FCTP 2007 MLS Rookie Of The Week...Week 19...

Well folks, this is getting tougher and tougher to keep up with. Especially when there are other interesting things to blog about, read about, etc. Plus, my Rapids have put two wins up on the board in a row, against the top teams in each conference! I've got other things going on people! So, from here on in I am not not always going to write a full blog piece about the ROTW. They will just appear in the margin...like magic.

This week was a little disappointing on the rookie front. Only two rookies played complete games this week...and it was the same guy in two games. Congrats to Ty Harden. His play has been solid in the back for LA all season and he's finally won his rookie of the week award. Harden has also played in every LA Galaxy game and started everyone. No other rookie has done that. Maybe we'll have to give him a rookie iron man award or something.

He's been deserving in the past but someone always beat him to it. This time, it is his award. Congrats Ty.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 18...

I know, I know. I have fallen way behind. Trust me, catching up has been tough. I have a lot of the data together but it seems mlsnet.com doesn't always want to give me the info I need to do my evaluations. So, we're jumping ahead to Week 18 so that I don't fall further behind.

This week we saw similar numbers in terms of the percentage of rookies playing in their matches. 7% of the MLS players to take the field were rookies. 45% of those rookies started the matches while only 27% of the rookies completed their assignments in full. Let's review who played.

Complete Gamers:
Maurice Edu
Ty Harden
Robbie Findley

Starters:
Guy-Roland Kpene
Michael Harrington

Substitutes:
Wells Thompson
Adam Cristman
Corey Ashe
Bakary Soumare
Wells Thompson (2nd game)
Adam Cristman (2nd game)

This week the award comes down to two big plays. On one side of the field a rookie defender scissor kicks a ball off the goal line to preserve a 0-0 scoreline, keeping his team in the game. On the other side of the field a rookie scores a nice goal helping the worst team in the league to take the lead over and beat the best team in the league. This comes down to the age old soccer question...which is more important, defense or offense? Time to vote kids. Who do you think earned Rookie of the Week with their valor?

Personally, I'm giving the award to Findley. Yeah, I know this is his 3rd award and Ty Harden hasn't earned a single one. Yeah, goal scorers get all the glory... But folks, this is a Real Salt Lake rookie taking down the mighty Houston Dynamo. This is a RSL rookie keeping the Dynamo from cruising to a 12th straight unbeaten game. Harden just kept his poor side from losing to a similarly poor side. Actually, if you watched the LA - Toronto match and didn't focus on the fact that Beckham wasn't playing you'd have watched an entertaining match. Who says 0-0 draws can't be fun? Especially when Joe Cannon is in goal making breathtaking saves. Harden, you were close my man. Had Houston beat RSL the way they should have, ROTW would have been yours. Congrats to Findley on his 3rd award and 5th career league goal.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 12...

I am going to dedicate this Rookie of the Week award to Alexi Lalas. You'll know why soon.

Week 12...190 MLS players took the field. 7% were rookies. Of those rookies 62% started their match and 54% finished a complete game. Once again, the list of starters and complete gamers is getting somewhat predictable. If you're going to pick a rookie of the year thus far, they would be on the complete gamer list.

Complete Game:
Michael Harrington (2)
Andrew Boyens
Maurice Edu
Adam Cristman
Wells Thompson
Ty Harden

Starter:
Robbie Findley

Substitutes:
Corey Ashe (2)
Kurt Morsink
Gary Flood
Guy-Roland Kpene

When I saw the highlights of the RSL - DC match I made up my mind. I said to myself, "even if Adam Cristman scored a hat trick this week, Robbie Findley is my ROTW." Why? Read my last blog post. Findley gets traded out of La La Land where GM Lalas has gone through a hysterical period during which he has destroyed one of the better franchises in MLS. Findley comes to his new team and gets them their first win of the season by scoring two goals. Findley could have been helping LA to get out of the Western Conference basement...now he is going to do his best to keep them there. Cheers to Robbie Findley for not letting a trade to Utah get him down. If I had been traded to SLC, I might have retired. Instead, Findley goes and shows the league he isn't going to lose the Rookie of the Year award without a fight. His pace and finishing ability are now known to all. Let's see where he can go from here.

Alexi, your ship is sinking with or without HMS Beckham.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 11...

With the Gold Cup in full swing many MLS teams have lost their top senior players to international call ups. This will continue for another month as the US team is going straight from the Gold Cup into Copa America. A busy summer to be sure. I was thinking that MLS teams would turn to their rookies even more this week, however it seems for the most part that the same rookies are getting playing time and that the MLS teams turned to other bench players as much as rookies.

