I know there's a halfway-point thread, so merge if you feel necessary. I was wondering what everybody's thoughts were as far as midseason awards for the Revs. I came up with 6 categories that I think encompass a wide enough range, some positive, some negative. I gave some suggested nominees but you can absolutely spit your own fresh take. BEST COACH/EXEC: Jay Heaps, Jay Miller, Brian Bilello, Mike Burns BEST PLAYER: Lee Nguyen, Saer Sene, Clyde Simms, Kevin Alston UNSUNG HERO: Chris Tierney, Blake Brettschneider, Clyde Simms, Fernando Cardenas BIGGEST BUST: Jeremiah White, John Lozano, Jose Moreno, Shalrie Joseph BEST PERFORMANCE: 3-1 win vs. LA, 4-1 win vs. VAN, 2-0 win vs. CHI, 2-0 win vs. NY WORST MOMENT: Preseason Tournament Loss, USOC Collapse, 1-0 loss vs. TOR, 1-0 loss vs. NY I WILL SAY that I went with Jay Heaps as my pick for Coach/Exec BUT if you want to see the rest of my picks, you'll have to go to backheelism.wordpress.com. I toyed with the idea of best hairstyle, but it's clearly Stephen McCarthy's. duh.
Fun topic! I have a weakness for awards threads. BEST COACH/EXEC: Jay Heaps, Jay Miller, Brian Bilello, Mike Burns BEST PLAYER: Lee Nguyen, Saer Sene, Clyde Simms, Kevin Alston UNSUNG HERO: Chris Tierney, Blake Brettschneider, Clyde Simms, Fernando Cardenas BIGGEST BUST: Jeremiah White, John Lozano, Jose Moreno, Shalrie Joseph BEST PERFORMANCE: 3-1 win vs. LA, 4-1 win vs. VAN, 2-0 win vs. CHI, 2-0 win vs. NY WORST MOMENT: Preseason Tournament Loss, USOC Collapse, 1-0 loss vs. TOR, 1-0 loss vs. NY
Best coach/exec- weird question Best player- Sene narrowly beats out Nguyen Unsung hero- Clyde Simms (if anyone puts Brettschneider they should be banned for life) Biggest bust: John Lozano (Pepe is still on the roster at least) Best performance: 3-1 LA away win, that was unexpected and awesome Worst moment: none of the above, it was the stupid stoppage time goal Shalrie and AJ gave away to a subpar FCD team
Best coach/exec- I agree with cml1394, they can't really be judged on the same scale. Having said that, Jay Heaps is the only one that has exceeded my expectations, so I'll go with him. Best player- Sene (although it seems the league is starting to figure him out) Unsung hero- Clyde Simms (better team when he is on the field) Biggest bust: John Lozano (salary was a huge factor for me) Best performance: 4-1 VAN Worst moment: 0-1 TOR, probably because it is still fresh in my mind
I would say that if the Revs make it into the playoffs, Heaps will get serious consideration for Leaguewide Coach of the Year honors. If they win a series or two, he'd be a good bet to win it.
The main reason that Lozano isn't the biggest bust IMO is that he wasn't horrible when he played (and he wasn't out injured all the time [a la Badilla]). He just wasn't the coach's choice, mainly because McCarthy exceeded expectations, has significant potential and is much more cap/roster friendly being young, cheap and domestic.
How is Jeremiah White possibly one of the biggest busts? lol he was signed as a bottom of the roster player, off trial. He has never been good, and wasn't expected to be good. Heck, he wasn't even expected to be marginal. No one in their right mind thought he would receive much playing time. The three biggests busts of the season have to be Shalrie, Brettschneider and Tierney. They all receive regular minutes and they all suck horrendously.
I realize that since you have been following your new favoUrite team up North you have probably been spending all your time speaking French, but I would not have thought that you would have forgotten all your English to the extent that you didn't know what the word "if" means. I would have expected that from our missing link, DJEsq, who probably has been on vacation in Albania for the last several weeks.
It's the "if" that was so hilarious. As though it's a possibility at all. Don't worry my English is rawk solid.
Who exactly didn't think he would even be marginal? You? Most people in this group seemed to think he was a positive, but not overwhelming signing. He's a veteran with 7+ years and over 100 games of European experience. For that we got 31 forgettable minutes. That's why he gets my vote.
Most people viewed him as a depth signing, a guy that could hopefully provide us with some minutes in the USOC. To consider White the biggest bust of the year is ludicrous, especially with a disinterested, out of shape and overweight joke of a player sitting at the end of the bench taking up a SI spot and a far larger portion of our salary cap.
