Omar Gonzalez was named Rookie of the Year today. (Getty Images)

Another season award came down today, this time it is the league’s Rookie of the Year. For the second straight year a LA Galaxy defender has won it as the honor went to Omar Gonzalez today.

Gonzalez helped a defense go from one of the worst in league history to one of the better ones this season. Last year the Galaxy gave up 62-goals while this year thanks to Gonzalez that total was cut in half to 31 goals.

Gonzalez beat out DC’s Chris Pontius and Toronto keeper Stefan Frei for the honor.

While I had New England’s Darrius Barnes as my ROY choice, Gonzalez did gain my second place vote. For me it came down to the fact that Barnes played every minute of every game for the Revs and for the fact that it wasn’t just Gonzalez that helped turn the Galaxy defense around in 2009, a lot of that credit can go to keeper Donovan Ricketts I think.

Still Gonzalez definitely earned this award as he did enjoy a stellar season with the Galaxy. I can only hope the duo of him and last year’s ROY winner Sean Franklin is one we will see in this league for years to come, because it is certainly a good one to watch.

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.

Hot off the presses from the league front office. Major League Soccer has announced the finalists to their season ending awards today. Only a few shockers jump out at me here with these but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Keeper of the Year (to be announced Nov. 4)
Kasey Keller, Seattle
Donovan Ricketts, Los Angeles
Zach Thornton, Chivas USA

Defender of the Year (Nov. 5)
Geoff Cameron, Houston
Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Seattle
Chad Marshall, Columbus

Comeback Player of the Year (Nov. 10)
Brian McBride, Chicago
Ben Olsen, DCU
Zach Thornton, Chivas USA

Newcomer of the Year (Nov. 10)
Kasey Keller, Seattle
Freddie Ljungberg, Seattle
Fredy Montero, Seattle

Coach of the Year (Nov. 11)
Bruce Arena, Los Angeles
Sigi Schmid, Seattle
Robert Warzycha, Columbus

Rookie of the Year (Nov. 12)
Stefan Frei, Toronto
Omar Gonzalez, Los Angeles
Chris Pontius, D.C. United

MVP (Nov. 19)
Jeff Cunningham, Dallas
Landon Donovan, Los Angeles
Shalrie Joseph, New England Continue Reading…

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…

Its that time of the year, the season is nearly complete and the league has handed out it’s ballots for voting for their season awards. Yes today I received an email with a link to my online ballot for voting this year. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to come this week but since the season ends this weekend it makes sense. I suppose I just lost track of time.

Anyways, I’ll have a full rundown next week of who I voted for and why. Not to say that I won’t take some input from you all on these matters. Tonight I wanted to go into another award race that is pretty tight as the one I discussed earlier in the day. The Defender of the Year.

This is another award that is going to be very tightly contested between a number of players. Last year we saw Columbus’ Chad Marshall run away with the award, and while he is in the running yet again for it this year I don’t believe he has completely won everyone over for it this season.

Who exactly do I see in the running? I have a few guys here listed below that I think are all candidates for this award. If you feel I left anyone out just comment below with a good reason and they may get my consideration.

Chad Marshall (Columbus): Yes Marshall is in the running and you got to believe he will get his fair share of votes this season. The thing is his injury issues will keep him off some folks ballots and at the end of it all I kind of doubt he will repeat as Defender of the Year.

Geoff Cameron (Houston): Had the season ended last weekend you could bet Cameron would be the top choice for this award. More than likely we should see Cameron walk away with the award this season for many reasons. He’s been by far one of the most consistent defenders in the league and how sick was the bicycle save last week?

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): Some say Kasey Keller has been the reason why the expansion Sounders have been fairly solid on defense this year but I would argue that it is mostly been due to the play of Hurtado. This winter addition has been one of those that you have to give the Seattle front office credit for because he’s been a total gem of a find.

Wilman Conde (Chicago): About two months ago I would have said he was the top choice for this award but as the Fire have slipped lately so has Conde’s play. Conde is still one of the best defenders in the league but something tells me the in-house issues in Chicago still remain and Conde won’t be there next year.

Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas): One of the reasons why Chivas USA has been near the top all year is due to the consistent play of Bornstein. He missed a decent amount of time this summer with the National team but it hasn’t kept him from picking up the slack when he is with the Goats. The Chivas defense would be nothing without him I think.

Omar Gonzalez (LA): The LA rookie has been very good, so good in fact that he has a shot at two awards (other being rookie of the year).

Others in consideration: Darrius Barnes (New England), Bobby Boswell (Houston), Tyrone Marshall (Seattle). 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…

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?