Of the 3 finalists I think Guevara was the least deserving. I think Cannon should have won it, but since defensive players get no votes for MVP he didnt. This is crap! In past years a 10 goal-10 assist guy would get no recognition for MVP. But the '04 Cannon would be at least up for GOTY in evry past MLS season.
Moreno to me was the comeback player (but not MVP) of the year. DC United really took off after Christian Gomez joined them; also throughout the year, Moreno had alot of support with Alecko, Kovalenko, Nelson, etc. I only saw Cannon play in four or five games so I can't really comment on him; however, many people had him pegged as the front-runner to win the MVP. His statistics are clearly very impressive. Guevara was clearly the MVP for the MetroStars this year and a deserving MVP finalist. Goals and assists were just part of his contribution. Guevara had an incredible ability to change / shape games by controlling the midfield through excellent defense/stealing the ball from opposition and making incredible passes to teammates. He's also one of the leagues most creative players. The rest of the MetroStars cast was inconsistent. Even Gaven could be brilliant one game and then pretty bad the next. The only thing going against Guevara was that he was less dominant over the last third of the season (usually you have to finish strong as well). However without Guevara, the MetroStars would not have received half the points they did.
Hmmm. Perhaps this is supposed to make MetroStars fans feel a little better after their club's bad news earlier this week.
The worst possible choice. Take away his PKs, and his stats are fairly pedestrian. On top of that you've got his constant cheating (dirty play combined with constant embellishment and dissent) and on-and-off complaining about the league in the press. Talented player. Yes. MVIP. Not in 100,000,000,000,000 years. Moreno is the polar opposite. He let his playing do his talking for him. He stepped it up in the clutch part of the season (as seen in the Eastern Conference Final). Guevara was simply the worst possible choice. And Moreno got screwed - royally (Just my opinion.)
Never give an MVP to a goalie. That's what the goalie of the year award is for. Cannon deserves that and it is a wonderful award to win.
Never give an MVP to a striker. That's what the Budwiser Scoring Champion is for. Guevara deserves that and it is a wonderful award to win. That makes about as much sense as what you wrote. Last time i checked Cannon was o nthe field for every game just like every other player (Well not like every other play as only 3 other players played every minute of the season). Cannon was the obvious choice for this award. Without him the Rapids are worse than the Burn. Without Guevara (and his dirty play) the Metros make the playoffs and lose in the first round.
I agree. Goalkeeper of the Year is like the Cy Young award. Pitchers shouldn't be in contention for MVP and neither should goalkeepers.
There are no "finalists". The media, players, league executives all vote after the final regular season game. The three top places are named "finalists" for media purposes.
Why not? I think the MVP in MLS has to be about who made the biggest contribution to their team. Without Cannon, the Rapids wouldn't have made the playoffs and earned 41 points. Without Guevara the Metros would have had someone else in there producing the points. Maybe not as many, but they still would have made it to the playoffs. This is an outrage and MLS slanting things to the larger markets.
Guevara winning the MVP is ridiculous. He didn't do anything the last few months of the season and same goes for his team. He is the most classless hack the league has and isn't deserving of the award at all. Jaime Moreno out performed him in every game they played against each other. MVP should have gone to Cannon or Moreno. My pick would have been Jaime but I have biased opinion on that but had it gone to Cannon I wouldn't have complained. Guevara is a horrible choice to represent MLS with the MVP award and hopefully he won't be back next season. He can enjoy his MVP award while he watches the real MVP raise the real piece of hard wear, the MLS Cup Sunday afternoon.
Maybe MLS should bronze that towel that he got popped in the stomach with last season and fell to the ground writhing in pain with.
Wow are DC fans classless. I didn't really care who one MLS CUP because I hate DC and I hate the way KC plays so much. But now im rooting for KC. 3/4 into the season, everyone was saying Amado is the MVP, it's not even close. He didn't finsih AS WELL as say Moreno, Noonan, Cannon or others but come on. He didn't have any support at all. You guys seem to think it's all about the points. It's not. And if it was, I'm sure if Amado wasn't forced to play defense midfield because no one else could as well (although his natural postition is an attacking midfielder who played right with the forwards) and if his fellow teammates hadn't missed sitter after sitter on his great passes, he would have gotten plenty more points. Even if Amado didn't have the penalty kicks (which as all of you say "shouldn't count as much other goals"), I still would believe he was the MVP. His number of points isn't why I think he should be MVP.Without Guevara, we would have had half the wins we did or points, and Chicago would have made the playoffs instead.
