Steve Goff is reporting that Emilio has won the MVP award over Blanco or Angel. He also said that Emilio, Olsen and Gomez made the MLS XI (no indication of who the other 8 players are). While I agree with the choice of Emilio (initially I went for Angel but rethought it and believe Emilio is the correct choice), I thought that Angel would win. So I find the result a bit surprising.
Hard to argue with Emilio. But Gomez? Not the best year from him. Benny Olsen is waaay under-appreciated. I hope he is recognized.
Gomez had a great year...People say he had "not the best year" because we are comparing it to last year's league MVP numbers. Gomez = 10 goals and 9 assists in 27 games...a little bit off of his 14 and 11 total last year, but still 7th in the league in goals, 1st among midfielders, and 5th in the league in assists. Stats don't even tell the whole story. Definitely worthy of a Best XI selection.
Part of the deal with Gomez is that there was a stretch where he wasn't producing, and that's when alot of the "what is going on in MLS" articles and threads were written. Then he came on strong, but by then, people already had it in their minds that he had an average year. While I wouldn't have picked him for the first XI, I can see why he did make it.
I agree. People pretty much wrote him off. The thing is, to be a "Best XI" midfielder, you really only have to be the 4th or 5th best midfielder (since its usually 3-5-2 or 4-4-2) in the league. I would put him in the top 5. My five midfielders would be LD, Olsen, Gomez, Joseph and maybe a Ralston or Sacha Kljestan. Again stats are not everything, but numbers like 10 goals and 9 assists cant be ignored for me. That means he was involved in 1/3 of the teams 56 goals. On the flip side, someone like Toja doesn't make it for me even though the opposite of the gomez situation is the case with him...he had a great start and everybody made up their mind he was a Best XI or even MVP, then he fizzled (granted he got injured too).
Joseph didn't have a good year by his standards, when I saw him. But he's been so great for so many years, I wonder if he's a victim of his own greatness. By that I mean, for me, it's kinda hard to judge how good he was this season because I have such high expectations for him. I think Arturo Alvarez probably had a better year than Gomez. And it's hard to compare Blanco's half season of MVP play to Gomez' full year of outstanding play, but maybe Blanco should get it over Gomez. And SOMEbody has been playing well in the Houston midfield. They were ALL at least very good.
Well if that's true Angel got screwed. Without him we don't make the playoffs. Don't remember the exact stats but he had numerous more game tying or game winning goals. Without Emilio the Scum still choke in the first round of the playoffs.
Actually, DCU was without Emilio. He didn't play game one. He was clearly hurt yet played some of game two but was ineffective. I originally thought it should be Angel. But some of NYRB's best play was in April pre-Angel. Without Angel, maybe NYRB makes the playoffs, maybe they don't. That's a team with a lot of frontline talent. I think if Altidore and Mathis had started all season, NYRB wouldn't have been as good. But that's still a fine frontline that would have scored a bunch of goals (just not as many as they did with Angel). Without Emilio, I'm not sure what DC United does. It's hard to see them not-making the playoffs. Except...who scores the goals? Not Moreno. Kpene, Adderly and Dyachenko certainly didn't get it done. Gomez and Olsen are nice but what teams do you know that make the playoffs or are a serious contender when your leading threats to score are midfielders? You can make a serious case that without Emilio, DC United would have been Columbus--a team that played some fine soccer this season, a lot of depth, a lot of good players...but no finisher. And in fact, in their last game of the season (when Emilio went out), Columbus won at RFK. However, if Emilio had been healthy and in-form against Chicago, I think DCU wins that series easily.
Wow - he had five to Emilio's four. And who knows if any of those five were from the PK spot where he had five to Emilio's zero. And if I remember correctly your team was smoking hot at the beginning of the year - without Angel. I can see the vote being close - but to say Angel was robbed is showing your bias as a NY fan.
It all goes to show how subjective soccer is. In basketball or something you look at points, rebounds, assists, steals and there you have it. But soccer is the kind of sport where so much is the intangibles, that it is hard to judge, so I think when in doubt MLS goes with stats, i.e. Gomez has 10 goals and 9 assists, Alvarez has 3 and 3. Meanwhile Alvarez was consistent and solid all season. The only thing certain is the midfield is the toughest group. plenty of worthy players.
1. NYRB actually had a worse record with JPA than without him. 2. Without Emilio, DC doesn't win the 2nd most important trophy, the Shield. The right player won it.
I don't think that's any different than basketball. it's not like you don't have intangibles in that sport as well. In fact, it's actually much EASIER in basketball to see the defensive contributions of players than it is in soccer, and that's almost always considered one of if not the biggest intangible. Soccer isn't all that much different in that way. In this case they did just what all the sports do ......... they looked at the numbers and the records of the teams, and went with the best player (or player with the best offensive numbers) on the best (or one of the best) team (regular season record). Pretty standard stuff. If NY had finished 2nd in the East, in NE's position just a few points behind, Angel would have probably won.
This is rich, coming from someone who probably thinks that Amado was deserving of the MVP a couple of years back. Talk about someone getting screwed .............
I'm not saying you're wrong, but it would be impossible to overstate how stupid it would be if that happens.
exactly...just pointing out the..."uniquities" of MLS On the flip side, our boy Emilio might clean up and take home four awards. GB, MVP, Newcomer, Best XI
Angel had a better season, and he deserved the award. Blanco will not make the Best XI because he was listed as a forward in the voting, and they use a 3-5-2 formation.