Reading. Is. Fundamental. I said no such thing. I merely pointed out that Twellman, while a good player, is hardly indispensable to the Revs.
Preki. However, both Donovan and Spencer would not be bad selections. Donovan made a huge difference for the Quakes early in the season allowing the team to get off to their best start off ever. With the loss of so many key players and the injury to his striking partner (DeRosario), he picked up this team on his shoulders prior to heading off to the Conf and Gold Cup. The con is the that the Quakes still did well with him gone. However, both KC and Colorado played poorly with Preki and Spencer. Lastly, I like the suggestion of Armas. However, Chicago is too balanced to say one player made that much difference to the team. With a team losing a lot of offensive power (Stoich, Wolff, etc.), offense would have to be the concern going into the season. So, may be Razov?
Without Stoitchkov, DC United misses the playoffs. Just kidding - Preki's the MVP. Good point about Armas, though.
It doesn't sound like KC lost any games that Preki didn't play in, either. Just kidding. I'd go with Preki because he's been the most consistant of the choices. LD got about 1/2 his goals in 8 days in September, but Preki's been delivering week in week out for KC.
Yeah, Preki sure delivered between July 26th and September 27th when KC didn't win a game. Of course, it must have been the defense fault for KC...
Donovan scored 9 of his 12 goals between August 8th and September 27th. That leaves a total of 3 goals for the other 5 months of the season. Preki's distribution was spread out much more evenly over the course of the season. That's all I was saying.
Preki was granted 6 PK attempts this year, Donovan 1. While Donovan missed 8 games, none were due to injury or suspension. He also plays some defense. Wouldn't mind seeing Preki get it though.
We have to understand that when you're designated to take all of your team's corners, all of your team's free kicks and all of your team's penalties, you're going to rack up a fair number of points. That doesn't necessarily mean you're the most valubale player in the league. If you simply take away Preki's 5 penalty goals, that gives him 31 points to Twellman's 34. Furthermore, while Preki played more than Landon Donovan, it wasn't because he was more durable by any stretch than Donovan. Donovan missed time (as did Twellman) due to National Team duty, and I'm not sure how much you should take away from a player for that. In any event, removing penalties, Preki's goals per minutes are roughly the same as Brian Kamler, Brian West and Jesse Marsch. My vote's for Donovan. He's generally thought to be the best player in the league, he had a great year statistically and his team won the Conference Championship.
Yes, but it's hardly a great measure of a player's value that he's lucky enough to be the guy chosen to bury them. 81% of penalties were converted this year. When the manager picks you out to take a penalty, he's roughly giving you .81 goals. I wish the site would post stats for who drew the penalties. To put another way, who would be the NBA's leading scorer if every time there was a free throw, the team could pick the player they wanted to take it?
Twellman scored 15 goals from the run of play, and would have run away with the scoring race if he hadn't been kicked in the face in LA, in spite of missing those national team games and breaking his foot. He was clearly having the best offensive year of anyone in the league. Not to mention, he's also a hardworking defender. Offensively, Landon was very quiet for most of the year, then had two big games in a row. Having said that, Preki being involved in well over half of his team's goals is fairly impressive. If he's not there, I don't see KC outscoring LA or DC for the year.
I'm not sure what people don't understand about the MVP award. Things the MVP is NOT: 1) The MPPG award ("Most Points Per Game") 2) The player who scored the most without PKs 3) The player who scored the most without the benefit of taking all the PKs, corners, etc. 4) The Budweiser Scoring Champ ... The MVP is an all-around award given to the player that contributed the most to his team, most usually on one of the more sucessful teams. Its not always the guy with the most points, although that does have quite a bit to do with it. The case, in my eyes, can really be made for five players, who all gave quite a contribution to their teams: Armas, Razov, Donovan, Spencer, Preki. Making the point, as voros is trying to make, that Preki's case is somehow weaker because he takes all the PKs, free kicks and corners is down right rediculous. The whole point of an MVP is the person who does it all for your team. The person who, when removed from your side, would cause the biggest problem. That seems to be a pretty clear definition of Most Valuable Player. The person a team can't perform without. I'd say the exact fact that voros is trying to use to say Preki doesn't deserve MVP is the exact fact that says he absolutely does deserve the award.
Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think that Ruiz, Razov, and Preki are "lucky" that they take virtually all of their team's penalty kicks. They take them because their abilibity to take the is "valued" more than the other players on the field. And we've already had the "pks are devalued thread," which is an argument I have never bought. To be honest if Colorado hadn't gone into a swoon in October, Spencer was set to run away with the award. At this point I expect that it will go to Donovan with Preki and Razov being in the top three. My vote, however, will be for Preki.
How much someone "values" something does not determine its value in this case. Gansler may value Preki's penalty kicks, but: 2003 First Choice Penalty Takers in MLS 31 for 39 (79%) Others 16 for 19 (84%) So I highly doubt that Preki's penalty taking abilities are worth a whole lot. Certainly not all five goals worth. If we assume that Preki's replacement would have scored on only half, that's still three goals of the five that basically anybody would have scored. When players on average score roughly on 10% of their run of play shots and 81% on penalty shots, they are hardly equivalent in terms of chances.
Sure, from a goal perspective... However, Donovan had most of his assists early in the season. He was the driving engine for the offense at the time, more than the goal scorer... My point is not to say that Preki isn't a worthy candidate, but that Donovan is much closer than a lot think and could very well by the MVP.
Plus regarding assists, Donovan could have easily doubled his assists if his teammates (especially at the beginning of the year) could have put away the excellent passes he gave them. In fact, Yallop said "They've got to do a better job of putting those away. Landon is serving them up on a dinner plate, and they've got to do better." So yeah, Preki is worthy, but it's not a runaway by any means.
And believe it or not, Preki could've doubled his assist total if his teammates had put away their chances. Landon's passes aren't the only ones that were butchered by teammates. Taking stray quotes, or drilling down to "PK proficiency" is missing the forest for the trees. To be honest, I will be mildly surprised if Donovan doesn't win it. I - my opinion - just don't think he's the MVP.
Come on. You're over doing th is. The simple fact is that these players are given the right to take PKs for a reason, and if you don't see or accept that reason that is your problem. These players shouldnt be punished (by punished I'm saying the way you're implying their numbers mean less in an MVP consideration) because their coaches choose them when the money is on the table.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right about Preki and his teammates as well. I just didn't get to see as many of his games. I do know that if I'm rooting against KC, I'm always yelling, "Keep it away from Preki." He's absolutely dangerous with the ball. And I will be completely surprised if he DOESN'T get MVP. I don't think Donovan will win it....unless he does something MAGICAL in the playoffs. (but I'm not even sure if playoff play enters into the picture for MVP.