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Crew’s Gaven wins Save of the Week

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Photo by Rick Osentoski/ISIphotos.com

This is one award that Eddie Gaven probably hopes he never has to win again.

Forced into goal in the 85th minute with the Columbus Crew out of substitutes and starting keeper Will Hesmer injured with a fracture shoulder, Gaven denied Philadelphia's Shea Salinas over the weekend and won the final MLS Save of the Week award of the season.

Gaven became the second field player to win the award in as many weeks, after the Union's Fred took home the honor last week.

Here's video of Gaven's stop along with the rest of the week's nominees:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZY1aXaU5EY&w=440&h=365]

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What did you think of Gaven's play in goal? Think anybody else's save (i.e. Kevin Guppy's stuff of Arturo Alvarez or Dario Sala's last-second stop of Edson Buddle's header) was more deserving of the honor?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. It’s an improvement to me. I’d rather have them just say a number than pronounce Van Persie with a forced spanish accent – “Van Piayrsea” – like Harkes did throughout the world cup. Come on John… don’t you at least have a fake Dutch accent?! Anyway, I’m not sure who I dislike more: the guy who let Harkes become an announcer, or the guy who let Harks play soccer. I bet it was the same guy…

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  2. Is anyone else excruciatingly annoyed by US announcers starting to refer to players by their number? Is it all because John Harkes does this? They all sound like idiots…”Good work from your 12″???

    Usually, a player’s number is only used in place of their name when it refers to their position, which historically was associated with a number (i.e. a #10 is an attacking midfielder).

    These kind of stupid phrases make my ears bleed.

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  3. Nope, it went to homers who rigged the vote, namely Sounders acolytes.

    Brian McBride’s back heel goal is losing to another Sounder. How low can they be? That was the man’s last game and they still are being dirty homers. Give the best USMNT forward in a generation a prize on his way out!

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  4. +1
    And yes, he’s a field player forced to play one of the more difficult positions on the field. And I like the fact that he saved that against PHI DP Le Toux and parried it off to the side rather than giving a rebound in front of goal

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  5. No, but “save of the week” doesn’t necessarily mean “most difficult save” or “best-looking save”; it means what it says. If a goalie ran up in the dying minutes of a game and scored a decent goal, I think he would deserve goal of the week as well. For a field-player to save a shot against a professional field-player is spectacular no matter how it looks. We see great saves from great keepers all the time, and we expect that – because they’re paid a lot of money to make great saves. What Gavin did is something we don’t see everyday on Fox Soccer Channel…

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  6. givin it to him cuz he’s not a natural GK???? kind of undermines the idea of Save of the week. It wasnt particularly a quality save.

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  7. This is a joke. So Eddie Gaven falls down and the ball bounces off him and goes out of bounds.

    Save of the week??? Really? I’m sure actual goalkeepers love that. Saves they can make with their eyes closed winning save of the week awards just because it’s a field player.

    Item number 2389028394829-9230-932-04 on my reasons to whine like a little girl about MLS list.

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  8. Very cool! I was at the game. The whole stadium stood up and went nuts every time he touched the ball in goal. It was awesome. He only touched the ball about five times and this was the only one that really counted as a save. He nearly had his head taken off on Le Toux’s goal. After the final whistle, he then reenacted his attempt at saving the goal.

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  9. Part of me thinks this is pretty funny considering Eddie Gaven is a field player, but part of me also feels it is extremely lame that Eddie Gaven won this because he did a sideways Luis Suarez.

    Dario Sala and Jon Busch were more deserving.

    Reply

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