Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com
The 2012 MLS season likely holds a number of twists, turns and surprises, but as we try and project what will happen about nine months from now, we've come to a consensus on one thing: The MLS Cup winner will be emerging from the Western Conference again.
Out of eight SBI writers, five have picked the Los Angeles Galaxy to repeat as champions, while others have pegged Real Salt Lake, the Seattle Sounders and FC Dallas as the eventual cup holders, which would keep the Anschutz Trophy in the West for the fourth straight year. All but one have the Galaxy maintaining the Supporters' Shield for the third straight season.
As for other preseason prognostications, opinions are a bit more divided. The races for league MVP and Golden Boot yield a number of viable candidates on the eve of the season opener, while the influx of international talent should make for a heated competition for Newcomer of the Year.
Let us know your picks for the upcoming season in the comments section below, but here are SBI's staff predictions for the 2012 MLS season:
SBI'S 2012 MLS SEASON PREDICTIONS
MLS CUP
Ives Galarcep – Los Angeles Galaxy
Avi Creditor – Galaxy
Adam Serrano – Galaxy
Franco Panizo – FC Dallas
Thomas Floyd – Galaxy
Joey Samuel – Seattle Sounders
Caleb Sonneland – Real Salt Lake
David Gubala – Galaxy
SUPPORTER'S SHIELD
Galarcep – Galaxy
Creditor – Galaxy
Serrano – Galaxy
Panizo – Galaxy
Floyd – RSL
Samuel – Galaxy
Sonneland – Galaxy
Gubala – Galaxy
LEAGUE MVP
Galarcep – Fredy Montero, Seattle Sounders
Creditor – Mauro Rosales, Seattle Sounders
Serrano – Landon Donovan, Los Angeles Galaxy
Panizo – Brek Shea, FC Dallas
Floyd – Donovan
Samuel – Montero
Sonneland – Graham Zusi, Sporting Kansas City
Gubala – Shea
GOLDEN BOOT
Galarcep – Montero
Creditor – Danny Koevermans, Toronto FC
Serrano – Chris Wondolowski, San Jose Earthquakes
Panizo – Edson Buddle, Los Angeles Galaxy
Floyd – Buddle
Samuel – Koevermans
Sonneland – Montero
Gubala – Dominic Oduro, Chicago Fire
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Galarcep – Luis Silva, Toronto FC
Creditor – Silva
Serrano – Silva
Panizo – Silva
Floyd – Andrew Wenger, Montreal Impact
Samuel – Kelyn Rowe, New England Revolution
Sonneland – Rowe
Gubala – Rowe
DEFENDER OF THE YEAR
Galarcep – Geoff Cameron, Houston Dynamo
Creditor – Cameron
Serrano – Cameron
Panizo – Cameron
Floyd – Cameron
Samuel – Carlos Valdes, Philadelphia Union
Sonneland – Cameron
Gubala – Cameron
GOALKEEPER OF THE YEAR
Galarcep – Nick Rimando, Real Salt Lake
Creditor – Rimando
Serrano – Rimando
Panizo – Rimando
Floyd – Rimando
Samuel – Rimando
Sonneland – Sean Johnson, Chicago Fire
Gubala – Josh Saunders, Los Angeles Galaxy
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Galarcep – Hamdi Salihi, D.C. United
Creditor – Kris Boyd, Portland Timbers
Serrano – Blas Perez, FC Dallas
Panizo – Boyd
Floyd – Salihi
Samuel – Boyd
Sonneland – Boyd
Gubala – Boyd
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER
Galarcep – Kofi Sarkodie, Houston Dynamo
Creditor – Dilly Duka, Columbus Crew
Serrano – Michael Lahoud, Chivas USA
Panizo – Duka
Floyd – Ike Opara, San Jose Earthquakes
Samuel – Danny Mwanga, Philadelphia Union
Sonneland – Will Bruin, Houston Dynamo
Gubala – Luis Gil, Real Salt Lake
COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Galarcep – Opara
Creditor – David Ferreira, FC Dallas
Serrano – Steve Zakuani, Seattle Sounders
Panizo – Opara
Floyd – Zakuani
Samuel – Ferreira
Sonneland – Ferreira
Gubala – Zakuani
Belch
Yawn…
No Meara for rookie of the year? has a chance to play an important role for a playoff contender
Eddie Johnson and morales should atleast been mentioned for comeback player.
Also how is galaxy suppose to win the supporters shield without a strong central defense? Boyens is terrible. Seattle and RSL are the most balanced team in MLS.
a good year from mwanga would be a big improvement though and i guess it shows how high these players’ ceilings really are.
Good call Ives on Sarkodie as the most improved player, but you will be wrong as it will be another Akron alum by the name of Michael Nanchoff.
that is what i was going to ask
gambler’s fallacy.
Keane will have Euros, Buddle will be there for all games with a couple exceptions like if he gets called to US qualifying. Keane will have the highest goals to games played ratio though.
🙂
+7 lol SSFC!
More likely Marquez once again complains that the players around him aren’t good enough and decides to stop playing (again). Henry goes on to commit more detestable (tacky) fouls and is finally suspended by the league. NYRB implode again and the coach is finally fired @ mid-season. Agudelo begins getting real minutes under the new coach and wins the Golden Boot…but NYRB’s get knocked out during the 1st round of the playoffs.
I wasn’t implying that they are “wrong” just noting a lot of commonalities.
😐
Not even one word on Matteo Ferrari ???
