Really, this is what happens when you put the voting to the fans, all the Mexicans vote for Blanco, clearly it wasn't even the top 3 goals of the year...
Complain to Lou Dobbs about Mexicans voting in American elections and he'll go on about it for the next decade.
The best goal of the year wasn't even up for the award. How do you beat Chris Gbandi upper 90 blast from earlier in the year?
With Kerry Zavagnin's upper 90 blast against Chivas earlier this year? I have no qualms with Blanco winning it. It's a good goal.
Are you nuts?! That goal was incredible. I'm just glad Dichio didn't win with all the Toronto fans voting. He probably did, but the league just shafted them. Good work league!
It was a great goal, no question there. How about the dip on that ball - impressive! Still, certainly not my GOTY pick by any stretch. I wish MLS had gone with a bracket-style Goal of the Year contest. It would have been fun and been a much less daunting task than singling one goal out of the 34 listed. So many great goals this season. What a year. I still love Rolfe's blast from 30, or Emilio's incredible reaction of a side-volley off the rebound. Yep, I'd have loved to see these go through a bracket system. Same with save of the year.
If only Davis's free kick and Twellman's bike were eligible. That being said the only real eye-popping goal was Ngwenya's, followed by Dichio's. Parkhurst's was the rarest strike. Blanco's might have been the highest quality strike of the lot, but I don't think that makes it a goal of the year. Still, acceptable.
Fan voting is never a good idea, as fans are biased (regardless of nationality. It could be for any of several reasons). Talking heads have to at least give a semblance of objectivity. That said, I don't see the point in a Goal of the Year at all.
So I'm admittedly biased, but I think that the TECHNICAL qualities of Ngwenya's goal were without equal. First his pokes the ball past Curtin to the LEFT and then goes around Curtin on the RIGHT. Then he encounters Pickens coming at him who he jukes around. Finally he pops it in at an almost impossible angle getting it by onrushing defenders. Of course, I'm sure Joseph would gladly keep yesterday's somewhat ugly goal and the resulting hardware vs. the GOTY title!
I won't lose any sleep over the selection...it was a good goal, plus its a fan vote on a website. Although I would have rather seen Parkhurst's or Ngwenya's win. As an aside, the one thing I am not a fan of is, it seems like there is such a huge bias toward long range shots. I love a good long bomb, but I wouldn't mind seeing more goals such as Ngwenya's slalom, or the one with one of the crew players who ran 80 yards (was not a finalist, I forget who). Why is it that so many goal of the week/year finalists seem to be long shots...surely we MLS fans can appreciate fancy footwork just as much as a great long shot?
There were obviously 12 other goals much better than his - Now if he had been up for Dive Of The Year, then he'd win hands (excuse me - HEINNY) down
Yep, caught that on the big screen there. My first reaction was "what the...?!" Second reaction was "What freakin' poll was this?! He was in the final 5 on MLSNET.com last time I voted, and voted, and voted, ...
Blanco's goal was nice, but how is it any better than any of the other long bombs (Zavagnin, Gbandi, Parkhurst, etc.)? there were much prettier goals IMO (Ngwenya, Altidore, etc.)...hard to fault the selection though...