Monday saw the return of the BASA awards, with Dwayne DeRosario winning Midfielder of the Year.
We voted:
1. Dwayne DeRosario, SJ
2. Shalrie Joseph, NE
3. Clint Dempsey, NE
DeRosario’s play is worthy of the MVP award, while Joseph (tied for second in the final results) was the engine of a strong New England midfield. Dempsey got our third vote, beating out Christian Gomez and Ronnie O’Brien.
And the BASA Young Player of the Year award goes to… Clint Dempsey.
We voted:
1. Clint Dempsey, NE
2. Ricardo Clark, SJ
3. Michael Parkhurst, NE
I get a false sense of intelligence when our votes are so similar to the final results. This time, not only did we pick the winner in Dempsey, we got all three finalists right. In the results, Clark and Parkhurst were flipped.
Midweek action in the Carling and German cups:
Tim Howard made his first appearance of the year for Manchester United’s first team in its 4-1 win over Barnet. Howard had little to do for most of the game, and had little chance on Barnet’s only goal, as a slip by a defender left the Barnet attacker 1-on-1 with Howard.
Zak Whitbread also made his first appearance for Liverpool in the center of defense as Liverpool were knocked out of the Carling Cup 2-1 by Crystal Palace. Whitbread played the entire match, and had a fair game, but was at fault for lax defending on the first Palace goal.
Brad Friedel had little to do in goal in Blackburn Rovers’ 3-nil win over Leeds United. Eddie Lewis made a subsitute appearance for Leeds in the 72nd.
Jay DeMerit started in Watford’s 3-nil loss to Wigan Athletic. DeMerit had a rough match, receiving an early yellow card and then getting called for a foul in the box, the resulting penalty breaking the deadlock.
Fulham was knocked out by West Bromwich Albion 3-2 after 120 minutes of play. Carlos Bocanegra came on in the 92nd minute while Brian McBridewas not named to the squad because of a foot injury.
Danny Karbassiyoon made his first appearance for Burnley in their 1-nil loss to Aston Villa. Karbassiyoon came on as a sub in the 78th minute and came closest to tying the match for Burnley with a shot that was deflected over the cross bar.
Jonathan Spector was on the bench for Charlton Athletic’s win over Chelsea. After a 1-1 draw, Charlton defeated Chelsea on penalties 5-4.
Neither Marcus Hahnemann nor Bobby Convey participated in Reading’s 2-nil win over Sheffield United.
Kasey Keller was in goal for Borussia Monchengladbach’s 3-nil loss to Hertha Berlin.
Steve Cherundolo started and helped set up the game winning goal in Hannover 96’s 2-1 victory over Aachen.
Gregg Berhalter started and went the distance in Energie Cottbus’ 2-1 loss to Arminia Bielefeld.
Scaryice announced that Danny Califf was winner of the BASA Defender of the Year award, with Eddie Robinson and Tyrone Marshall rounding out the top three.
Our votes:
1. Eddie Robinson, SJ
2. Michael Parkhurst, NE
3. Wade Barrett, SJ
Voting on a defender is probably the toughest because there aren’t many relevant stats, and you must watch every game MLS game to get a better idea. With San Jose being the best defensive team, we looked at their solid backline. And while everyone was high on Califf, I couldn’t overlook the nine extra games Robinson played, holding down the backline for the entire season. Parkhurst was named for the same reasons he got the rookie of the year nod, and while guys like Jimmy Conrad, Chad Marshall, Greg Vanney, and Califf were considered for the third spot, we went back to San Jose and named their captain Barrett. None of our three guys made the official MLS award finalists, which Conrad won, but in the BASAs, Robinson was second and Parkhurst fifth.
Over at Climbing the Ladder, scaryice is announcing the winner of the BASAs, MLS awards as voted on by soccer bloggers. We were lucky enough to be included in the voting, and as other blogs have done, we will reveal how we voted once the official BASA winners are announced. Keep in mind though that with 3 people running this site, some compromises were made when voting…it wasn’t necessarily my top choices, but a consensus.
The first award announced (on Monday) was the Goalkeeper of the Year. Pat Onstad won the BASA and the official MLS award.
We voted:
1. Pat Onstad, SJ
2. Matt Reis, NE
3. Joe Cannon, Col
Our votes were the same results as the official MLS results. Onstad and Reis were far and away the best keepers this year, the only debate was who was third. Our choices were Cannon and Scott Garlick, with Cannon winning out in the end.
On Tuesday, the BASA Coach of the Year was announced, with Dominic Kinnear winning.
We voted:
1. Dominic Kinnear, SJ
2. Steve Nicol, NE
3. Colin Clarke, FCD
Again, I don’t think there can be any complaints with 1 and 2. Kinnear did an amazing job this year considering the talent he lost from last year’s team. Nicol always does a good job with New England, and we felt Clarke deserved some recognition for his team’s overall performance this year.
Today, Michael Parkhurst won BASA Rookie of the Year.
We voted:
1. Michael Parkhurst, NE
2. Scott Sealy, KC
3. Chris Rolfe, Chi
For the third time, I don’t think anyone will complain with Parkhurst’s win (although I do question him not even being a finalist for the official MLS Defender of the Year) since he played in the middle of the second ranked defense every minute of every game this year. Sealy got our #2 vote for scoring more goals in less time on the field, eventhough he fizzled down the stretch. No complaints with Rolfe taking second in the BASAs though. Our three votes are also the three finalists for the official MLS award.
