Add another award for Zach Thornton on the season. Today the league named Thornton it’s Comeback Player of the Year. At the same time the league also announced Fredy Montero as the Newcomer of the Year.

Montero was one of the league leaders in goals scored this year. His 12 goals on the season blew away any other newcomer in that category. While he didn’t win a Golden Boot award he did gain a lot of attention for his flashy play and sometimes questionable diving. Still there was little doubt for the majority of the season that Montero wasn’t going to be the Newcomer of the Year.

As for Thornton, last week he won the Goalkeeper of the Year and now is the Comeback Player of the Year. Thornton was considered a lost cause last year when he came to Chivas from New York to fill in for the departed Brad Guzan. Most expected he wouldn’t be back for 2009 because of his weight issues but Thornton got himself into top shape and his play this season spoke for itself. He led Chivas USA to a 13-11-6 record and posted a career best 12 shutouts and 0.87 goals against average.

Kenny Cooper takes home the Comeback Player of the Year award. (Getty Images)

The last of the 2008 awards were handed down today. The league announced their Best XI for the year and named Kenny Cooper the Comeback Player of the Year.

Cooper played and started all of FC Dallas’ 30 regular season games this year after suffering a broken right tibia eight games into the 2007 MLS season. He returned in 2008, scoring 18 goals and recording three assists. He finished second in the Budweiser Golden Boot, behind Landon Donovan (20 goals).

While I don’t disagree with Cooper getting this award, I really felt DC United’s Santino Quaranta deserved the award a little more for what he came back from. Anytime you overcome drugs and abuse of those kinds of things I think is more remarkable than just coming back from a knee injury.

Still, it was good for Cooper and big congrats to him for the award.

Cooper was also named to the best XI along with a pretty easy field to project for this year’s honor.

2008 MLS Best XI:
GOALKEEPER (1): Jon Busch (Chicago Fire)
DEFENDERS (3): Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Bakary Soumare (Chicago Fire), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Chicago Fire), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus Crew), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA)
FORWARDS (2): Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

The only real shock for me was the selection of Columbus’ Robbie Rogers. I pretty much had a similar Best XI except for Rogers and a couple on the backline. I had RSL’s Javier Morales in the midfield instead of Rogers.

What do you all make of these honors? Cooper really deserve the Comeback award? How about the Best XI?

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