Freaking love this video -- http://kctv.neulion.com/mlsvp/console.jsp?catid=2002&id=20390 ... and how can he not be. http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/10/sbi-2011-mls-all-rookie-team.html
That is awesome. CJ became my favorite SKC player early on this season. He always works hard, has great conditioning, and shows surprisingly flashy foot skills for someone of his size. His ability to get his head on just about any ball in the air in his general vicinity is almost uncanny. He finished the season strong, and given his versatility, I like how Vermes has been using him as a super-sub late in games--after starting against Columbus (and earning a penalty kick), he replaced Kamara at San Jose (and got the game-tying assist), Bravo against New York (and got the game-sealing goal), and Bunbury at DC. He is not a pure scorer, but a solid all-around forward.
i've said this before on here and countless times (basically every game) to my friends at games. cj has the best balance on the ball i've seen in a long time. i can't understate it. i'm very excited for what the future holds for this kid... and hope that he stays here for awhile.
If he does win it'll be a huge upset, every person I follow that has a vote is treating this award as a forgone conclusion
I hadn't seen that footwork, skill and pass to play Teal in at San Jose. That was a thing of beauty. From everything I've read, he's pretty much won it, just a formal vote thing at this point.
Yeah it was basically very similar to what he did in the home opener vs Chicago except this time he didn't have Diop to immediately give the ball away
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/ne...1-awards-best-worst-mls-season-schaerlaeckens Even though he states that Plata isn't a rookie by MLS standards, Schaerlaeckens gives rookie of the year to Plata.....
I saw that, too, and almost posted an angry comment about it before deciding that it was not worth the trouble. I found especially galling his absurd remark that Plata "had far and away the most impact of any player to come out of the 2011 MLS Superdraft." 3 goals and 5 assists in MLS play plus 4 goals in CCL (Plata) vs. 5 goals and 5 assists in MLS play plus 3 goals in USOC while appearing in every single game (Sapong). You can argue that Plata had more impact, but no way was that "far and away" the case. Oh, and CJ had SKC's first goal of the MLS season, first goal in USOC qualifying, and first goal in their brand-new stadium.
Poor Plata. Schlaerlaekens writing is virtually soccer libel. If he says X, we know the reality is Y. By him not saying CJ, Im all the more confident CJ will win ROY. Thanks for helping Leander.
You should read his comment in the comments page. Something about CJ not having as big of an impact on his team. He had an impact... on a team that you know, actually won. I ranted to him on twitter because I was at work.
D.C. United’s Perry Kitchen finished second in the voting followed by Michael Farfan (Philadelphia Union), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers) and Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo). Sapong garnered more than 30 percent of the votes collected from media, MLS players and MLS club management to win the award by a wide margin. http://www.mlssoccer.com/awards/2011/rookieoftheyear
I was curious to know who else had won Rookie of the Year honors, so to Wikipedia - 1996 Steve Ralston 1997 Mike Duhaney 1998 Ben Olsen 1999 Jay Heaps 2000 Carlos Bocanegra 2001 Rodrigo Faria 2002 Kyle Martino 2003 Damani Ralph 2004 Clint Dempsey 2005 Michael Parkhurst 2006 Jonathan Bornstein 2007 Maurice Edu 2008 Sean Franklin 2009 Omar Gonzalez 2010 Andy Najar 2011 C.J. Sapong Not bad company, all things considered...
@hopesolo Hope Solo "@BigAfrika88 shout out to my one and only! Rookie of the year and the future JayZ! #Baller"