BASAs Wrap

The BASAs are long over now, but I have yet to explain my final vote. It was for Player of the Year.

Here is the way the rankings came out:

1- Dwayne DeRosario
2- Taylor Twellman
3- Shalrie Joseph
4- Jaime Moreno
5- Pat Onstad
6- Christian Gomez

7- Landon Donovan
8- Ronnie O'Brien
9- Hercules Gomez
10- Danny Califf
10- Amado Guevara
10- Youri Djorkaeff

This list is long, however, the only people that really made much noise in this vote were the top 6. The others all received 3 or fewer votes (you could vote for five people with this award).

Here is my vote:

1- Dwayne DeRosario (San Jose)
2- Taylor Twellman (NE)
3- Pat Onstad (San Jose)
4- Herculez Gomez (LA)
5- Christian Gomez (DC)

DeRosario was the easy choice as he really helped carry San Jose over the season. Twellman was also easy since he was such a power on offense this year. Onstad ended up high on the list for me because he stopped so much offense this year. Then there are the Gomez brothers (note, not really brothers). Herculez just clicked this year. Donovan is the star of LA, but without someone like Herculez, the defense would be able to spend more time on Landon without getting punished for it. Also, the way he preformed in the US Open (I know this is a MLS award and I should not even talk about the US Cup, but bygones) was just stellar. For Christian, I thought he was wonderful in the midfield for United. He might not have been the best midfielder by play, but he did take charge of the middle for DC.

So now you have my full ballot and the reasons why, but what all did I learn about myself and the MLS blogosphere with these awards? Well I learned that I have this ability to completely over look some people and feel really dumb about it later (I didn't vote for Shalrie Joseph, Danny Califf or Santino Quaranta anywhere). I also have this little hang up on Freddy Adu. Maybe all the marketing has got to me, but I do think he has a great deal of talent and is a great player in the making.

Then there is the thing I learned about Landon Donovan. He is a great player and one of the best in MLS, but I still placed two other forwards ahead of him and did not give him a Player of the Year vote. The interesting thing is it seems I am not alone with this. We all know he is good, but yet we didn't really give him much praise in the voting (even through he made 7 of 12 Best XI lists). I respect his talent and like watching him play, but I think I have come to expect really amazing things from him, so even when he does amazing things, I don't go crazy over it. But as scaryice pointed out on Sunday, he is the difference for LA. Perhaps I need to start giving him the cheers that he has earned.

All and all, I really enjoyed the whole Blogosphere American Soccer Awards. It was fun voting and explaining my thoughts. I also loved reading why other folks voted the way they did. Thank you very much to scaryice for taking the lead and making this happen. Yet another reason that Climbing the Ladder is one of the best blogs (soccer or other) around.