Top Stories

Wondolowski named 2012 MLS MVP

Chris Wondolowski’s dream 2012 season didn’t end with an MLS Cup title, but it did end with an honor that seemed destined to be his throughout his record-setting campaign.

The San Jose Earthquakes striker was named MLS Most Valuable Player on Thursday, winning in a landslide. He finished with approximately 86 percent of the combined voting for the award, with Thierry finishing a distant second with about 4.8 percent. Graham Zusi (about 2.2 percent) and Brad Davis (1.17 percent) rounded out the Top Four.

Wondolowski finished the season with an MLS-record 27 goals, tying the league record set by Roy Lassiter in 1996.

The MVP award, Wondolowski’s first, makes him just the sixth American to win MLS MVP. He joins a group that includes Landon Donovan, Taylor Twellman, Preki, Tony Meola and Jason Kreis.

What do you think of Wondolowski being named MVP? Easiest pick in recent memory? Who would you put second on your MVP ballot?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. “This is a special moment for us,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said. Jeeze, commish…I bet your fun at othe peoples birthday parties.

    Reply
  2. This was so obvious–of course he’s the MVP. Not only did he score a lot of goals, but he became a much better passer as well. Well deserved.

    Now on to his USMNT career. I will forever believe that Wondo is an acquired taste, best understood with a large sample of games. Go back and look at his USMNT performances. He put some very nice shots on frame, and only great goalkeeping has kept him out off the score sheet. If given a long look nd time to gel by the Nats, he would score goals. Put it another way, if we deemed everyone whose had a scoring drought for the Nats as “not international quality” we’d never see Jozy and quite a few others again.

    Personally, I think should probably be 4th in the striker pecking order–behind Dempsey, EJ, and Gomez. Jozy has ONE goal in his last 14 appearances for the Nats. A great club player right now, but with the Nats, it just doesn’t work.

    Reply
  3. Well deserved although he didn’t do well in the playoffs. BTW don’t worry about Europe the Galaxy have a DP spot available, now what did I do with Tim’s phone number…

    Reply
    • Ohhhh…now that is a juicy proposition. With his ability to hold the ball and feed it to Keano, along with his darting runs that Keano is always trying to feed Buddle. If only Wondo weren’t under contract that I’m sure is close to ironclad.

      Love the daydream though…thanks!

      Reply
  4. Wondo go to Europe. SJ will not give u a million dollars a year but if u move to England or Germany u will. Heck if u move to Holland you can make around 700k

    Reply
    • Wondo is loayal and is playing in his local area that he grew up in a loves it. He’s not greedy, unlike yourself. Wondo will be in SJ next year scoring like a mad man like he always has.

      Reply
      • Why is it greedy for Wondo to seek market value for his services? Soccer is a short-lived career, he should get paid while he can.

        If the players don’t get the money, then the owners get all the profit. I haven’t found (nor looked for) the website “Soccer Club Owners by Ives”. Have you? The talent deserves to be paid, even if it’s a lot more than us humble fans make. It doesn’t make them greedy.

    • good for the MLS, but not good enough for USMNT. In a deep FW pool, controlled by Herc, Dempsey, Altidore and Boyd. Sixth striker probably.

      Reply
    • Short of moving to one of the top few dutch teams Wondo is way above these levels. I could see him doing well at a lower/mid table team in most of the bigger leagues. France or Germany might be good fits.

      San Jose seems to be a heck of a fit also though.

      Reply
      • I think Wondo is a classic over-achiever, which is why he was king of the reserves but a Dynamo washout, then a SJ star but USMNT flop. So if he gets a European jones I think there is substantial risk in having eyes bigger than his stomach. I think he should stay right here, but I agree with the first poster that if he had to go, don’t overreach, someplace like Holland or one of the Scandinavian leagues. Holland in particular might be an interesting choice because Jozy and Bradley and other Americans have lit up the scoreboard there and my general sense is they play fast break Denver Nuggets soccer and who cares about defense. But if he went to France or England he’d disappear and in Germany he’d be like an energy sub in the B.2 or something. When he’s right on the edge of the 23 it’s not worth the risk.

        FWIW, he just signed a SJ deal so why would he leave? But then similar things could have been said about Becks and Cameron. Except would you pay a fee for Wondo?

  5. Surprising that this is an award Brian McBride never won.

    It is also interesting that 3 of the 6 Americans who have won this award failed to make much of an impact on the USMNT.

    Reply
    • McBride played for the Crew, who didn’t win a title until 2008. In 1996, when he was there and in his best year, Lassiter had like 27 goals and DC won the title. Tampa Bay was the SJ of that year, winning the 1 seed behind Valderrama before imploding against DC. Columbus that year was like a Eredivisie team that played fun games to watch ending in scores like 6-4. But they were sob .500 and out of the playoffs the first round after earning the 8th and final playoff spot. McBride was only 5th on the chart that year with 17 goals. McBride had a variety of injuries plus USNT commitments where he never really had doors-blown-off seasons, and the Crew and later the Fire were just OK when he was there. I think McBride was generally acknowledged as the top US forward post-Wynalda but that’s not because he put up Dempsey or Wondo league numbers, more because he would score for the Nats and played classy.

      Reply
      • Basically, he went straight from college (St. Louis) to the A-league (pre-MLS) and USMNT (at that time it could happen), and then went to B.2 Germany after USA ’94. Came back for MLS’ start in ’96 and was on a Columbus team that at different times had Friedel and Cunningham. He then had offseason loans to Preston and Everton, before eventually being one of the first MLS fee transfers to Fulham.

        One thing to me is that he and Wynalda and Moore and others were doing the same offseason loans that are supposedly so novel today. I think the difference is back then it was a longer offseason and it was almost like hiring yourself out twice, like some minor leaguers also play indoor.

    • Maybe we need to work out with CONCACAF and FIFA a 19th Lassiter/ Twellman USMNT bench spot established so that we can callup the leading league goal scorers so people won’t complain, while actually not playing them because they don’t score for us. I think those three guys who dominated MLS scoring charts have a grand total of 10 US goals among them, none from Wondo, and 3 from a single camp cupcake Norway friendly that Twellman ran amok in (in Lassiter’s defense, 3 of his 4 were in 98 qualifying….).

      Reply
      • Yeah, because it was wondo constantly walking and not keeping possession that people should criticize…Hes so cold at AZ right now…wait thats anoter guy. Did you notice the goal scorers in the last game? 2 mids that crushed the ball past the keeper when the ball just happened to be at their feet…we need to get our forwards proper service consistaltly before you can make a judgement on his performance(s) as our forwards as a whole have “underperformed.”

Leave a Comment