By Ridge Mahoney Voting for the major MLS postseason awards appears to be wide-open, and Coach of the Year is no exception.
Will it go
to an incumbent with a proven track record (
Sigi Schmid,
Jason Kreis,
Bruce
Arena,
Peter Vermes,
Dominic Kinnear) who has overcome obstacles to record yet another strong season? Is a
second-year man who has raised his game and that of his team (
Oscar Pareja,
Jay Heaps) the most deserving choice? Or has
a newcomer in his first MLS season (
Marco Schallibaum,
Caleb Porter,
Mike Petke)
sufficiently impressed the voters?
Each category is a tough choice, never mind selecting the ultimate winner. Since the voting process concludes well before the playoffs -– in which
mediocre regular seasons can be redeemed and excellent campaigns are sometimes scuttled – finish, the picks can take on a lame-duck feel, especially since one ill-advised coaching move can spoil
the entire season.
Results, of course, are one of most important criteria but a cluster of teams bunched tightly together in the standings won’t indicate a clear choice. Any maybe
that’s a good thing.
Last year, former Quakes’ coach
Frank Yallop took the honor for steering San Jose (19-6-9, 66 points) to the
Supporters’ Shield while scoring 72 goals, the third-highest total in league history. Yet Sporting Kansas City finished with just three fewer points (18-7-9) and posted the fourth-best goals
allowed record all-time (0.79 goals per game). SKC’s point total was five points more than No. 3 D.C. United. And neither San Jose nor SKC reached MLS Cup, in which the Galaxy beat Houston for
the second straight year.
So regardless of how the final few weeks shake out, there’s plenty to chew on regarding the other criteria. Assembling and developing a team, overcoming
injuries and player departures, making midseason improvements, game strategy and man-management are all vital elements. Nicking talent off other MLS rosters and utilizing it effectively is a common
thread of the most successful teams, and there have been many cases of such moves this season.
Of the incumbents, probably the nod goes to Kreis and Vermes. Their teams are vying for the
conference title as well as the Supporters’ Shield and in the case of RSL, its head coach has masterfully engineered a major makeover.
Jamison Olave,
Fabian Espindola and
Will Johnson departed in salary-driven moves, and Kreis has filled the void with a wave of young
players while retaining the team’s identity of tough defense and skillful possession.
Vermes’ roster has been relatively stable, yet he’s managed shrewdly the
international commitments of
Matt Besler and
Graham Zusi and also compensated for
Kei
Kamara’s going on loan at the start of the season, returning briefly, and then heading back to England on a permanent transfer. He’s wisely used defender
Ike Opara, acquired in a trade last year with San Jose, and used a loan arrangement to groom
C.J. Sapong, who could be a valuable cog down the
stretch.
Seattle’s season may hinge on Schmid’s management of
Obafemi Martins, who sat glowering on the bench after being substituted
last weekend, and
Clint Dempsey’s ouchy hamstring. The Galaxy has overcome the loss of
Mike Magee and the
international commitments of
Landon Donovan and
Robbie Keane through Arena’s handling of
Gyasi Zardes,
Jack McBean,
Jose Villarreal and other young players. Arena also moved decisively to replace
keeper
Carlo Cudicini with
Jaime Penedo.
The second-year contingent is led by Pareja. A wave of injuries
early in the season forced him to field lineups short on veterans, and as those veterans have healed, they’ve found
Chris Klute,
Shane O’Neill,
Dillon Powers,
Deshorn Brown and goalie
Clint
Irwin hard to dislodge from the game-day roster.
Midseason acquisitions
Vicente Sanchez and
Gabriel
Torres have further strengthened a pretty good team. Ecuadorian defender
Diego Calderon was projected in preseason as a starter; a long-term knee injury
and the death of childhood friend
Christian Benitez have limited him to four games, and yet O’Neill’s emergence has softened Calderon’s
absence.
Heaps has done an amazing job incorporating very young players into his philosophies.
Diego Fagundez, 18, leads the team with 11 goals and
is the youngest of a group that counts
Juan Agudelo (20) and
Kelyn Rowe and
Andrew
Farrell (both 21) among its key members. His work may bear its ripest fruit in 2014 and beyond.
Both Montreal and Portland have slipped from the top spots of the Eastern and
Western Conferences, respectively, and so votes may slip away from, respectively, Schallibaum and Porter. Yet both have done commendable work.
Schallibaum’s sporadic run-ins with
referees draw attention away from squeezing 18 goals out of 36-year-old
Marco Di Vaio and managing the personalities of a half-dozen European veterans while
also enhancing the contributions of
Justin Mapp. Porter’s acquisition of playmaker
Diego Valeri and melding his
talents with those of
Will Johnson,
Darlington Nagbe,
Rodney Wallace,
Ryan Johnson and
Diego Chara is a classic example of re-building a promising team that had gone sour under predecessor
John Spencer.
The Red Bulls have apparently hit the jackpot with Petke, a rugged defender in his playing days and one of the few throwbacks to the
team’s MetroStars existence that fans remember fondly. His swift benching of
Thierry Henry is just the most publicized of many crucial decisions that have
steered New York to its status among the league’s elite.
With a month to go, here’s how the contenders stack up:
1. Pareja.
2. Petke.
3. Porter.
4. Kreis.
5. Vermes.
Give it to Mikey!!! I think Petke has been outstanding!
Ok, I'm a homer and Sounder till I die, but if Seattle takes the Shield, then Sigi deserves it. Between injuries and call ups, The Sounders have fielded something like 32 different lineups in 33 matches. Sigi has developed, motivated and utilized our depth masterfully. It is no accident that with Oba and Dempsey and Johnson and Ianni and Zakuani and Alonzo and Evans and Joseph and Gspurning missing several matches, we have competed with courage and lead the league. It is just like Mahoney to miss the obvious, placing Sigi off his list while making a nonsensical statement that his chances hinge on the performance of players we have succeeded without. Another red card to Mahoney!
Robert Norman, I'm a Sounders fan also. So...WE are biased. Nevertheless, I agree with your statement.