Carlos Bocanegra anchored Fulham’s defense in their 2-nil upset victory over Champions League title holders Liverpool. Brian McBride came off the subs bench in the 76th minute to help kill of the (at that time) 1-nil lead.
Jonathan Spector started his first Premier League game of the season in Charlton Athletic’s 2-1 win over Portsmouth. Spector had a uneasy first few minutes but then settled in at left back.
Claudio Reyna started in Manchester City’s 1-nil loss to Arsenal. Robert Pires scored Arsenal’s only goal on a penalty kick, but flubbed a trick penalty kick between himself and Thierry Henry. Reyna was subbed off in the 72nd minute with an apparent knee injury. An Arsenal player was closing in on Reyna when he injured his knee, but no contact was made, and it appeared to be more of an awkward plant. No news on Reyna’s status yet, but with his history of knee injuries, we are all holding our breath.
Brad Friedel recorded a clean sheet in Blackburn Rovers’ 2-nil win over Birmingham City. Jemal Johnson was once again not in the lineup.
Tim Howard was on the bench for Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey both started in reading’s 1-nil victory over Stoke City. Hahnemann recorded his 10th clean sheet of the season, and it was Convey’s pass which played in a Reading teammate that led to a penalty kick and Reading’s lone (EDIT: I just realized that I may have been spelling loan instead of lone since the beginning of this blog…my apologies) goal. Convey, who was subbed off in the 90th minute, was cited as man of the match by several sources.
Jay DeMerit made his long awaited return to the starting lineup in Watford’s 1-nil win over Ipswich Town. DeMerit played the entire game in central defense in his team’s shutout.
Eddie Lewis started and went the full 90 in Leeds United’s 1-1 draw with leaders Sheffield United.
Frankie Simek started but was taken out in the 40th minute with what appears to be a concussion in Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Another long awaited return was made by Burnley defender Danny Karbassiyoon in Burnley’s 2-nil loss to Crystal Palace. Karbassiyoon did not play, but his return to the matchday squad from a long injury layoff was good news.
Kasey Keller was once again in goal for Borussia Monchengladbach’s 4-1 win over Kasierslautern. Kicker rated Keller a 3.
Steve Cherundolo made his return to the bench from a knee injury, but did not play in Hannover 96’s nil-nil draw with Werder Bremen.
Gregg Berhalter started again at left back in Energie Cottbus’ 3-1 win over Saarbrucken. Kicker gave Berhalter a 3.5.
DaMarcus Beasley came off the bench in the 58th minute in PSV Eindhoven’s 1-nil victory over Ajax. PSV went to the top of the Eredivisie table on the back of a (undeserved?) penalty kick.
Oguchi Onyewu started and went the distance in Standard Liege’s 1-nil win over Charleroi. Liege remain at the top of the Jupiler League in what may be Onyewu’s last game for a while due to expected red card suspensions.
The buzz over at Big Soccer is that Adu is headed for Man U as early as January. Here is the original article from The People.
UPDATE: This will be my last Adu post, barring Adu throwing around racial slurs at Nowak or some such thing. According to Steve Goff over at the Washington Post, Adu will be available for the return leg against Chicago. Hopefully this will be the end of it until DC United wins their fifth MLS Cup.
Now, for my take on the whole affair: This episode been great for the MLS as a whole. You know what they say, ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’. You’ve got people talking about it who would normally give exactly zero minutes (or words) of coverage to soccer related items. So, for the MLS, raises awareness, get people talking, good.
For DC United, probably not so good, because 1) Freddy’s services could have been used Friday night, and 2) this may be a bit of a distraction for the rest of the team, although it is also possible the DCU guys couldn’t care less.
For Peter Nowak, how he comes out of this probably depends on how you thought he was handling Adu before this broke out. Personally, I understand wanting to bring the kid along slowly and letting him develop, but I don’t think Adu wanting more playing time is such a terrible thing. For me, the big problem here was all about the timing.
And how does Adu come out of this? Again, depends on what you thought of him beforehand. Did you think he was an overpaid little punk? Then you think he is an cry baby, overpaid little punk now. Did you think he was the second coming of Pele? Then you probably think he was right to stick up for himself. Really though, the kid will be getting paid more money than most of us will probably see in our lives to play a game. He’ll survive.
While I have been critical of Adu’s timing and the manner in which he aired his complaints, what is Adu apologizing for? The fact that he wants to play more? God forbid a talented young player should want to be on the pitch instead of shying away from the spotlight. With the lack of scoring the other day by D.C. United, it seems like they could sure use him.
And with his ultimatums and disparaging remarks (”he should have scored in the second half against Columbus” and “you don’t win games with your mouth”), Peter Nowak and the D.C. staff seem to be out to embarass and insult Adu.
I forget, which one of these parties is the teenager again?
Freddy Adu was suspended for last night’s MLS playoff game between D.C. United and the Chicago Fire. Sources say the suspension was not because of Adu’s recent comments, but rather a result of him not apologizing to his teammates.
Right or wrong, the more I think about this, the more the timing of it all weighs heavily on my mind. In MLS, now is what the entire season builds towards. To make these comments the week leading into the playoffs and to have the resulting suspension be for the first leg of the first round is just poor, poor timing. But Freddy did what he felt he had to do, and D.C. United did what they felt they had to do.
In other news, #2 seed D.C. played #3 seed Fire to a nil-nil draw in Chicago. One wonders how Mr. Adu could have changed this game…
This is far from over…