If she isn't interested in a win they need to refund the ticket money. Lol The Rivetters would love for it to be left up to the fans.
MVP: Press-The most dangerous player/passer in the NWSL Golden Boot: Ohai-figured it out Best Goalkeeper: Wys-Solid Best Defender: Huster-The reason Washington has had the season they are having! Rookie of the Year: Rodriquez-Consistency Coach of the Yeararsons-even though they have an AllStar lineup I'm not sure how they pay all those players and stay under the salary cap!
Regarding Parsons, I think you also have to take into account the assembly of the roster. He should get some credit for that, although the GM does too. Plus, during the international window dates, the Thorns went 2-2-1. In these five games, the Thorns were missing 5 starting players for one game, 6 starters for three games, and 7 starters for one game. Coming out of these games 2-2-1 was critical to where the Thorns are now in the standings and reflects a fantastic coaching job by Parsons.
Going into the final game I'm still uncertain about who should win some awards: MVP -- Jess McDonald. (Heath would probably win had she played in more games) Defender of the year -- Emily Menges or alternatively Lou Barnes Rookie: none of them really deserve it....I'll choose one later. Goalkeeper: Barnhardt, most saves in the league and kept KC in many games.
MVP Im down to McDonald and Nadim so id Nadim has an influential match today probably her. Rookie Galton Coach Holly Defender Short GK Naeher
I think I'll go with Erica Skroski for rookie of the year. She played nearly every minute -- and Daly and Galton, the other two prime candidates for ROTY, didn't. As the old saying goes, half of being successful is just showing up.
For what it's worth, in the eternal and fruitless search for statistics that matter: In 2016: Portland, by far, committed the most fouls (222); Washington the fewest (139) Orlando suffered the most fouls (187); Chicago the fewest (133). Most fouls committed and suffered: (1) Portland (401); (2) Boston (350); Fewest: (1) Seattle (290); (2) Chicago (294). Players committing most fouls were (1) Nadim (32); Groom (31); (3) Schillgard and Lohman (27). Players suffering most fouls were : (1) Spenser (33); (2) Heath (30); and (3) Long (27) Total fouls committed and suffered: (1) Heath (55); (2) Nadim (53); (3) Groom (49); (4) Huerta and Long (46) I guess one concludes that Portland is the most aggressive team -- and Heath the most aggressive player, especially since she played fewer minutes than most other players on this list. Spenser "winning" the foul suffered category tells me that defenders are worried about her breakaway speed. I think Grooms high ranking in fouls committed is a a hangover from her rookie season when she acquired a reputation as an over-aggressive player. I thought she was more controlled this year.
MVP: McDonald Best Goalkeeper: Naeher Best Defender: Menges Rookie of the Year: Not sure if any rookie stood out like previous seasons. Coach of the Year: Gabarra. It was a toss up between Gabarra and Riley but I give the edge to Gabarra as WNY did have a favorable schedule (long home stand and playing Boston 4X).
No big match for Nadim so Im going with McDonald so here's my final list and who I think will win despite all logic ............................Me.................Them Golden Boot....Williams MVP.................McDonald.......Heath Coach...............Holly...............Gabarra Rookie..............Galton.............Sonnett Defender...........Short...............???? Goalkeeper........Naeher...........Naeher
I'm kind of surprised so many are saying Gabarra for coach. I know people were down on him at the beginning of the year but that was him and not the team. Meanwhile the team hasn't looked so great at the end of the season with his micromanaging choices.
The Thorns are pretty close to the most fouls suffered with 179, compared to Orlando's most at 187, plus the Thorns have two of the three most fouled players.
If you want to bring in individual player stats, Portland also the the biggest foul committer in the league as well as numbers 5-7 (two players at 25 FC and one at 23 FC while no other players aside from those Smallcheif listed have more than 21 FC); conversely, POR has no players at 22-26 FS compared to six players from other teams in that range. Not to mention that Portland's team FC of 222 is nearly 30 above the next team while Portland's FS is within 10 on both sides of the nearest other teams - POR's an outlier in FC but within the pack of FS. If teams felt like they needed to foul to stop POR from being so good, those would be flipped - you don't commit more fouls if you're reacting to rough play, you commit more fouls if you're making the rough play. What we're seeing here is that POR are more like thugs and are dragging their opponents down with them in the fouls department because that's the kind of game POR forces other teams to play. I mean, just look at games where POR is at home and blowing out their opponent - 4-1 vs DC, 5-1 vs BOS, 3-0 vs HOU. POR led by at least four FC in all of them, which makes absolutely no sense for a team at home and winning handily if you want to assume it's the other teams trying to foul their way to slowing POR down. One could argue that POR's physicality is part of the reason they've done so well this year. Now, the one home game I can see where they were out-fouled was also the only home loss, so there's some credence there. However, it's just one game, which looks to me like it's the exception that proves the rule (they still fouled more in the following away losses to HOU and SEA).
So pretty surprised McDonald wasnt a finalist for MVP ballot http://www.nwslsoccer.com/2016-nwsl-awards-finalists-revealed
I voted for Heath MVP Gilliland Def Daly Rookie Gabarra Coach Naeher GK which means when I picked without the NWSLs help 4 of my 5 winners didnt even make their ballot Best IX was Naeher Gilliland Short Menges Monica DiBernardo Edmonds Heath Ohai Williams McDonald
They more or less picked the right options, regarding end-of-season awards. A couple quibbles: they picked the wrong CRS outside back! Casey Short had a much more consistent season than Gilliland. To be honest I think Gilliland regressed a bit this year. I keep hoping her technical skills improve to match her work rate and pace, but so far no. Finally, the committee probably felt compelled to only pick one WNY forward, and went for Williams over McDonald. How McDonald doesn't make the MVP list on her merits is perplexing.
My picks: Rookie- Daly Defender- Menges Keeper- Naeher (it was extremely close between her and Betos) Coach- Riley MVP- Williams Best XI: Barnhart Short Gilliland Menges Dahlkemper DiBernardo Edmonds Ohai Groom McDonald Williams
I think the first-round voters really whiffed on a lot of these... Anyway, my picks: Rookie: 1-Rodriguez, 2-Daly, 3-Sonnet Keeper: 1-Naeher, 2-Harris, 3-Betos [No Barney and neither Spirit 'keeper when both Harris and Betos are questionable] Defender: 1-Barnes, 2-Gilliland, 3-Menges, 4-Johnson, 5-Brunn [Neither USWNTer option impressed me this season, and no Short is a crime] MVP: 1-Ohai, 2-Press, 3-Williams, 4-Heath, 5-Long [No McDonald and no Nadim... I don't know what people are thinking] Best XI ---------------Labbe--------------- -Gilliland-Short-Barnes-Oyster- ------Nadim------Rodriguez------ -Press-Ohai-McDonald-Williams-
Jess McDonald not being an MVP finalist is seriously wrong. I dare say Lynn Williams would agree. And either Tobin Heath was MVP on the Thorns or Long was, but not both. Mark Parsons would vote for Effin Tobin Heath.