This week MLS saw 190 players take the field, 8% of whom were rookies. 60% of the rookies started their games and 47% played a complete game. This week we saw some nice goals from rookies in Toronto, DC and New England. So let's see who played.

Complete games:
Andrew Boyens
Maurice Edu
Ty Harden
Adam Cristman
Wells Thompson
Bakary Soumare
Michael Harrington

Starters:
Dane Richards
Nick LaBrocca

Substitutes:
Joey Melo
Gabe Gala
Robbie Findley
Jerson Monteiro
Kurt Morsink
Sinisa Ubiparipovic

Bold players saw their first MLS action of the season this week.

First off, I'm not going to do this every week but this week I am going to single out the anti-rookie of the week. For my money, it was Nick LaBrocca. No offense to Nick, but he didn't look like he should have been out there. The Rapids were missing Pablo Mastroeni and Kyle Beckerman so there was a hole to be filled, but I have a hard time believing the combination of Jovan Kirovski and Nick LaBrocca was the answer to fill in for them. Certainly Daniel Wasson and Jose Cancela were looking better in practice then this combo. Thankfully for us Rapids fans Beckerman is available this weekend...LaBrocca still has a lot to learn.

Now down to the players who played well. As you all know by now, I tend to look exclusively at those who played a complete game for this award. While Dane Richards did look dangerous and tally his third assist of the season, I think we need to look at Toronto and New England for the finalists this week. First lets go to the Great White North and BMO Field. Toronto completely demolished league best FC Dallas. Boyens and Edu surely earned honorable mention for holding FCD to a clean sheet. Edu even got on the scorers sheet first for his team. However, my money this week is on Adam Cristman who is filling in for Taylor Twellman during the Gold Cup. New England fans should feel safe with Cristman taking shots on goal. True, Will Hesmer really sucked in goal and a better keeper would have saved Cristman's first goal...but not his second. That was quality finishing in any league and most keepers wouldn't have gotten to that upper 90 blast. Cristman not only gets the credit for the finish, but how about the 50/50 ball he won to set up Noonan's run that led to his goal? That was what you need out of a strong forward.

Congrats to Adam Cristman this week, winner of his third FCTP ROTW award.

2007 MLS FCTP Rookie of the Week...Week 9...

Well folks, we hit a milestone of sorts this week. 10% of the players to step on the field were rookies. That is the first time we have hit that number in 2007. Congrats youngsters. You're taking over the league. Ok, not quite yet but it is an impressive mile stone.

Rookies are continuing to win starting places. After seeing some of the performances over the past weeks I am starting to think this could be one of the most productive draft classes in MLS history. One third of the way through the season and 69% of the first round players have logged playing time in the league. Many of them have significant playing time.

So let's see who played a complete game this week:
Andrew Boyens
Maurice Edu
Dane Richards
Michael Harrington
Ty Harden
Bakary Soumare

Many of the usual suspects at this point, with the exception of Bakary Soumare who earned his first league start.

Starters:
Adam Cristman
Jeff Curtin

The rest:
Jerson Monteiro
Corey Ashe
Robbie Findley
Guy-Roland Kpene
Kurt Morsink
Sinisa Ubiparipovic
Wells Thompson
Gabe Gala
Omar Cummings

Players in bold saw their first MLS action this weekend.

This week my Rookie of the Week is Bakary Soumare. His first start was also Chicago's first win in a long time, and I don't think that was a coincidence. His play on the defensive end of the field solidified things enough so the attack could do their job. His strong tackles and good positioning helped Chicago right their sinking ship...this week. I'm not saying the young defensive team was the best...they did give up 18 total shots making Matt Pickens do a lot of work. Dasan Robinson, Jeff Curtin and Soumare showed this week they can play and as the season wears on I have a feeling we'll be seeing better performances from Chicago based on these young players.

2007 MLS FCTP Rookie of the Week...Week 8...

Am I the only one who is shocked we are 1/4th of the way through the MLS season? Heck, FCD is already 1/3rd through its season. Wow, how time flies.

Let's get down to business. This week we saw 188 total MLS players take the field with 9% (17) being rookies. 47% of the rookies started their games while 29% played the entire match.

