It is a debate that is sure to heat up in the days leading up the announcment of the final MLS end-of-season awards.
Who is the MLS MVP?
There are candidates scattered throughout MLS, with some candidates having stronger cases than others. In the case of some teams, like Los Angeles and Seattle, you have multiple candidates.
SBI will announce its staff-selected choice for MLS MVP next week, but for now, we want to hear from SBI readers on who they think is the right pick to be the 2011 MLS MVP.
We are presenting SBI readers with a 10-player ballot. In the interest of avoiding the splitting up of votes, we only have one player per team, which left out some good candidates, but this is the most fair way to present the ballot.
Now, without any further ado, cast your MLS MVP vote after the jump:
Who did you vote for? Who is missing from the ballot that you felt should have been on? Why did you feel your pick was the MVP?
Share your thoughts below.
Bill, pls don’t be a jacks**, it’s not good for your health. Ferreira was injured by a Jon Leathers of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Facts, oh yeah, those things….
A couple of points on DeRo: DC United only won 5 of 18 games with DeRo in the lineup. They also only got 1 point out of 6 games down the stretch when they really needed it and still had a playoff chance. This this poor stretch of results basically started when Pontius got hurt. DeRo scored in only 3 wins for DC and 8 of his goals came against non-playoff teams. Doesn’t say MVP to me.
There’s a lot of teams who’s players are “a pack of Lions” but are led by a “Sheep”. The difference with the Houston Dynamo is that they’re “a herd of Sheep” being led by a “Lion”. And with that they’ve won 3 Conference Playoff Championships, 2 back to back MLS Cup Championships, reached the playoffs 5 out of 6 times, reached the Conference Playoffs 4 out of 6 times and all of this within only 6 years of being in Houston. Go Dynamo!
He has single-handedly carried the Union for 2 years
While I can see your point, I’m simply of the opposite opinion. It remains to be seen how the actual voters view the issue.
That said, soccer is a team sport, so team success does count for something.
I cannot speak for his time with Red Bulls or Toronto, but DeRo was consistently a leader and difference maker for DCU this season. And speaking about padding stats in stacked wins, you are way off – DCU won 4 games by 3 goals or more – and DeRo scored in only one of these blowouts (3 goals and one assist in 4-1 win against RSL). In any event, are you really trying to argue that the player’s accomplishments should be diminished because he had several hat tricks and they account for half of his scoring? Well, Messi leads La Liga in scoring with 14 goals and 9 of these goals (or more than half) came of the hat tricks. Ronaldo has 13 goals in La Liga this season and astounding 12 of his goals came of hat tricks. Davis is underrated and is probably one of the best set piece specialists in this league, but did he really have a markedly better season than let’s say, Beckham, who had roughly similar stats (one less assist) for the LA Galaxy?
Davis carried a largely useless Houston team (no offense, lethargic defense) through the middle of the season single-handedly.
Not going to argue that DeRo isn’t awesome…after all, he used to play for my team, and I respected him for wanting to play in Toronto, closer to home, when he left.
That said, he stacked his stats in a few games and whether or not DC was on a late season roll, it was too little too late.
I’m not trying to argue the semantics of the issue here, but Most Valuable Player and Best Player really are different things. Soccer is a team sport… it’s not boxing or golf.
Okay…even so, Supporter’s Shield winners. Period.
DeRo is perhaps the best player. His goalscoring has already been recognized with the Golden Boot. Davis is the most valuable player to his team…and he is a great face for the league too, adding value there.
In the argument about Houston doing better w/o Davis in the playoffs: Davis had 2 assists in the playoffs. Versus KC, the Dynamo did better possession-wise when Davis was on field. When Davis was injured, the team was lost the rest of the half. In the 2nd half they picked up a goal off a free kick and then had more opportunities because KC started to press for an equalizer. The 2nd half worked for the Dynamo more because of the opportunity created by the timely goal than because “Davis was off the field.”
Shows you what a team game soccer is.
I am thinking who on LA should be the guy and I can’t come up with one. Then I give consideration to DeRo who was on almost every non-playoff team this year.
Ah Soccer debates.. one of the few sports where you can put 4 people in a room and get 5 opinions.
I voted for Brad Davis.
If the award was called “most outstanding player” or ” player of the year” does that change how you evaluate who is deserving? I think the semantic distinction between “best” and “most valuable” is given too much weight in these situations. I think the award should go to the best player.
David Beckham was the most important player on the best team. Easy pick for me.
CAPS LOCK! As far as I know, only baseball (the only other sport I follow closely) votes for MVPs before the postseason begins, so playoffs aren’t considered by voters. As for other sports, it would be naive in the extreme to think that playoff performance doesn’t factor into voters’ decisions, whether they’re supposed to or not.
Generally this might be a decent argument. The problem is DeRo was not with DC long enough to do that. Had he been there all season they likely would have made the playoffs. So, you have to take the circumstances into consideration if you want to look at it from the “did the team make the playoffs” perspective. Meanwhile, he was able to be productive over the course of the season while making major adjustments to 2 different teams from the one he started out with. Obviously, DC was much better with DeRo.
With Brad Davis getting hurt in the line of duty, he was still instrumental in their win over Kansas City. His departure helped lift the team to a more intense level thus winning the Eastern Conference Title. Brad Davis is MVP whether on or off the field, amazing! Go Brad Davis for MVP, Go Dynamo!
Le Toux? Which writer was stoned out of their mind when they came up with that one?
Pasting from above…
So basically you’re saying MVP (P for PLAYER) should be given out based on the overall quality of a team? DCU had a terrible defense, look at how many goals they allowed. DeRosario shouldn’t win MVP because the rest of the team sucked? You think if Brad Davis was on DC, they would have made the playoffs?
“If the Galaxy win the MLS Cup…”
Quoting myself:
The MVP award, like MVP awards in every US team sport, is for the REGULAR SEASON not the playoffs.
That’s what drops him from 1-2 to 4. Problem is a lot of the other candidates are on the same team as each other (Beckham/Gonzalez, Rosales/Alonso, etc.), so if the team has multiple Most Valuable Player candidates, none of them can be all that valuable. Shea was the whole Dallas team, when he faded late, his team faded.
So basically you’re saying MVP (P for PLAYER) should be given out based on the overall quality of a team? DCU had a terrible defense, look at how many goals they allowed. DeRosario shouldn’t win MVP because the rest of the team sucked? You think if Brad Davis was on DC, they would have made the playoffs?
If the Galaxy win the MLS Cup then there is absolutely no way you can disagree with Beckham being the MVP. It’s great to do so well in the regular season but to also lead you team to a Supporter’s Shield and a MLS Cup, AND win your CCL group. COME ON
Davis and DeRo were fantastic but Beckham has been on another level
Davis is great, but nobody in the world provides better service than Beckham. He turns guys like Magee and Barrett into goalscorers.
Juninho is an important player that has come up with huge goals, but the defensive pressure of Becks is highly underrated.
Brad Davis is the calming influence Klinsmann needs in midfield. He has been ignored for too long. Hopefully he isn’t out of the Cup.
Beckham
Le Toux was still a one-man team in Philly. Nowak need to do something to help him out.
How do scrubs like Carroll, Miglioranzi, and Mapp start over Adu, Torres, and Mwanga???
Alonso and Zusi didnt show up at the end when it mattered
Adan F’n Moffat
JPA had a monster 2nd half, along with Wondo
This year was a little gassed…cant blame after a brilliant 2010
Maybe they finally get him a player. Oh wait… De Ro, where are you???
Mike Magee is Jesus
Imagine if Keane had a competent partner…If only they didn’t offer JPA a DP deal.