The Greatest Awards Ever!

It is that time again as Climbing the Ladder (a site you really should read every day) has brought together the greatest minds in US soccer blogging (all 15 of us) to present the 2006 Blogosphere American Soccer Awards (BASAs). Over the next two weeks and some days, the Ladder will announce a winner. That winner will become part of soccer's royalty as they will be able to add the mighty BASA to their resume.

So today's award goes to Goalkeeper of the Year. MLS's choice was announced last week and what do you know, it was verified by the BASAs.

Troy Perkins of DC United has won this year's goalkeeper award.

It was a tight race with Matt Reis (NE) coming in second, by just a few points. Joe Cannon (Colorado) came in a distant third with Kevin Hartman (LA) just one point behind him in fourth.

My ballot looked like this:
1 - Matt Reis
2 - Troy Perkins
3 - Kevin Hartman

I went back in forth with my number one pick, Reis or Perkins. Both had fantastic years, but what settled it for me was New England's poor play during the first part of the season. If it wasn't for Reis, this team would have been right next to KC in the drop zone race. Instead, Reis was able to keep his team competitive while their offense was figuring out how to score.

I feel much the same way about Hartman for LA. The only reason LA had a chance late in the season was Hartman's work earlier in the year. The Galaxy's problems this year were up front, not in the back as proved by their second best goals against numbers in the league.

Congratulations to Troy Perkins for the win. Tomorrow we will get Coach of the Year.