Complete Game:
Jeff Curtin
Ty Harden
Maurice Edu
Aaron Hohlbein
Michael Harrington

Started:
Guy-Roland Kpene
Kurt Morsink
Dane Richards

Substitute:
Jerson Monteiro
Bakary Soumare
John Cunliffe
Robbie Findley
Brad Evans
Corey Ashe
Wells Thompson
Adam Cristman
Sinisa Ubiparipovic

Players in bold saw the professional field for the first time. As you know, I heavily favor the guys who play the entire game for this award. Something has to be said for the guy who grinds out 90 minutes. This time around no one scored a goal or got an assist...so we're really looking at intangibles. I'm going back to Michael Harrington for this one since he was involved in the most exciting match of the weekend and has started all eight of his team's matches so far this season. Harrington is really solidifying his place on that left say. Dare I say he is the 2007 version of Jonathan Bornstein? Who by the way has been invisible...maybe he misses coach Bradley on the Chivas USA bench. But that is beside the point. Congrats Mr. Harrington...there is your second rookie of the week award.

It will be interesting to see if more rookies feature in coming weeks as many MLS players go train and play with their national teams. Keep your eyes peeled.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 7...

Another week of MLS action in the books and this week is a tough one for rookie of the week voting. I don't know if anyone really stood out enough to win the award hands down. So, as you'll see in a minute, our winner is being selected not only for this week's performance but for other recent performances.

So which rookies saw the field this week?

Played entire game:
Andrew Boyens (2 games)
Maurice Edu (2 games)
Michael Harrington
Ty Harden

Started, didn't finish:
Dane Richards
Brad Evans
Adam Cristman

Substitutes:
Robbie Findley
Guy-Roland Kpene
Sal Caccavale
Sinisa Ubiparipovic
Corey Ashe
Wells Thompson
Nico Colaluca
Aaron Hohlbein
Kurt Morsink

First off, we saw 221 total MLS players take the field this week with 8% (18) being rookies. That is our highest number of rookies yet this season. 50% of the rookies started and 33% played the entire game. Edu, Boyens, Harden and Harrington have become automatic starters for their respective teams. As the season wears on we're no doubt going to see some more names added to the list of early rookie favorites.

This week we're going to recognize the un-heralded defenders. Two years ago Michael Parkhurst had a break out rookie season. Last year it was Dasan Robinson. This year it looks like a two horse race between Andrew Boyens and Ty Harden. This week's ROTW goes to one of those defenders for making the leap to professional soccer and staking a claim in the back line. I'm going to give the week 7 award to Boyens. He played two matches this week, one where his defense shut out the defending champions, Houston. Additionally, he doesn't have Joe Cannon behind him to clean up his mistakes.

Harden deserves honorable mention. He stepped into an established team and won the starting spot. We knew going into the season LA was going to have a questionable defense after trading Ugo Ihemelu but it seems that Harden has been able to help keep a steady presence in front of a great keeper, Joe Cannon.

All of you calling for a ROTW from the defensive side of things now have it.

Welcome to the club Corey Ashe and Sal Caccavale. They both played in their first matches this week. Interestingly, Sal a goal in his first game in which he started playing in the 88th minute. He scored the 4th Red Bulls goal in minute number 92. Way to go Sal!

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 6...

Another week down and FCTP is here with another Rookie of the Week selection. This week MLS saw 161 players take the field, two more then last week. 6% of those players were rookies. 80% of the rookies this week started their matches while 60% completed the entire game. Those are the highest percentages yet this season.

Complete Game:
Andrew Boyens
Maurice Edu
Michael Harrington
Aaron Hohlbein
Ty Harden
Dane Richards

Started:
Adam Cristman
Robbie Findley

Subs:
Kurt Morsink
Sinisa Ubiparipovic

This week's ROTW will be a surprise to few who watched the games this weekend. While Harrington did score another goal, Cristman got his first goal to add to his three assists and Richards and Findley ran wild all over the field, north of the border gave MLS fans the most rookie excitement. Andrew Boyens helped marshal a defense that gave up one goal and Maurice Edu scored a beauty that looked as if it was scored in the Premier League or La Liga...not MLS. Toronto FC got their first victory and helped confirm that Real Salt Lake is the worst team in the league as the only remaining winless club.

For his cracker of a goal and overall solid play in midfield, Maurice Edu is our week 6 ROTW. If you didn't see the match get to mlsnet.com for some highlights of his goal. Edu showed why he was the #1 SuperDraft pick in 2007. His career in MLS is off to a great start.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 5...

Another week of MLS games is in the books. We're starting to see who has earned a starting spot and who was getting a look but may not have impressed his manager. This week saw fewer MLS players see the field in addition to fewer rookies. Out of 159 MLS players taking the field, only 9 or 6% were rookies. 56% of the rookies started their matches and 22% played an entire match.

