great too.
3. Geoff Cameron, Houston Dynamo: He hasn’t seen as much playing time lately but that is due to his club being healthy again. I would imagine once the Dynamo start playing more in the CONCACAF Champions League you will see his name on the starting XI again. Which is good too because he’d depth to his club cannot be overlooked right now.
4. Stephen King, Chicago Fire: Hey, when everyone else is hurt in this rookie class its been King who has stepped up when needed. Two goals on the year from a pick that I thought was a total steal by the Fire. Can he continue his climb up in the final months is the question.

Still trying to find their way up here:

Juluis James, Toronto FC

Eric Avila, FC Dallas

Danleigh Boreman, New York

Anyone else that I missed?

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