Pat Noonan was named MLS player of the week for his two goals in the 2-1 win over the Metros. Good news for Noonan, who stepped up big time on Saturday night. But Brad Feldman should stop proclaiming Noonan the prime candidate for MLS Rookie of the Year. Chicago's Ralph will be unanimous unless Feldman has a vote. Noonan could be second, but it will be a distant second. He has scored some nice goals and been a positive addition, even if he is a defensive liability when he plays in midfield. Let's just keep things in perspective.
To be sure, ROTY is a longshot for Noonan, but he's starting to develop confidence and is scoring at an accelerating rate. Ralph (1755 minutes) has 11 goals and 5 assists. Noonan (1161 minutes) has 5 goals and 6 assists. The race isn't over quite yet.
Interesting to note where the POTW have come from over the course of the season. Here is a breakdown by team, ordered by season points: Fire 2 Quakes 1 Rapids 1 Mutts 3 United 2 Crew 2 Wiz 4 Gals 4 Revs 4 Burn 0 (maybe the GM will win this week for firing Jeffries ) Preki is 2 of KC's 4 and Ruiz is 3 of LA's 4. I find it interesting that TnT goes out and in the course of three weeks two different forwards replacing him win POTW. (BTW, the other 2 Revs were TnT and Kamler) Could this be a sign that the Revs are finally fired up and ready to make a run?
It's over! The Chicago Fire were supposed to be the worst team in the Eastern Conference. Ralph has fired them into first place and has set rookie scoring records. New England was supposed to be the best team in the Eastern Conference and are in last place. That's not Noonan's fault, but his relative lack of playing time only shows that he has earned less time on a weaker performing team. Noonan is turning out to be a good pick for the Revos and maybe he'll become an effective complimentary striker with Twellman, but I agree with Tattoo and so do the numbers.
And the Galaxy was supposed to run away with the Supporter's Shield... The fact that people picked a team with Boca, Armas, DMB, Rasov and the others on it last because they lost Stoich, Wolff, and Nowak shouldn't count for too much. And Columbus was supposed to be the best in the East, not us. If Noonan were to score another 3 or 4 goals, he could make a case for himself. The funny thing is, if you polled everyone as to the team rookie of the year, I would expect Joseph to win hands down.
I think it proves that the Revs have an offense that creates scoring opportunities and not JUST a talented scorer. In Brown's case, he was very well set up for his hat trick. Kamler and Noonan aren't going to create a whole lot for themselves, but they've shown to be very opportunistic when they've gotten a good look at goal.