It seems like the clock had been turned back to 1998 this year as a revival for Chivas USA keeper Zach Thornton took place. It was just 11 seasons ago that Thornton won his first keeper of the year, now he has two as the league announced today that he was named the 2009 Goalkeeper of the Year.

Thornton took home my vote and plenty others from the rest of the media thanks to his lean-mean goals-against average of 0.87 (the second-lowest in league history). He also allowed just 23 goals in 27 games and has amassed 12 shutouts. Not bad considering he was nearly dead in the water in some folks eyes just a year ago.

Thornton took over toward the end of last year when he came over from New York to replace the departed Brad Guzan. Most people figured Chivas was in big danger this year of falling off the wagon with Thornton in goal but in the offseason Big Zach became a much leaner and healthier Zach, which saw his production go way up.

Congrats to Zach, he certainly earned it this year.

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…

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…

Three awards were handed down today by Major League Soccer. Goalkeeper of the Year as well as both team and individual Fair Play awards.

Chicago Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch was voted the 2008 Panasonic Goalkeeper of the Year. New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst was named the winner of the MLS Fair Play award, and the Revolution earned the MLS Team Fair Play award, recognizing the MLS club with the fewest disciplinary points during the 2008 regular season.

Busch had a stellar year thanks in some part to having an injury free year and a strong defense in front of him. The 32-year old started and played every minute (2,700) of all 30 regular season games for Chicago. He led the club to a second place finish in the Eastern Conference (13-10-7) and ranked first in MLS in shutouts (10), was tied for second in wins (13) and second in goals against average (1.10).

Busch is also up for Comeback Player of the Year award. 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

A lot of end-of-season awards in Major League Soccer are just as tight as the playoff race. I’ve been tracking the Rookie of the Year and MVP races for some time now but I figured I would weigh in on all the awards for once since we are in the final few weeks of the season.

MLS MVP Award:

1. Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus Crew: His club may be playing well without him but his numbers still make a serious case for MVP this season. He should be back soon, which can only mean his soccer IQ on the field will enhance the Crew even more here.
2. Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy: 19 goals in just 21 games. I think that may be all I need to say here. Earlier I thought his production wasn’t enough for the MVP this year but I am thinking otherwise now.
3. Shalrie Joseph, New England Revolution: He and his club may be stumbling but that should all work itself out once the Revs clinch a playoff spot.
4. Darren Huckerby, San Jose Earthquakes: If this were a half-season MVP I would probably have a tough time picking between Schelotto and Huckerby. Both have been stellar in the second half of the season. Huckerby has only been here for a half season, just think what he can do for a full year.
5. Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls: He’s forth in goals this season in the league but I don’t think that will be enough to get him this award this year.

Others in the discussion:

Javier Morales, RSL; Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago; Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas; Jamie Moreno, DC United; and Sacha Kljestan, Chivas USA.

Continue Reading…