With all the new influx of talent to the league this year MLS has come up with the Newcomer Award for a player with prior playing experience. The good news is that DC has two players up for the award. Luci and Fred. The bad news is that DC has two players up for the award. I'm thinking this is a good way to give away a sort of second MVP award. Here is a list of potentials for the award from MLS.net: Juan Pablo Angel - Forward, New York Red Bulls Cuauhtémoc Blanco - Forward, Chicago Fire Conor Casey - Forward, Colorado Rapids Luciano Emilio - Forward, D.C. United Fred - Midfielder, D.C. United Maykel Galindo - Forward, Chivas USA Carlos Marinelli - Midfielder, Kansas City Wizards Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Midfielder, Columbus Crew Juan Toja - Midfielder, FC Dallas As a fan of the league, the biggest impact players so far are Lucio, Angel and Toja. I would really like to see Luci get either the MVP or Newcomer award. I hope he can keep up his form and take one. What do you think of the award and are there others out there seriously competing for the league MVP not on the newcomers list?
Well if a player is up for newcomer of the year and that player wins the League MVP award, I think they would also have to receive the newcomer award. Because if you happen to be the league MVP, you'd have to be the most impressive newcomer, you know, since you're the most valuable player in the entire league.. right?
This has been such a great year for MLS as a whole. Beckham's arrival and the publicity that came with it was just the start. That list up there is chock full of quality players, and are just the type that this league needs to thrive. On top of that, it's just been a great year. Some good soccer, some better goals, and a New York player scoring from 40 yards on his own net.
Only if Angel wins the golden boot. Both are newcomers to the league, both are influential forwards. If Emilio wins the scoring title, he should get this award. Maybe re-brand it as the "Best value for the money" award, since he'll have led the league in scoring for 10% of Angel's contract...
I'm thinking they came up with this to share the wealth so to speak. I don't think you will see anyone win both the MVP and Newcomer award. Of course, he took a couple of big steps towards one of them the past 4 days.
Don't you think it would be kinda silly to have the MVP be a newcomer, yet not win the Newcomer Award? Granted this is MLS and stranger things have happened, but if Emilio continues this latest hot streak and finishes with 22-25 goals (which is more than realistic at this point given our upcoming schedule) and wins the Boot by say 2-3 goals over Angel or Johnson, how can you not name him the MVP and Newcomer of the Year?
You answered your question before you asked. No I don't think they will do that. This is a way to give out more recognition to more players.
People keep saying "this is MLS" as if Don Garber will pick the winners. But won't it be a media vote? Further, have any awards given out been as crazy as a guy winning MVP but not winning Newcomer of the Year would be? Yeah, Moreno should have won MVP over Guevara, I thought, and most of y'all thought, but that's NOT the same thing as what we're talking about here. I suppose if there are different groups voting and Emilio barely wins MVP he might barely lost NOTY.
newcomer of the year award comes from the NHL. You have the rookie of the year. then you have a guy who has played professionally somewhere else, he is to old for rookie of the year. he gets the newcomer of the year award.
There is no 'Newcomer' of the year in the NHL, but they had to institute new rookie status rules when then Soviet players started to come over.
I think this is a good idea for an award, especially since the traditional American definition of "rookie" makes no sense for MLS. That goofball definition is how Sergei Makarov won the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) in the NHL even though he was 31 years old and had been playing elite professional hockey for years. Angel was on fire early, but like the rest of RBNY he's gone to shit as the year has progressed. The three highest impact guys on that list are Emilio, Galindo, and Schelotto. Blanco might have joined them but he only came in a couple of games ago.
Reason #235 why baseball in this country is ridiculous: How this man got "Rookie" of the Year is beyond me.
I think they should call it the taylor twellman award as they should have had this award the year he was "drafted". Seriously, I hope it goes to a very young pro, not a guy like Emilio or Angel or whoever. You think those guys care about a ridiculous trophy like "newcomer of the year"?!? You want your trophies to be something people actually put out some serious effort to get. In other words be something worth a lot more than just another way to honor foreigners who are signed to come here and do a job and actually do that job. Seems a bit lame to assume otherwise isn't it? I think the reverse award should be called the Metrostar Medal for most useless foreigner.
You didn't bother to read the thread up to this point, did you? The cognitive dissonance you highlight here has already been addressed. Exactly. Period. End. Of. Discussion. Go do something else.
Call it The Marcus Schopp MetroStar Medal, and you're in business. Come on down, Roberto Brown. Who's Yr Faddah, Luis Tejada. White courtesy phone, Carlos Pavon With Marinelli sitting on the bench in KC, Wattereus leaking 3 or 4 goals a game, and Andy Welsh already shipped back to Wales, there are still way too many foreigners collecting 10 to 30 times what the development players make and contributing less to their teams. Of course, the track record for returning/debuting U.S. Nats is about as bad, and watching Claudio Reyna badly losing midfield battles with Paulo Nagamura (Schopp Medal--Class of '05) makes me realize how lucky we got with Earnie.
Wait, how can this be the Newcomer of the Year award and not be about David Beckham. I call shenanigans!
Now, now. to be considered, your playing contribution has to be more than a couple of hundred minutes.
Conor Casey??? Wow, they had to include him so that at least one American was on the list? Schelotto was an early favorite of mine, but after the all-star break, the Crew have really tanked.