No a real shocker for most folks out there, Major League Soccer has announced the 2009 Coach of the Year is LA Galaxy front man Bruce Arena.

The turnaround in LA this year has been nothing short of remarkable. Arena found a way to get everything on board with stars like Landon Donovan and David Beckham by plugging in solid veterans and excellent young stars like Omar Gonzalez and Sean Franklin.

Remember that 8-13-9 that gave up a league-high 62 goals in a season last year? This year’s Galaxy went a nice 12-6-12, good enough for top dog in the Western Conference.

This was easily one of his best works as head coach of any club he’s been apart of. While I didn’t give him my top vote he was a very close number two for me. I have no problem with Arena getting the honor here as it is certainly well deserved.

The regular season is done, over, finished or whatever other adjective you want to use. For the second straight season WVH got to participate in the league’s media vote for the season awards. Voting is now over and I felt it was time to share my votes with you all.

I’ll have to admit some awards were tougher to vote on than others but I tried to span the entire season’s body of work as much as I could for these awards. The way you vote for these awards is to give your first, second and third place votes for each. Now I will leave out the lesser awards like best PR from a club and best ref of the year. The rest I will list below.

Robert Warzycha was the best coach fo the year for me. (Getty Images)

Coach of the Year:

1. Robert Warzycha (Columbus): Some will definitely disagree with me on this one and I will be honest I really went back and forth on this award but at the end of the day I had to give it up to a guy that kept things just the way they were and got this club to a second straight Supporter’s Shield trophy. Consistency is key in this league and its even more amazing to see it happen after a coaching change.

2. Sigi Schmid (Seattle): I think anytime you take an expansion team to the playoffs you deserve some big time credit for it.

3. Bruce Arena (LA): I kind of have a feeling he will end up with this award but he didn’t get my top vote but not because he didn’t deserve it. The job he did in LA was definitely one of his best. I am just waiting to see if it turns into a MLS Cup before I call it his best work.

Defender of the Year:

1. Geoff Cameron (Houston): One of the easier award for me to vote on. Cameron was consistent and easily the best defender of the year in my eyes.

2. Chad Marshall (Columbus): Had he stayed healthy through the entire season he would have won back-to-back votes from me for this. It was close but his injuries hurt him I thought for this award.

3. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): The biggest X-factor on that Seattle defense is Hurtado. The guy is that good folks. Continue Reading…

For most folks out there the Coach of the Year debate is a three person race. Depending on the how the final week goes we could include one or two others into the discussion.

Some coaches have lead their clubs from loads of draws early to the top of their conferences, one has lead an expansion club to the playoffs for the second time in league history, while others have just done what they always do.

As mentioned the final week will go a long way in determining this awards’ race as it will with a couple others. Below is the list of guys in the running in no real order. That’s where you all come in, who deserves this award? And who doesn’t?

Sigi Schmid (Seattle): Leading an expansion club to a respectable record is never easy but leading an expansion club to the playoffs rarely happens. Say what you will about Schmid and the team that was built up there in Seattle, I believe they wouldn’t be in the playoffs without him leading the way.

Bruce Arena (LA): The early part of the season the Galaxy weren’t losing but then again they weren’t winning either. But a funny thing happened, the roster that Arena tore apart last winter got a couple other additions that made the Galaxy into what they are today. Now some are saying this is his best work yet. I agree with that.

Dominic Kinnear (Houston): Another season, and another year at the top of the western conference for Kinnear and the Dynamo. While I don’t see Kinnear winning this award this year I do think he does deserve a decent amount of consideration for it.

Robert Warzycha (Columbus): Some won’t want him on this list since he basically took over where Sigi Schmid left off but you can’t deny the job that he has done by keeping things moving forward with this bunch.

Preki (Chivas): Its been an up and down season for Preki and Chivas USA but overall the Goats are a couple games away from a possibly Supporter’s Shield. Should Chivas USA win out this week and Columbus lose we could see Preki gain a bunch of votes for this award. A lot of ifs but it is possible.

Anyone else you think should be in the running? Steve Nicol for his work with New England this year? Schellas Hyndman for his late turn around in Dallas? Anyone else?

With today being the league’s All-Star game it just felt right to go into some award talk. Most of the awards feel like they are going to be decided very late in the year this season. A lot of names in the running for things like the MVP race and the rookie of the year race. Only the comeback award feels like it is all but given out to Chivas keeper Zach Thornton.

For each award I’ll give a quick rundown of guys in the running for the award. Each list is in no real order at this time since it would be almost silly to rank each player (or coach) at this point with so much left to do this season.

Feel free as always to give your thoughts on the awards and who you think should be at the top of each list.

MVP

Players in the running:

• Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus
• Landon Donovan (LA)
• Fredy Montero (Seattle)
• Brad Davis (Houston)
• Shalrie Joesph (New England)

This will be a very tight race if some parties stay hurt (GBS) or are gone for national team games (Donovan). I put Joesph on the list because I’ve always been a fan of how underrated he is in this league. Without him New England would be close to what Dallas and San Jose are right now in the standings. Montero gets on the list because of the excitement he has brought to Seattle this year, and his numbers are really good. Davis is another underrated guy that more people need to look at. Houston wouldn’t nearly be as well run in the midfield if it weren’t for him. Continue Reading…

No real shockers today in the awards given out. San Jose Earthquakes Darren Huckerby took home the MLS Newcomer of the Year award, beating out FC Dallas midfielder Andre Rocha and Kansas City forward Claudio Lopez.

Huckerby was seen as one of the biggest reason to why the Quakes even made it close to the playoff picture in their first year back in the league. Huckerby joined the Earthquakes July 14 when the Quakes acquired his rights from Toronto FC. The former Norwich City star immediately made an impact on the field scoring six goals and with four assists in 14 games.

Coming over in the midseason he beat out two guys for the award that had a full half season on him. That just shows what kind of impact he made and how low on new talent the league really was this year.

Huckerby joins DC United’s Luciano Emilio on the Newcomer Award list. Continue Reading…

MLS released their award finalist today. I was planning on sharing my votes later on this week or early next week but why not today. I was able to vote in this year’s voting through the league (apparently the league enjoys the blogging world out there that cover the sport). My selections are marked in bold. I will release my Best XI later on.

Goalkeeper (Nov. 4 announcement)
Jon Busch, Chicago Fire
Will Hesmer, Columbus Crew
Matt Reis, New England Revolution

Fair Play (Nov. 4)
Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls
Michael Parkhurst, New England Revolution
Chris Rolfe, Chicago Fire

Comeback (Nov. 22)
Jon Busch, Chicago Fire
Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas
Santino Quaranta, D.C. United

Defender (Nov. 6)
Jimmy Conrad, Kansas City Wizards
Chad Marshall, Columbus Crew
Bakary Soumare, Chicago Fire
(I actually voted for Gonzalo Segares, Chicago Fire)

Rookie (Nov. 13)
Geoff Cameron, Houston Dynamo
Kheli Dube, New England Revolution
Sean Franklin, Los Angeles Galaxy

Coach (Nov. 11)
Dominic Kinnear, Houston Dynamo
Sigi Schmid, Columbus Crew
Frank Yallop, San Jose Earthquakes

Most Valuable Player (Nov. 20)
Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Chicago Fire
Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Galaxy
Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus Crew

Newcomer (Nov. 11)
Darren Huckerby, San Jose Earthquakes
Claudio Lopez, Kansas City Wizards
Andre Rocha, FC Dallas