Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
In addition to a record year that saw U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann and goalkeeper Tim Howard win the Hexagonal with a record amount of points, both of them took home year-end awards from CONCACAF.
In the first-ever CONCACAF awards, Klinsmann was named Coach of the Year, Howard was awarded Goalkeeper of the Year, and U.S. Women’s National Team forward Alex Morgan earned Female Player of the Year, ahead of teammate Abby Wambach. USMNT forward Landon Donovan finished second in the Male Player of the Year award voting behind Mexico’s Oribe Peralta, while Clint Dempsey finished third.
The only other American to finish in the top three for an award was USMNT forward Jozy Altidore, who finished third in Goal of the Year honors for his goal against Honduras on June 18.
Here’s a look at the winners of the inaugural CONCACAF awards:
CONCACAF AWARD WINNERS
Male Player of the Year
Winner: Oribe Peralta – Santos Laguna/Mexico
Second Place: Landon Donovan – LA Galaxy/USA
Third Place: Clint Dempsey – Seattle Sounders/USA
Female Player of the Year
Winner: Alex Morgan – Portland Thorns/USA
Second Place: Abby Wambach – Western NY Flash/USA
Third Place: Shirley Cruz – PSG/Costa Rica
Goalkeeper of the Year
Winner: Tim Howard – Everton/USA
Second Place: Raul Gudiño – Mexico U-17
Third Place: Keylor Navas – Levante/Spain
Coach of the Year
Winner: Jurgen Klinsmann – USA
Second Place: Miguel Herrera – Club America/Mexico
Third Place: Luis Fernando Suarez – Honduras
Referee of the Year
Winner: Marco Antonio Rodriguez – Mexico
Second Place: Roberto Garcia – Mexico
Third Place: Courtney Campbell – Jamaica
Goal of the Year
Winner: Raul Jimenez – Mexico vs. Panama, Oct. 11, 2013
Second Place: Juan Carlos Garcia – Honduras vs. USA, Feb. 6, 2013
Third Place: Jozy Altidore – USA vs. Honduras, June 18, 2013
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What do you think of these awards? Glad to see Howard, Klinsmann, and Morgan honored?
Share your thoughts below.
Haha, can’t believe how many homers voted for Jozy’s goal. Come on guys, let’s be real: that was either the worst or second worst goal nominated. But on the other hand, as far as homer voting goes, we need to coordinate our votes better – we obviously split the vote on MPOY (I’m pretty sure I voted for Jozy).
Dempsey finished third? Stopped reading the awards right there. 30th maybe, but 3rd?
about time we get our very own regional wards
Many of these awards make no logical sense.
Such hijinks involved in anything concacaf or fifa is connected to.
Concacaf/FIFA = quid pro quo.
Some Concacaf/FIFA official’s brother-in-law has an awards manufacturing company and they just want to keep the gravy train on the tracks (or pick your own egregiously crooked scenario).
Clint Dempsey 3rd place? Are you kidding? I love Deuce but that’s ridiculous
I assume that half of the folks who an cast votes are Mexcan? No other excuse for these results. Mexico had a terrible year and deserved four Bronx Cheers for their performances as a nation and as individuals.
People from the media and national team coaches and captains voted as well similar to the Ballon D’or, if Peralta won it had to be with the support of other CONCACAF federations.
While Donovan had an amazing Gold Cup, he wasn’t even in most US qualifiers and he had a relatively quiet MLS campaign and no great shakes in CCL. He wasn’t even in the running for MLS MVP. Peralta was massive in Liga MX and also had 5 goals for Mexico. For what it’s worth, he scored 5 more goals than Donovan this year. He doesn’t great goals for others at the same rate as LD, and that’s something to consider. However, his Liga MX goal totals have to impress more than Donovan’s MLS goals because of the relative quality of the two leagues. Getting it done in Mexico is still bigger than getting it done here.
***Doesn’t create.
Durn autocorrect.
I for one, welcome Spain to the ConCaCaf.
I am also disappointed that Hernandez, who had the only undefeated record in Concacaf qualifying not get the coach of the year. Could be the fact he only coached two games against a team whose FIFA ranking were below all the other ConCaCaf Hexagonal teams.
But I an Happy Clint Dempsey finished third in Best Cocacaf Make Player but won the award for Largest Transfer Fee in ConCaCaf this year. Good going Clint~~.
OOPS, my bad! CD’s (9m) finished only second to Jozy Altidores (10M) this year, Too bad clint.
Who is Hernandez?
Didn’t FC Porto pay 9 mill for Hector Herrera?
And I think Jozy’s transfer fee was closer to 13 mill? Or is that with added incentives? I don’t quite remember.
CONCACAF awards I assume club CONCACAF region plays into the awards – especially if the Federation wants their Champions League to mean anything. The fact that Peralta played for Laguna factors in. Ruiz at Fulham means nothing to these awards.
Then wouldn’t Tim Howard at Everton also mean nothing
They are going to have to adjust this voting so its not just US and Mexico in the future. The goals Peralta scored against New Zealand shouldn’t even factor into this. Some one like Bryan Ruiz certainly has to be more deserving then Peralta.
I would imagine the voting was done before Mexico finally qualified for the WC. Peralta was the logical, heavy favorite long before that. He was utterly dominant in Liga MX — best striker in CONCACAF.