So who played the entire 90 this week? Read on:
Michael Harrington
Adam Cristman (2nd match)

Who started but didn't last? See below:
Dane Richards
John Cunliffe
Guy-Roland Kpene (2nd match)

Finally, who came on as a sub:
Adam Cristman (1st match)
Guy-Roland Kpene (1st match)
Nico Colaluca
Wells Thompson

This week it comes down to Cristman and Richards. Richards scored a highlight reel goal and if DeRo didn't create his cracking goal, I'm sure Richards would have a chance to get Goal of the Week. Cristmas was dangerous for the Revs against Chicago and managed to get his third assist of the season. He also played twice this week showing he has what it takes to be a professional. I'm going to have to go with Cristmas. He created chances with shots and passes and helped New England put the game out of reach against a tough conference foe. Congrats Adam. He becomes our first two time winner.

2007 FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 4...

This week we had a lot of games and I am including the Colorado - RSL game in spite of MLS thinking it was a week 5 game. All told 217 MLS players took the field this week, a big increase from last week's total. 17, or 8% were rookies with 53% of the rookies starting their games. 35% of the rookies started and played the entire match.

Here are the rookies who played the entire game:
Chris Seitz
Dane Richards
Michael Harrington
Andrew Boyens
Maurice Edu
Ty Harden

Here are the rookies who started but didn't finish:
Maurice Edu (second game)
Michael Harrington (second game)
Robbie Findley

Here are the rookies who came on as subs:
Nico Colaluca
Andrew Boyens (second game)
Sinisa Ubiparipovic
Kurt Morsink
John Cunliffe
Adam Cristman
Wells Thompson
Osei Telesford

First off, we saw the #1 2007 MLS SuperDraft pick in action for the first time this week. Maurice Edu started both games for Toronto this week. In some of the action I saw he looked solid. He showed some creativity and composure in the TFC home opener getting a nice shot off.

Michael Harrington got the first two assists of his career this week, both coming in separate games against TFC. He is proving to be well worth the number three selection in the MLS SuperDraft. However, we've given him the award already this season.

Chris Seitz played well in his MLS debut. His first half save of a strong Kyle Beckerman shot kept the score at zeros going into halftime. Not all MLS keepers would have gotten to that one. However in the second half his defense let him down and he made a rookie mistake picking up that back pass. We're not going to debate if that was in fact a back pass here, but a veteran keeper would have left nothing to doubt by clearing the ball as far from his goal as possible. It looks as if Seitz will have a rookie season similar to Brad Guzan's, but Seitz looks to be the real deal and will probably win this award once or twice this season...if RSL's defense improves.

This week the FCTP MLS Rookie of the Week goes to Dane Richards. He's been a close runner up in past weeks and he continues to show well for the best team in MLS right now, New York. His speed on the flank keeps teams guessing and he helps open up space for Claudio Reyna to operate. New York gambled on Richards because of his international status but the 19th overall SuperDraft pick is paying dividends thus far.

FCTP 2007 MLS Rookie of the Week...Week 3...

I seem to be getting slower and slower at posting these Rookie of the Week posts. We'll see if I can make it all the way through the season without the help of another contributor. That being said, if you are interested in being the FCTP Rookie of the Week specialists, please email me.

This week we didn't have a full slate of games and with a couple teams resting we had a low number of rookies seeing the field. 7 of the 135 MLS players were rookies this week, the lowest number of the season and the lowest percentage so far. Add that to the fact that only one player, Michael Harrington, played the entire match while only three players started their matches.

Let's take a look at the rookies who played (starters in bold):
Dane Richards
Michael Harrington
Osei Telesford
John Cunliffe
Adam Cristman
Wells Thompson
Brad Evans

This week's ROTW is awarded to Adam Cristman from New England. Cristman got his second assist of the season and played well for New England which earned an important point on the road. Cristman has played well up top with Taylor Twellman and is proving that he can hold up the ball against physical MLS defenders. With Christman playing the target forward, Twellman and the other NE forwards are getting a lot of opportunities to run off the ball looking for space. Once Cristman starts scoring some goals he'll be getting a lot more notice around the league.

FCTP 2007 MLS Rookie of the Week….Week 2...

