On the eve of the beginning of the 2010 playoffs, MLS announced the finalists for the end-of-season awards.  While it does not have the international prestige of the Ballon D’Or, there is always a good lively debate about the nominees, who deserves what, and who got left out.  The winners will be announced beginning on November 3 and then continuously leading up to the MLS final.

As they say in Hollywood: and the nominees are…….

MVP: Edson Buddle (Galaxy), David Ferreira (FC Dallas), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

Wondolowski is the Golden Boot winner this year and the major reason San Jose is in the playoffs this weekend.  Ferreira contributed 8 goals and 13 assists this season for Dallas.  But my vote would go to Edson Buddle because of the three, he is the player this year who seemed to dominate the pitch every time he was on it.  I remember attending the DC United/Galaxy match after his sub-par World Cup performance and watching him just control play every time the ball was in United’s half.  He only finished with one goal and could have finished with more, and that was the kind of season he had.  I think he was the most valuable player of this year.  Kudos to MLS for thinking outside the box and not picking Donnovan.

Newcomer of the Year: Joel Lindpere (Red Bulls), Thierry Henry (RedBulls), Alvaro Saborio (Real Salt Lake)

As an Arsenal fan I will always love Henry and am so glad he is playing in the United States.  But he may have been the fourth best newcomer on his own team!  If he wins it will be because of name recognition.  Lindpere was a great pickup for New York from the soccer powerhouse nation of Estonia.  But Saborio looks to be the favorite for this award, after providing a team-high 12 goals on the season.

Coach of the Year: Hans Backe (Red Bulls), Schellas Hyndman (FC Dallas), Jason Kreis (Real Salt Lake)

If you go simply by points, the award would go to Kreis whose club has 56 points and finished just behind LA.  And I don’t think that would be a bad choice.  Backe was able to integrate a number of new players successfully to take the Eastern Conference.  Hyndman guided the club through 19 straight matches without a loss and had the club challenging for the Supporters’ Shield.  But Kreis has molded a team that many consider the favorite to win the championship and that is a good quality in a coach of the year.

Rookie of the Year: Danny Mwanga (Philadelphia Union), Andy Najar (DC United), Tim Ream (Red Bulls)

Danny Mwanga is the front runner for this award, scoring 7 goals this season and becoming an early star for the expansion franchise.  Ream benefited from excellent teammates and still made a name for himself by playing in every match as a rookie.  But Andy Najar would get my vote just because on a team that was abysmal most of the year, Najar was a definite bright spot.  Najar, who is 17, was DC United’s primary offensive threat and made plays from the wing that hide his true age.  He definitely deserves the award for a combination of age, skill, and performance.

The rest of the nominees after the break:

Defender of the Year:

Jamison Olave (Real Salt Lake)
Nat Borchers (Real Salt Lake)
Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Goalkeeper of the Year:

Kevin Hartman (FC Dallas)
Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
Donovan Ricketts (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Comeback Player of the Year:

Brek Shea (FC Dallas)
Bobby Convey (San Jose Earthquakes)
Chris Albright (New York Red Bulls)

Referee of the Year:

Mark Geiger
Kevin Stott
Baldomero Toledo

Fair Play:

CJ Brown (Chicago Fire)
Sebastian Le Toux (Philadelphia Union)
Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Year:

Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo)
Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards)
Seth Stammler (New York Red Bulls)

Note: I will be Tweeting during the Columbus/Colorado match this evening.  If you want to chat, follow @roberthayjr

MLS commisioner Don Garber seeks a balanced schedule

Last week’s press release announcing that MLS will take a two week break during the World Cup Finals group stage has stirred some debate from supporters of the league. However, hidden at the end of that same press release is news that all MLS fans must be pleased to read. Next season, all sixteen clubs will play a balanced schedule – facing each of the other fifteen teams twice, once at home, once away.

For the first time in the history of MLS, the 30 game regular season schedule will be equivalent for ever team. This milestone for the league will finally put to rest the imbalance that currently exists for clubs that, as a whole, are competing for the same eight playoff spots. No longer like the NFL or Major League Baseball schedules, MLS’ new regular season will further resemble the best European leagues that it strives to model.

The next step for the MLS schedule makers is to get rid of the curious, albeit infrequent, cases of home-and-home series within the season. An example of this occurs this evening, as the Colorado Rapids host the San Jose Earthquakes just 5 days after they visited Northern California. For the Rapids, this comes on the heels of a home-and-home series they finished earlier this month against Toronto FC. In all, there were nine cases in 2009 of teams playing each other in consecutive or nearly consecutive games. If you care to count the US Open Cup, add three more occurrences to the tally.

I don’t see any real positives to including these scheduling quirks in 2010 and beyond. When asked about playing home-and-home series in the regular season, Colorado Rapids coach Gary Smith remarked “I’m not sure there are many advantages. I think the fact that you go away then come back home is a balanced schedule in that respect, but I’m not sure the players enjoy it too much. You can sometimes get a staid affair and the teams know too much about each other.”