A credible choice, but not the one I would have made. The voters seem to have fallen into the trap of picking the best player of the 3 rather than the one who was most valuable/best this year. There is little doubt in my mind that, if, say, Salt Lake, could choose one of these three to build around, they'd pick guevara. But, by that standard, the mvp should have been landon donovan, the best player in the league. Between suspensions and call-ups and the way they ruined the metro's ability to gel as a team, guevara wasn't the most useful player in the league (which is what they should rename the award, I think). Cannon was. I wouldn't think of trading guevara for cannon, but I do think cannon was more useful this year.
In every other sport they publish the voting. I would love to see how many first, second and third place votes each candidate received. Possibly it was just by votes (only first place), I stillwould like to see the tallies. I am shocked by this result. He was clearly the least deserving of the final three named.
Like everyone else, I'm pretty much stunned. Guevarra didn't even make the FoxSportsWorld MLS XI. I thought Jaime would win and was most deserving, but would have totally jake had it gone to Cannon. One question though--why do people think Cannon was any more deserving of MVP/Goalie of the Year than Jon Busch? I'm pretty sure they had the exact same goals-against average, and the Crew finished in first with a defense that was no bettere than the Rapids'. The Guevarra win is a total embarassment for MLS, and if Androoolis wins Coach of the Year, MLS will absolutely have to start a) allowing the playoffs to factor in; and b) releasing the actual vote tallies. The horrible story on MLSNet seems to deliberately avoid any mention of who did the voting.
guevara looked good in the qualifiers. he's a great player. but better than jaime moreno!??? ask any defender in the league who he'd rather NOT be stuck one on one with. not only that, what ever happened to giving it to a guy whose team wins? GKs can be MVPs, but they have to be a lot better than cannon, with all do respect. they have to dominate games like the former great keeper from paraguay whose name escapes me ....trailing off...
How many of you Amado bashers watched MetroStar games on a constant basis? Amado is the heart and soul of this team. Cannon had a nice GAA with a "crappy" defense, Amado had 10 assists with an duo up front that changed every game. He "slacked" at the end because he was playing DM. He was playing like and MVP. In other words, he was taking a hit for the team. Something an MVP does. And if you're gonna say Amado complains too much, that clearly shows how little you know the guy. Someone earlier mentioned that towel situation that happened last year. Yeah, LAST YEAR. This guy has more heart than many in this league and doesn't flop like the Fish or cry like Landon. And enough with this he won to please the Metros stuff. I thought that this ended awhile ago. If there's a team to believe was built in a cheating fashion, it would be DC. They went from zero to heros.
Terrible choice. At the end of the season (clutch time), Guevara was noticably ineffective, whereas both Cannon and Moreno were both big parts of their teams success. Yes, Cannons team eventually bowed out, but that certainly wasn't due to Cannon, who stood on his head over and over. I find it ridiculous that the guy who got LESS effective as the games got more important at the end of the season, won the award. I would say that he won it because MLS is trying to keep him in the league after his well-publicized statements that he wasn't sure he wanted to return to the league after this year. They are trying to keep a talented player, and this is the bone that they threw Guevara.
I pitty the metrostars if a dirty hack like guevara is their heart and soul but that would really explain some of the character of their team. Doesn't flop or cry like Landon? Every game I saw the metrostars play he was taking dives and whining about every call that went against him. Tell me, does an MVP player get two inches from refs face to fume about a call he didn't get? And like someone already said, he didn't even make the MLS best XI. He's shown his character time and again with dirty plays. Remember his elbow on beasely in a national team game against the US? He's a disgrace to be the MVP. That's alright,Jaime will get the one that counts, MLS Cup MVP.
What team didn't even average a goal per match (a feat, incidentally never before achieved in MLS history) and still managed to garner more points than half of the teams in the league? And why do you suppose that was possible?