Well, it took a while for Puma to have a Puma-like game, but he finally got nominated in the Vancouver game. Go vote here: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/04/24/vote-mls-save-week-week-7
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/04/27/sporting-kcs-nielsen-wins-tight-race-save-week .....and he is one for one!
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/06/19/vote-now-save-week-week-13-15 Jimmy's kick-save 1v1 with Koevermans gets nominated. Hartman probably deserves it this week for a double save.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/10/vote-now-save-week-week-18 Puma nominated again this week.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/13/skcs-nielsen-wins-save-week-stonewalling-garcia And Puma comes from behind to win this week.
It looked to me like Garcia might have been able to chip Jimmy there, but otoh there was help on the way too. Ball looked like it was going wide as well. Still a really nice save.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/17/vote-now-save-week-week-19 Another Puma-like game gets another nomination for SOTW.
Not sure what to think about this save. The save itself was pretty awesome, but it really ought to have been a goal on the second attempt.
Well, I won't do it. I mean, sure, if I think they're "equal" or whatnot then I'll go all home-team and whatnot, but I hated when Kei's insane goal (flick over the head one) got beaten by ballot stuffing and I think that the awards could be a lot more useful than simple popularity contests. I didn't even want to look at the last one where he came back from 20% down to win... just looked at them now and, while I don't think that the MacMath/Williams one was 20% better, I'm disappointed we felt the need to steal it. It was a good save, to be sure, but probably not the best, IMO.
Increased fan voting = more page hits = more ad revnue for MLS. We're just doing our part to help the leagues financing. Or something. I dunno. Something about how we want to rail against the system to exposure how broken it is but we're still willing to use it to our advantage so it's okay.
I'm totally fine with being a homer and "ballot stuffing". It's a meaningless award and I'm not some analyst being paid to offer my unbiased opinion. I'm voting for my guys every time.
And Jimmy has pulled ahead. Seeing how some Cauldronites went absolutely nuts with the All Star voting, it seems like this is going to be a normal thing.
I know I saw several tweets from the club about how far behind he was in voting on Friday, so the team itself is also boosting the voting by using social media to encourage fans to vote, whether he deserves it or not.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/07/20/sliding-effort-wins-second-straight-sotw-nielsen Two in a row for Puma.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/10/12/double-save-skcs-nielsen-earns-save-week-award Puma wins again.
