(Per Tommy's segment during Thursday's game on ESPN2) Candidates: Yallop Sarachan Bradley (Personally I'd throw in Hankinson over Bradley, just for the recognition of amazing Mile High turnaround) Tommy's Winner: Yallop I think it is really between Yallop and Sarachan and it may come down to playoff performance (and is a co-award or a coach of the year allocation to the Metros for that matter out of the question?). Here's one man's break down assuming the ability to coach (tactics, practice, substitutions and other non-measurable items) is even. Standings: EDGE - Sarachan - Albeit a slight edge due to the East being the tougher conference (through the absence of the Dallas Burn mostly.) Player Departures: EDGE - Sarachan - While SJ lost Graziani and Cannon, the departures of Stoitchkov, Wolff, Kovalenko and Nowak left a far more gaping hole for Chicago to fill. Injuries: EDGE - Yallop - SJ has been depleted by injuries all year and continues to be following the freak injury to Ching. 6 players on the Injury list! National Team Call-ups: EDGE - Sarachan - Armas, Bocanegra, Beasley and Williams missed more game days than Donovan, Mulrooney and Onstad. Wildcard: EDGE - Sarachan - The ability to take a team gutted in the offseason to the top of the division in his first campaign cannot be underestimated. Winner: Sarachan - Yallop's ability to overcome the SJ injuries has been the single biggest obstacle overcome by a MLS coach this season. However this only pulls Yallop close to Sarachan in the race, not in front. Sarachan taking the Fire to the top of the league in his first season should net him the award.
Todd Dunivant has done such a good job at left back this year that everyone forgets we also lost a best 11 defender and defender of the year candidate last year as well: Wade Barrett. Yallop and co drafted Dunivant.
if you're talking rookies the fire got the obvious choice of ralph for rookie of the year... but at the beginning of the year it was logan pause playing great and gaining a lot of praise for his work with armas and marsch both healthy, he's been relegated to a much smaller role... but he was a huge boost to the team when it looked like there was a huge hole to fill solid minutes from big man, nat jaqua don't exactly hurt the fire's rookie class (although i'd still give the edge to the metros for the best rookie class... fire *right* behind)