Of course Mark Parsons would vote for Tobin Heath..... if that were allowed. Players, coaches, and GM's are not allowed to vote for nominees from their club.
Perhaps you took my Mark Parsons comment too literally. I was referring to Parsons remarks 4:26 - 4-52 on this video:
Yes, I thought there was some kind of limit one per team rule until noted both Long and Heath. That is such a diss-service to McDonald - a player who has proven her value over and over in multiple environments.
I did my voting, because if you don't vote............., and it made me even madder. They don't let you vote for just one of the nominated COY, DOY, MVP,GOY; you have to rank them all. That totally dilutes my vote, which is already a small percentage of the final decision.
I know, but I wondered if that also was to "manage" some of the fanbases that are just committed to glory for individual favorite players (i.e. SOTW and GOTW routines). That helps spread some of the credit around - although I did not try and not rank, so not sure if you could still submit a vote without ranking everyone. If that was possible, then not effective approach (see "plunking" a vote in an election).
I concluded a while back that Save of the Week and Goal of the Week was directly proportional to the number of twitter followers a player had. And that even if Ashlynn Harris was nominated for Bonehead Play of the Week, she would win.
That last sentence made me laugh. I don't think it's related directly to how many Twitter followers a player has, but more along the lines of how dedicated said fanbase is. And believe me, Harris has a very dedicated fanbase. Having a ultimately meaningless award being 100% a fan vote is a good idea in theory, but it just doesn't work with the WoSo fanbase.
When you look at the Portland v Opponent numbers closely, Portland commits 11.1 fouls per game, its opponents commit 8.95 per game against Portland. Essentially, there's a difference of 2 fouls per game. From a professional soccer perspective, 11.1 FPG doesn't seem too high. In the first playoff game tonight, there were 23 fouls committed (9 by Washington v 14 by Chicago), for an average of 11.5 between the two teams. A 2 foul per game is not a big difference from a game perspective. If you want to equate fouls with being aggressive, then Portland is the most aggressive team -- not a bad thing so far as I'm concerned -- but not by a lot. Something I liked in the past about Chicago was its blue collar approach. That's what Portland has now, to go along with the high quality of its players.
Good points in general, but using the DC-CHI game last night as an example probably wasn't the best idea. Playoff games have different mentality than regular season games to start with, and also have the potential for extra time (more time for fouls to happens on top of the higher incentive to foul).
And Rookie goes to Rocky. She got my vote. I would have voted Daly if it hadn't been for that scoreless streak and then missing games the latter half the season due to NT stuff on top of that. http://nwslsoccer.com/sky-blue-fc-s-raquel-rodriguez-voted-rookie-of-the-year
Mark Parsons gets Coach of the Year: http://nwslsoccer.com/portland-thorns-fc-s-mark-parsons-voted-coach-of-the-year
Raquel Rodriguez is fine, and is a good player. Daly still has more upside, and can tear apart an opponent, but she does need to be more consistent. If she puts it all together, she can score goals in this league like Kim Little did in 2014.
Harris wins GK award http://nwslsoccer.com/orlando-pride-s-ashlyn-harris-voted-goalkeeper-of-the-year?sf37813689=1 Considering that I highly doubt she was #1 after the preliminary round of voting, this HAS to be fan influence. I mean, look at some of the stats mentioned.... Tied for fifth in the league for shutouts, just third in the league for total shots faced...
this just made me even more annoyed she wasn't nominated: http://nwslsoccer.com/nwsl-by-the-numbers-2016-players 6 - Shutouts by Chicago Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and FC Kansas City goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart – tied for most in the NWSL this year. Barnhart has now led the league, or been tied for the league-lead, in all four seasons of the NWSL’s existence. 6 - Players who played every minute of the 2016 season – Boston Breakers defender Kassey Kallman, FC Kansas City goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart, FC Kansas City defender Brittany Taylor, Portland Thorns FC forward Emily Menges, Sky Blue FC defender Christie Rampone, Western New York Flash defender Abby Dahlkemper. 14 - The season-high total for saves in a game – by FC Kansas City goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart in a 1-0 victory over the Western New York Flash on July 23. 83 - Saves by FC Kansas City goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart, the most in the league – and 21 more than her closest competitor. 81 Sv%. Only people with higher % had less than 10 starts. Tied with Wys who had 12 starts.
I was gonna come and post the exact same things. It's ridiculous she wasn't picked top 3 in the preliminary round. I think Nadim and Ohai were the only two players mentioned more than Barney in that whole stats rundown. (Which I think also points out how ridiculous it was that Nadim didn't make top 5 for MVP.) =edit= I take it back; upon closer inspection, Barney was mentioned more than those two were (six times to five and four).
Harris winning proves that voters care more about a keeper that is flashy and all about style instead of substance. She makes acrobatic saves, yes, but a large part of that is her being in bad position and having to be more acrobatic to get to those balls that a different keeper would collect more easily because of better positioning.
Yeah, but she gets to be the Camp Director or Head Coach or whatever for the Girls' Fantasy Camp in Minnesota. I guess USSF is throwing her some kind of $bone. But that is a terrible omission for the league awards. Fortunately, I think Barnie could probably care less about this "snub". She just seems like a very balanced person who does not get caught up in BS and drama in any way - just excellently continues doing her job.
Aside from actual stats that lead me to selecting Barnhart as my GotY, I have some weird personal way of judging GKs. I like to feel calm when I watch them in goal and I was never calm watching Harris when she played for Spirit. Her crazy style was often effective, but I did not like it at all, it made me nervous. This is how I've chosen Naeher in 2014 despite her having only 3 shutouts too and with her growing role on USWNT later on, I was quite happy with my choice.
Congratulations to @laurenkb31, who was named 2016 @NWSL Defender of the Year!Story:https://t.co/ovNY8WnWXH— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) October 5, 2016