He will be Defender of the year…
Becks is out for most of the season after he is cut down and badly injured by Houston’s Cameron in a rematch of last year’s final. Mike Magee punches Cameron in the nose after Becks goes down and he is suspended for 3 months! Donovan loses more hair and is missing in action because Becks can no longer feed him the ball. Juan Pablo Angel scores 4 hat-tricks for Chivas. Freddie Montero is thrown in jail for hitting up on more jail bait!! Ryan Meara has 11 clean sheets and leads the Red Bulls to the MLS Cup final vs LA. In that game Juniho throws a ball at Marquez and is red carded. Titi scores the first goal and only goal. Red Bulls win MLS Cup 2012!
Do you guys all drink from the same faucet or something? There is hardly any variability in your responses.
I’m happy so many of you guys picked LA to repeat with the Shield or the MLS Cup, because that almost certainly implies that it’s not going to happen!!
New York and Vancouver are hardly “meh” teams… I’d bet money they both finish with far better records than your “teams to watch” New England and Montrealol.
Most improved team…..SJ Earthquakes!
LOL Honestly, I’m pretty sure everyone was pondering the possibility of Eddie Johnson.
Sounders get no respect ` i disdain the fans + team on principle…but as an impartial observer, I felt that nobody in the league was as good as their first XI [ even without zakuani]. Problem was rosales went down too and the crippled sounders were quite a bit worse than LA.
With everyone healthy i find it intriguing that nobody thinks they’ll claim hardware this year
No love for Omar Jamrock Cummings?
Why not?!
sure bets: LA, SKC, Seattle, RSL
good bets: Houston, Columbus
teams to watch this year: Toronto, Portland, New England, Montreal
teams to disappoint unexpectedly: Philly, Dallas
“meh” teams: New York, Chicago, DC, SJ, Chivas, Vancouver
Surprised no one picked Keane, or Henry for that matter to top score.
Those that picked Buddle – really? More goals than Keane?
Feels like this was written before sounders-santos… Homer-dom aside, we looked incredible for a first game against a team that’s better on paper than la.
It’s gonna be great when the Dynamo lift the MLS Cup in their new stadium. I’ll take unheralded any day of the week.
MLS Cup Champions: Seattle Sounders
Supporters Shield: LA Galaxy
League MVP: Alvaro Fernandez (this will be the season when he lives up to the hype)
Johnson looked good in the few minutes he got on Wednsday
both Joseph and Fielhaber are top midfielders but besides that NE’s midfield does not stack up to most teams, no way they should be “one of the best”.
Adam Cristman for MVP. You heard it here first.
Yeah, we, as fans, should collectively agree that the SS is pretty meaningless this year. That makes me sad inside.
That’s hilarious. Ochoa is out of shape and doesn’t have nearly the skill set, both technically and athletically, as Eddie Johnson. Not to mention the experience; over 40 caps with the national team and a dozen goals. Johnson failed in Europe, which is much more impressive than failing in Mexico, as in Ochoa’s case. On top of that, Ochoa demonstrated his willingness to work by showing up to camp in poor enough shape to have Sigi call him out to the media. In fact, Ochoa’s fitness was cited as a primary reason for Seattle’s willingness to trade solid talent for Johnson.
15-20 goals across all competitions is not at all utterly ridiculous. Saying Ochoa should start ahead of Johnson, however, is.
That’s utterly ridiculous. Maybe he scores that many for the Tacoma Stars. Personally I don’t see why he should even start ahead of Ochoa.
Duka, Opara, Gil, Mwanga… aren’t those guys good already?
My prediction: Another awesome season for MLS fans
Ryan Meara for Rookie and GK of the year.
New England actually looks like they will improve this year. Definitely won’t win the SS, but that midfield is one of the best in MLS..
What makes you think Eddie can score that many goals? I think he only scored 15 once when he was with KC in 2007. I can see 5-10 but not sure he gets near the golden boot race.
What would you have them do, pick New England for the SS, DC for MLS Cup, and Juan Agudelo for MVP?
And I wouldn’t feel too nervous if SKC did have to play LA twice. While LA crushed them during that horrendous 10-match start, the match in KC was much closer.
But yeah, agree that SKC will benefit from imbalanced schedule perhaps enough to grab the Shield. In fact, unless NYRB plays like they do in Fifa 12, it’s tough to think of a real challenger to SKC as long as they play in the same form we saw in that final five months of last season.
What could derail SKC: Zusi doesn’t continue his creative awakening, an injury to Besler or Collin, or the evaporation of Convey’s crossing ability.
NYRB with the cup, supporters shield, and USOC… (say it every year) heres to hopes
I was about to say the same thig about Ferreira in Dallas. It may come down to who’s team has the better year.
deff agree as duka being the most improved player- he is playing at a diff level now. But not to sure i agree with oduro being the highest scorer, i think teams are gonna figure him out this season and how to deal better with his pace.
I think he wins it going away.. I see 15-20 goals from Eddie this season…
Pretty safe picks from the SBI crew.
It really is, can the power teams of the West overcome a tougher schedule enough to beat out the extreme parity in the East.
They should have predicted the leaders in the West and the East. I would guess there would be a huge amount of teams picked in the East.
Good point. I like anything that gives me hope LA won’t be able to repeat for a 3rd year.
I was just about to post that. Although if Zakuani comes back, he has to get it.
With the imbalanced schedule, methinks a team from the east will win the supporter’s shield… Sporting KC, maybe? It will be a huge advantage for them only playing LA, Seattle, et al only once this year.
No one willing to take a chance on Eddie Johnson as comeback player of the year?