Playing the same team two games in a row can present additional problems. Player injuries and suspensions can put one team at a disadvantage for both season’s meetings instead of perhaps just one. Perhaps a team struggles earlier in the year, but improves with the summer signing period – is it fair for one club to meet them twice in June and another club to meet them twice in September? Using Colorado as an example, their team captain, Pablo Mastroeni, was suspended for 3 games earlier this month. As a result, he missed both games with Toronto this season. Maybe the 3 points TFC earned in their second game against the Rapids helps them sneak into the playoffs this season – ahead of the Rapids, no less.

On the flip side, getting to face the same team twice in a short amount of time allows you additional training time to focus on your opponent. Coach Frank Yallop of the San Jose Earthquakes even sees the home-and-home series as an opportunity for the team to prepare for the post-season. ”I guess it is similar to the playoffs, you play teams back to back a lot in that situation. The first game becomes important because it sets you up for the second one. But you still have to prepare for each game.”

Being better prepared for your opponent can lead to a better performance on the field, something all fans should look forward to with anticipation. Of course, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt – perhaps a physically demanding first game will lead to a different mindset going into the second game. Earthquakes captain Jason Hernandez knows all to well how this can affect a team facing an opponent in successive games; “I really don’t see it as an advantage at all. I think going back-to-back, it can get a bit too personal. They might come in and get a good result, then you have to go back to their home and fight twice as hard to get those points back.”

I see no reason to continue with these home-and-home series in 2010 and beyond. If MLS wants to really have a fair and balanced schedule, split the season into two 15 game schedules that essentially mirror each other, and save the two-game series for the post-season.

Major League Soccer

A common complaint about Major League Soccer is its failure or unwillingness to observe FIFA International breaks. As recently as this month we have seen MLS matches played at the same time as crucial World Cup Qualifiers involving the United States National Team, this despite earlier indications from MLS that the League was going to pay closer attention to these FIFA breaks during the 2009 season. While frustrating, this attitude by MLS towards the FIFA breaks is not surprising since, historically, MLS does not suspend its season during the World Cup finals.

Today there was finally some good news for those of us who have criticized MLS and its stubbornness when it comes to the FIFA breaks, MLS has announced that it would suspend its 2010 season during the two week group stage portion of the 2010 World Cup finals. Additionally, MLS will not schedule any matches on the same days that the South Africa 2010 semifinals and finals will be played. While this is not a total victory for those of us that would prefer to see MLS suspend all league action during the World Cup finals, it is a positive, and realistic, step forward for the League, which was criticized earlier this year by FIFA President Sepp Blatter for not following the traditional European club schedule of a fall-winter-spring season.

Admittedly, suspending the league season through the entire World Cup finals would affect the match fitness of MLS players not playing on the US National Team, and would create scheduling headaches for MLS clubs that share their stadiums with high school, college, and/or professional thowball teams.

If marketed right by MLS and ESPN, the league hiatus could work to the League’s advantage in attracting newly minted football fans. The first two weeks of the World Cup finals are an utter football orgy, but the number of daily matches starts to drop after the knockout stage. New fans looking to learn more about the game might be more willing to seek out their local MLS side or MLS matches on ESPN2 or Fox Soccer Channel once the group and knockout stages have taken place. Additionally, after the group stage the possibility of MLS matches conflicting with U.S. National Team matches drops exponentially. Should the U.S. National Team go on a shocking run, there won’t be any conflicts during the semifinals and finals.

Finally, this acknowledgement of the World Cup finals is a smart move by MLS in the sense of supporting the United States’ bid to bring the World Cup finals back to the States in 2018 or 2022. The last thing the bid committee needs to deal with is having its competition argue that the U.S. does not deserve to host the finals since its Top Flight League’s schedule plays on as if the World Cup finals are not occurring.

The other important news coming out of MLS headquarters today is that, for the first time in MLS’s short history, the 2010 season will be a balanced season. Each team will play 30 matches in 2010, meaning one home and one away match against every other team in the League. This move is another step that should satisfy football purists and followers of the European leagues who have previously ridiculed the MLS season as not really counting since it wasn’t balanced.

I for one applaud MLS for making these scheduling moves. These are small steps, but it is by making such small steps that MLS manages to improve its product and survive financially.

- As a follow up to a recent article I posted here regarding Vincenzo Bernardo, MLS’s transfer window has closed without seeing the young Italian-American sign on with an MLS club; however, there has been some chatter lately about the possibility of Bernardo joining the expansion side Philadelphia Union for the 2010 season. This would be a good move for both the new side and the New Jersey native. Signing Bernardo would give the Union good press in regards to obtaining the services of a young American who has trained in Europe and would create an immediate connection to the strong football fan base in New Jersey.