Well contrary to what you may believe, every signing the Revs make is not genius, and some people can delineate that from the very beginning. White's Euro "experience" was in Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Poland, 3rd division in France and....Saudi Arabia. Places where he couldn't even find the field. No one in their right mind thought White would be good.
I forgot about him. In fairness to him (I guess), that was a disaster from the very beginning. Still a major bust considering the "We've found our #9" nonsense. hahaha what a joke. This team is pathetic.
Right, a depth signing - a pretty low standard. And he couldn't even provide that. If you want to factor in expectations, I think most people here didn't expect much from Moreno either. There are pages in his thread to support that.
And if I go back and look at the pages in the Moreno thread, I'm sure you were complaining that everyone was being negative and that everything would work itself out. You can't have it both ways. Yes, the reasonable people on these boards saw the Moreno acquisition for what it really was. But did you, the Revs FO, or many other KADs out there? For me, Moreno and Lozano were much bigger busts. We invested SI spots, more time and money/scouting cquiring them, plus much higher salaries. Beyond that, those are two players who were expected to come into the first team and make an impact (remember the big stink about Moreno being our #9), a much greater expectation than was placedupon White. To be a bust, expectations have to be fairly high, and for White that just wasn't the case.
At the time White signed, it seemed like a low-risk signing. He had the possibility to contribute, and if he did, that's great. But if he was a bench player or a washout, no big deal. Kind of like Lee Nguyen, come to think of it. That one worked out, and White didn't. It easily could have been the other way around. A "bust" would be someone where the investment and expectations are considerably higher. As someone said, when the FO is touting Moreno as their "big" signing, and especially all the work they did to salvage it when it seems obvious they should have just walked away (even without hindsight), that is a bust. And Lozano would be considered one, but the fact that they cut him loose shows they at least recognized it and are moving on.
BEST COACH/EXEC: When San Antonio in D2 outdraws you, this is a strange category BEST PLAYER: Lee Nguyen (had to be) UNSUNG HERO: I don't know about hero, but what about everyone's favorite ex-League of Ireland player Ryan Guy? BIGGEST BUST: Jose Moreno, too much negative publicity and malarkey and nowhere close to enough goals BEST PERFORMANCE: 2-0 win vs. NY WORST MOMENT: USOC Collapse- in a bad year for a lot of MLS teams in this tournament, this had to be the worst. Right up there (down there) in the ugly pages of Revs lore with the infamous J** P***** home loss.
I know I know I know, you get a CCL spot....but no one really gives a shit about this tournament. The worst moment of the season was when they decided to bring Mike Burns back. Whenever that was, it was a shitty moment. The shittiest moment from a franchise that has mastered the shitty moments.
Agree with most of these. Heaps is learning on the job but should get the nod for execs/coaches although it seems Burns has figured out how to sign players this year. Best player, Sene based on output is my pick this year although Nguyen is probably the most talented. Unsung Hero, definitely Simms. Good pick up and quiet leader. Biggest bust, Jose Moreno is hands down the biggest bust of the season. He was brought in to be the starting #9 and has been a complete and utter failure since the day he was signed, through the 2 month soap opera to get him here, through today. He can't get cut soon enough. Shalrie gets honorable mention since his performance has declined significantly this year and he's contributing to the leadership vacuum on this team. Best performance, After yielding that early goal the Revs bossed Vancouver all over the field. It was one of the most satisfying wins of the year for me. Worst moment was probably the USOC collapse because even in a meaningless tournament with a majority of your scrubs playing and 10 men, no one should give up a 3 goal lead like that. Pathetic. I agree with Kraft Out and didn't expect him to be an even marginal contributor on the revs. He has shown he can't stick with teams in Europe and came from the Saudi Arabian league ffs. I didn't even know they had a league. He's just never shown me any reason to expect much from him so I am not surprised he hardly played and eventually got cut.
BEST COACH/EXEC: Jay Heaps BEST PLAYER: Lee Nguyen UNSUNG HERO: Chris Tierney BIGGEST BUST: Jose Moreno, Sharlie Joseph deserves an honorable mention BEST PERFORMANCE: Win at LA Galaxy WORST MOMENT: U.S. Open Cup, an absolute embarrassment and a total ********ing joke. Don't even enter next year, I am sick of being the laughing stock of MLS with their piss-poor efforts in these types of tournaments.