Major League Soccer announced the finalists for its 2008 awards on Thursday. Columbus Crew star Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Chicago goalkeeper Jon Busch and San Jose midfielder Darren Huckerby were among the players up for regular season honors.
As expected, Schelotto and Donovan were among the finalists for leage MVP honors, with Cuauhtemoc Blanco being the third nominee. Blanco is the lone repeat finalist for the award.
Here is the complete list of award nominees:
2008 MLS Award Finalists
League MVP– Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Landon Donovan, Cuauhtemoc Blanco
Defender of the Year– Bakary Soumare, Chad Marshall, Jimmy Conrad
Goalkeeper of the Year– Jon Busch, Matt Reis, Will Hesmer
Rookie of the Year– Sean Franklin, Geoff Cameron, Kheli Dube
Newcomer of the Year– Darren Huckerby, Claudio Lopez, Andre Rocha
Comeback Player of the Year– Jon Busch, Santino Quaranta, Kenny Cooper
What do you think of the list of nominees? Surprised by any of the selections? Do you see any glaring omissions?
Share your thoughts on the nominations below.
it would be the biggest joke ever if quaranta didnt win comeback player of the year. the guy was spending tens of thousands of dollars on drugs and painkillers, and he almost jumped off a building top when he felt he couldnt take it anymore. the fact he is mainly a starter for dc united is a miracle. that truly is an amazing comeback.
Who really votes on this? Coaches, execs, fans, the press?
Who makes the selection?
How about Jamison Olave for newcomer of the year? No body can convince me that Claudio Lopez had a good year. He has looked like Donovan in the 2006 WC, invisible. It disappoints me that MLS seems to go for big names rather than actual production when they hand out these nominations.
2nd the Morales for Blanco comment.
Boswell also came to mind for Defender of the Year more than Conrad.
He also deserves consideration for Comeback Player of the Year, but those are 3 pretty good stories he’d have to bump aside.
Once again Morales is snubbed. Blanco is very talented but he is lazy and took a couple of months off this summer. I hope this adds extra motivation for Morales to have a huge postseason.