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Canada Soccer Leaks the Player of the Year Nominees!

January 5th, 2008 | By: Sam | 19 Comments »

Yesterday, canadasoccer.com announced their shortlists for Player of the Year for the senior men and women’s teams, the U-20 men and women’s teams, and the U-17 boy’s and girl’s teams. Here’s a peek at who’s there.

JULIAN DE GUZMAN: Had an absolutely great year for club and country, called the best player in CONCACAF by a few pundits, even. He’s my pick to take it, for sure.

DWAYNE DE ROSARIO: Won his second straight MLS Cup with Houston, for which he played an integral part and scored the winner in the final, that’s all.

ROB FRIEND: One of the revelations of this year’s crop. Lanky striker who’s going to go places, for sure.

ALI GERBA: The other revelation. Had a fantastic Gold Cup and scored two goals, this when I barely knew who he was.

RICHARD HASTINGS: Experienced center-back who was solid as a wall in the Gold Cup, earning all-star honours and making a name for himself again.

ATIBA HUTCHINSON: Scored a vital goal against the USA to.. oh.. wait, never mind, it didn’t count. Nonetheless, was great for FC Kobenvahn and the Canucks as well.

ANTE JAZIC: Lived in the shadow of Douche-id Beckham at LA, but continues to be one of the best full-backs in the league.

PAT ONSTAD: Stepped in beautifully in the Gold Cup when Greg Sutton went down, and also won the MLS Cup with Houston, setting a shutout record in the process. Oh, and he’s 39.

PAUL STALTERI: Had some off-moments, but led Canada with deserved pride all the way through and mostly was very good on the flank.

Women-wise, there’s about as big a chance of Christine Sinclair not winning than there is Jesus starting a funk band tomorrow. Although a bitter World Cup failure overshadowed this team this year, Sinclair is one of the best in the world, no doubt about it.

The six complete lists can be found here.

Who’s your pick?

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Comments

By Brad | January 5th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

i’d say de guzman or de rosario…i’d give it to de rosario personally.

Posted from Canada

By Kyle | January 6th, 2008 at 3:33 am

My favourite part about the list is that they nominated 9 people for the final ballot, which basically means the starting roster minus 2 players. Would have loved if it was only 4 to 5 players maximum, then you could have an actually debate whether this player or that player should be in the final vote.

To be honest De Rosario should be the one to win this year with his play.

Posted from Canada

By Ian | January 6th, 2008 at 4:03 am

Richard Hastings FTW. He’s Caley Thistle’s only active international, so I have to pull for him. He’s a fantastic fullback in the SPL, and he’s been great this season at Caley. Good luck Richard!

By Brad | January 6th, 2008 at 4:04 am

Yeah, i thought that was funny too. Might as well just let the whole team be on the ballet and just call it a team MVP award.

Posted from Canada

By James | January 6th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Ian, just because Richard Hastings is the only active international on Inverness does not mean he should get the award. Normally awards are given out based on who is the best player…

I agree with Kyle, the list is far too long. Seems like the CSA was scared of hurting anyones feelings.

Posted from Canada

By Laurie | January 6th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

Pat Onsted and/or Ante Jazic, because they’re both really, really pretty. DeRo loses on the same criteria.

Hey, you think the actual award will be less subjective? Except that it will be decided by men, who don’t care about what’s important.

Thanks for posting this — I’ve been hoping somebody would do it this weekend so I could link to it in the Daily Dose.

Posted from United States

By Sam | January 6th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Oh well. At the end of the day it’s not the shortlist that matters, right?
And just for kicks, is there someone you think should be on that isn’t? I think I’d replace Friend with Martin Nash.

Posted from Canada

By Ian | January 6th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

James - No it doesn’t mean he should get the award. I was only voicing my support for him as a Caley fan, that’s all.

By Eros | January 6th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

I like De Rosario as a player, but they should give it to De Guzman, and hopefully he can convince his brother to join the Canadian National Team!

Posted from Canada

By Daily Dose 1.6.08 - World Football - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world | January 6th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

[...] Who, oh, who, will be the Canadian Player of the Year? (Canada World Cup Blog) [...]

Posted from United States

By Nolan | January 6th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

Would have to be de Guzman for me…de Rosario was once again one of MLS’s finest, but de Guzman not only had a good year for Canada but is also continuing to hold down a starting spot in the best league in the world, which is something Canada needs. Depor isn’t having a great season by any means but de Guzman has been good for them.

Posted from Canada

By Anna | January 6th, 2008 at 9:37 pm

Okay so they ‘nominate’ the entire NT? What? Anyways…

De Guzman, obviously - doin’ thangs Depor, for the NT - the man is pure class. He’s head and shoulders above the rest IMO. Yeah, De Ro’s great and all but he comes in second for me. Oh, and I’m liking how Nash got dissed.

(I agree with Laurie - Ante needs to receive a special award for contributions to team hotness. Or something. Anything. It’s about flipping time.)

By Sam | January 6th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

Haha. This is getting me to think I should conduct a “Who is the best looking Canadian player?” poll or something.

Posted from Canada

By Jon | January 7th, 2008 at 12:39 am

I made an argument for De Guzman myself, but a strong case can be made for De Rosario. Especially for those observers who only checked in during the MLS Cup playoffs and didn’t notice that his regular season didn’t meet the high standard he has set for himself (he played great in his matches with Canada, but so did De Guzman, who was the central figure in every match he played for Canada).

Posted from Canada

By Bruno | January 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am

Are the people who nominated Nash serious??? Maybe I’m not picking up the sarcasism? The man was our only weak link at the GC, if we had someone is his position who could actually think, and make a proper pass, we would have won the tourney. Martin Nash??? Never. Just useless on the pitch.

By Jon | January 7th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

Bruno, I think you’re being a little harsh. Nash doesn’t have the same professional pedigree as other players in our squad, but he played above expectations in the GC. The team as a whole was solid, and that had a lot to do with the ball being moved well from defense to midfield, which was Martin’s role in most games.

That said, Nash being on the list is a bit ridiculous, but Hastings, Jazic and Stalteri don’t really belong either (if the point is to pay tribute to the defenders who did a good job through the whole Gold Cup tournament, then why not include Hainault as well?).

Posted from Canada

By Kyle | January 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am

I’m really tempted to start throwing in players from other sports into the equation for voting. The minute you said Nash, I figured it could be Steve Nash, he passes the ball well, can use his head well.

Alas, the CSA choose the route of not hurting anyone’s feelings and it’s really their loss for doing so, cause to the fans who are watching the selections can only shake their respective heads and wonder why they don’t have the bollocks to pick 3 to 4 players.

Personally if it was 3 players on my ballot it would be
1. De Guzman
2. De Rosario
3. Hastings

Posted from Canada

By Canada Goes Estonian, Ali Gerba Goes Bavarian - Canada | January 8th, 2008 at 7:23 pm

[...] who impressed many at the Gold Cup and who is included on the ballot for the Canadian Player of the Year Award (although that ain’t saying much), who didn’t play much with his former club, IFK [...]

Posted from United States

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Posted from United Kingdom