http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_3_id=137&page=5384769 "The most confusing aspect of this weekend's MLS Awards was the honors given to goalkeepers Joe Cannon (San Jose) and the Howard. Cannon captured Goalkeeper of the Year, which Howard won in 2001, but Howard was named to the MLS Best 11. League officials contributed the split to different voting methods for the two. Voters should be commended for honoring Cannon, whose hilarious acceptance speech was the highlight of Saturday's Awards Gala." What did he say?
go to cybersoccernews.com and look at the photo essay. Jay Hipps reports one part of his speech there....
http://www.cybersoccernews.com/columnists/hipps/021020MLSCup_bts_sat.shtml Oh my goodness!! Good one Joey!
"I'd like to thank the little people_— G.I. Joe, Barbie, the Smurfs, Landon Donovan,"...Joe Cannon.... What a goof ball. Haha...that's hella funny I'm one of the little people...j/k TRANSFORM MARI
yeah thats what he started off with. That first comment about the little people was so funny. I looked at Landon when he said that and he was just cracking up, I guess he knew that Joe was going to say something like that. He also said something about how Nike didnt have any more money because they gave it all to Landon. He just kept ragging on Landon. He also thanked his girlfriend and got a little choked up when he was thanking her. it was so cute, he had to stop and apologize to the audience because his voice was all shaky. The emcees, Rob Stone and Dave Dir were cracking up. They said they were nothing compared to Joe Cannon. I think Rob even said "we suck next to Joe Cannon" More proof that you'll never beat Joe Cannon
OK, here's a brief summary of what Joe said. He opened with the "little people" line, then moved on with "thanks to MLS and all their sponsors. I see the Nike folks up in the cheap seats -- I guess they're up there because they gave too much money to Landon." The part he got choked up about was not about his girlfriend, though. Joe had a trophy made for Tim Hanley, the Quakes goalkeeper coach, who Joe admires for both his great help as a coach and for his commitment to the game. (Tim used to be in real estate development but left that world behind to devote his life to soccer, a decision that brought a pretty steep pay cut, I'd bet.) He did mention his girlfriend at the end, though. He thanked his teammates and then added that GK of the Year was a nice award but not nearly as great as winning MLS Cup last year. "That was the best feeling I've ever had -- uh, on the field, Jen."
Tim Hanley also played the game as a keeper. Including one season (I think it was only one??) with the NASL Quakes. He wrote a series of articles on his time with the NASL. I spoke with him about these article very briefly once. He was so interesting to listen to. That man has a lot of knowledge up in his head. One article he wrote when he was coaching in the early years of the MLS compared MLS to the NASL. I haven't been able to find that article online. He told it had been removed because his opinion was that the NASL was better than MLS, which was arguably the case in the early years of MLS.
yeah he got choked up on that part. He said she was his best friend and stuff like that and then had to stop and gather himself.
awwwwwww......That is so sweet. Joe's awesome. Everyone I've talked to (turns out I have more soccer-watching buddies than I thought) thinks he should've gotten both.
I remember reading these a couple of years ago and managed to track them down. Pretty interesting read: http://www.rsssf.com/usadave/hanley.html
Tim Hanley's comments on the NASL: "In brief, only a few current Clash players could have suited up for the NASL games of 1981. There was simply so much talent there, but then again the NASL was scouring the world to pay megabucks to the world's top players. The good news is the quality of the American players for the Clash is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the American players during the NASL era. It's a testament to the strides the US has made since then." True. "I feel for those who were never able to see a NASL game life; the games were fun and the atmospere was great. The stands had a mix of foreigners that felt they knew everything about the game and were always complaining, and Americans who knew nothing about the game and couldn't understand why nobody ever scored, and were consistently confused by the offside rule." True and false. The games were a lot more fun with Crazy George and great half time entertainment. However, after a couple of seasons, the "American" fans learned soccer real quick and realized that a lot of the foreign players were enjoying their summers in the US and not trying real hard to win...
A perfect example of how some NASL directories such as the alleged "index of all NASL players" in Colin Jose's NASL: A Complete Record of the North American Soccer League aren't completely accurate. Hanley is listed for neither the '81 or '83 Earthquakes ('81 keepers were Hewie, Phil Parkes and Bob Stetler; '83 keepers listed were Bob Rigby and Wild Bill Irwin). I take it he was an injury replacement type of player with those teams(?)...I'm not sure because in '81 I lived in SD and supported the Sockers, and in '83 I was gone in the Army and there was no way to get Quakes news. Go Foothill Owls!