Team MVP nomination and lobbying thread Let's get nominations for a DC United team MVP for the season so that in a couple of weeks the top 6 candidates can be <ahem> polled by BS.
Just to throw another name out: Milton Reyes. If his offensive production were even minimally stronger in terms of goals and assists, his two-way contribution would be a strong consideration.
Milton is the leading vote getter for MOTM on DCUnited.com for last nights game. Does this mean his jersey goes on EBay next week?
Are we talking about last night, or about the season? Either way, my answer's the same. If it weren't for Nick Rimando, we'd be so bad that MLS would have no choice but to adopt relegation.
I was hoping for a season long MVP. If the thread title could be editted for that content, that would be nice.
Dang! Nellie's injured for one game, and I forget about his breakthrough season? Shame on me! Add him to my list, along with Nicky and Milton.
1. Nick Rimando 2. Milton Reyes 3. Ben Olsen for at least giving us somethign to watch the last half of the season.
I think Rimando's clearly got to get it. He kept us in every close game we had this year. But I also think Olsen should get some sort of bonus award. The attitude of the team changed ever since he came back. Players actually look like they care about the outcome of the games now.
Only possible candidates: Nick Rimando (7 Shutouts!) Milton Reyes (Extrodinary defense once the yellow card problem was solved) Ryan Nelsen (4 goals! 3 Assists! Teams leading scorer! Solid in central defense and great organizer)
After last night's goal, Diablo is now tied for the team lead in points w/11 http://www.mlsnet.com/statistics/tmstats.html
I say give the MVP award to the entire d. Pope, Nelsen, Rimando, Reyes, Prideaux, and Trask if it's true he helped them out, they should share in the award together!
This pretty much echoes what has already been said but, in order, I would say: Rimando - entertaining, skillful, kept us in a lot of games, tied for second in the league for shutouts. Nelsen - really stepped up when we lost Eddie to the WC, solid as a rock on defense, potent offensive threat, most improved player from last year. Reyes - awesome entertainment value, great defender. I might bump him above Nelsen if it weren't for his tendency to give up crucial fouls and pick up yellow cards (a situation which has improved since the beginning of the season, but is still a problem IMO)
i think i'd give the award to mark simpson. as most point out, rimando was probably the most imporant single player this year. if you remember he looked exceptionally raw the first few games of the season. his positioning was atrocious, he had no idea how to organize his team and his decision-making caused coronary damage in all who watched him. while he has always had tremendous ability and a huge heart (i still wish he were taller) he really was technically very poor early one. to my mind simpson has done wonders with his technique and i bet also has had a lot to do with the fact that he has come out an played huge, even when some other folks really struggled.