Back once again, let's talk about how the rookies performed in Week 2 of MLS action. The scheduling gods weren't smiling on Dallas when they scheduled a game in LA on Thursday and a second in New York on Sunday, but no rookies have been playing for them so it doesn't make too much of a difference here. Of the 185 players who suited up for Week 2 matches, 12 or 6.5% were first year professionals. 50% of those rookies started their matches and 41.7% of them went the entire 90 minutes. Congrats to Ty Harden, Michael Harrington, Aaron Hohlbein, Andrew Boyens and Dane Richards for going the full 90. Robbie Findley came on as a sub for LA this week and scored a goal with the hope of getting his team back in the game, but it wasn't enough.

From everything I have read and seen this week's award was a two horse race. While Richards did get on the score sheet with an assist, this week's award goes to Michael Harrington. Harrington scored the first goal of his professional career in his teams first game of the season. He also become the fastest scoring MLS debutant in league history. His work rate up and down the left flank looked like that of a seasoned pro. Going into the draft Harrington was one of my favorites but even I didn't predict him going third overall. I was thinking this draft would see more Generation Adidas players going early but it looks like KC made the right choice because their top pick helped spark a massive victory over pre-season league favorites, DC United. Congrats to Michael Harrington on a great MLS debut.

FCTP 2007 MLS Rookie of the Week….Week 1...

I’ve decided to start a MLS Rookie Of The Week award around here. Since there are thirty games per team there will be thirty awards. On those weeks where there is strange game timing or a couple teams won’t play, those players may not be eligible. I’ll decide on a case by case basis.

Voting will be between me and my FCTP contributors. After we post our winner we welcome you to post your comments.

In fact, I’ve made it easier to post your comments here. You no longer need to be a member of Blogger to comment on any post. That was the default setting and until this past week no one questioned me on it. I figured out how to change that so let the comments fly. I hope that is what has been holding back many of you.

At the end of the season I’ll figure out how to host voting open to the public for the 2007 MLS FCTP Rookie of the Year award. Only those players who won weekly awards will be nominated for the final award. It will be interesting to see how we compare to the annual MLS awards.

Rookies will be defined as players with no previous professional experience. Playing in the PDL is not considered professional experience.

This weekend 161 different professional soccer players took the field in MLS play. 10 (6%) of those players were rookies while only 6 rookies (4%) started their games. 3 rookies started and finished their games while the rest were subbed off before they could finish the game.

Starters:
Ty Harden – Full Game
Dane Richards
Adam Cristman
Gary Flood
Wells Thompson – Full Game
Andrew Boyens – Full Game

Subs:
Robbie Findley
Sinisa Ubiparipovic
Brad Evans
John Cunliffe

None of the above rookies scored a goal, but in five minutes of playing time John Cunliffe did make an assist on Sacha Kljestan’s booming strike. However, it is hard to give Cunliffe too much credit as it was a simple layoff that Kljestan positioned and blasted into the back of the net.

For some reason I find myself leaning towards the players who started and finished their first matches for this inaugural award. Harden was part of a Galaxy defense that didn’t surrender a goal, however they did allow Houston to get off eleven shots. He also made it onto the match play-by-play only twice, for committing fouls. Thompson was a wing midfielder who got a couple shots off, however none were troubling to the keeper. Boyens was part of a defense that gave up two goals. I can’t say any of these performances jumps out as ROTW material.

Richards played almost an entire match and got one shot on goal while his offensive unit couldn’t break the scoring deadlock, nothing inspiring. Christmas was on the loosing end of a 1-0 match and didn’t finish any scoring opportunities after only taking one shot. Flood played almost the entire match but his defensive unit gave up that one goal.

Findley played about 30 minutes of the game after coming on for legendary Cobi Jones. However, his speed on the wing couldn’t break the deadlock and he only managed one shot which missed the goal completely. Ubiparipovic played six minutes, unless he had won the game for New York he isn’t under consideration. Evans played all of two minutes, he’s out.

This is a tough one when reading about games online, but comments from FCTP contributor sealed the deal. “Wells Thompson had a great game for me in the losing effort for New England. He'd be my pick hands down.” I’ve got to go with M - Wells Thompson. Thompson started and played the entire match on a team deep in midfield talent. He got some shots and suffered some fouls showing that the opposing defense wasn’t easily shutting him down. He must have been doing enough for manager Nicol to keep the faith. I’m the first to admit that I questioned Steve Nicol’s draft choice of Thompson a few months ago. At the time New England seemed to lose the plot taking Thompson ahead of names such as Colaluca, Wallace, Arguez, Igwe and Dalby. If Thompson can solidfy a starting spot and help New England back to the playoffs then it looks like Nicol got another over on the rest of the league at the draft.

Congratulations to Wells Thompson, our FCTP Rookie of the Week for MLS Week 1.