| | CHICAGO -- Around this time every year, I start getting e-mail and faxes
asking me to nominate the "players of the year" or some such. Most of these
awards are in reality popularity contests, rewarding those who have been the
most visible in the sport all year, and frankly, there's nothing wrong with
that.
However, there are a couple of guys I think deserve to be singled out
who probably won't be when the year-end awards get dished, and in this
shorter column, (on Sunday, watch this space for a review of the Major League Soccer playoffs and the Scotland-England match) I'd like to take the time to single them out.
The first is Jeff Agoos, defender for D.C. United and the national team; in the past two years, he has gone from being a defensive liability to being one of the strongest players on the field.
Agoos deserves notice not just because of his vast improvement, however: he should be applauded because he sums up the best in American coaching and training. He's taken a lot of knocks over the years, and he got screwed in France when Steve Sampson callously (but perhaps wisely) overlooked Agoos' service throughout qualifying in favor of David Regis. Agoos didn't make a big stink about it -- even when Sampson compounded matters by forcing the two to bunk together -- and has rebounded to become a true statesman in the game.
Agoos, however, is probably going to get notice: he is a favorite for the
U.S. Soccer Player of the Year, and probably deserves it, if for nothing else
than his iron-man performance in Mexico. Only John Harkes might have laid
more out on the table in those games; the difference between the two is that
Agoos has had more to give all year long.
The guy who really deserves a look and might not get one is Chris Armas,
who remains one of the more underappreciated players in the sport. Despite
the fact that the USA wins when he is on the field, despite the fact that he
makes a measurable, positive impact on the games of players like Claudio
Reyna and Jovan Kirovski, and despite the fact that he may be the most
productive "hardest working man," Armas isn't very flashy and therefore
doesn't get the praise.
Too bad: he's my choice as Player of the Year for all the above reasons and
one more: Armas is one of the few guys willing to always do the dirty work,
and one of those rare players that doesn't seek praise.
"So many guys have told me over the years that I've been overshadowed, but I think all the players and people had respect for me, and that's all that
mattered to me," says Armas. "You always have family and friends who say
'Wouldn't it be nice if ... ' but who cares what other people think? I always
believed that if you do your job, someone will give you a shot."
Armas does indeed do his job, scrambling for loose balls with an intensity
that gives opponents pause. His job, as he sees it, is make life easier for
the next guy.
"I was lucky to get a shot [on the national team] with Bruce, who
appreciates what I do -- not everyone sees it. I want to put pressure on the
other team so that five or six of our guys don't have to run 60 or 70 yards
for the ball. It's a lot of little things, and that's the mentality our
whole national team has."
True, but no one perhaps fits the attacking mentality better than Armas,
who will jump on a man like he's a live grenade. Clearly, the USA could not
have completed its remarkable turnaround this last year without Armas
working in the trenches.
As for making other guys look better, though, Armas is typically humble. "I can say that playing with Claudio makes life easier -- someone who's
willing to be a playmaker and defend. And then he might turn around and say 'Chris, it's great playing with you,' and I know that it just goes both
ways. We've got a lot of guys who are willing to lay it on the line for the
next guy."
Armas will play his final game of the year for the national team in Morocco
on Nov. 17, but then he's got some big matters to return to at home: he
will be marrying his fiancée, Justine Izzo, ("Hold on," says Armas, "Let me spell it for you. She's real big on this stuff.") on Dec. 4.
Random notes
Finally, finally, some good news for long suffering MLS fans: these
playoffs are actually turning out to mean something. Columbus rebounded last weekend with a huge win that once and for all settled the questions of heart that have dogged the Crew. Delivering a 5-1 shellacking to D.C. behind a hat trick from Stern John, the Crew are now poised to actually make a go of it. Dallas also can take a huge step by beating L.A. in their decisive game Thursday; Ariel Graziani will once again have to carry the load in that one. But one piece of bitter news: the crowd at the rickety old Cotton Bowl was a decent 13,816 ... while the spanking new Crew stadium only got 12,778.
We wonder why ... MLS sources say that next year's schedule will be
significantly pared down, with only 14 home games per team. Also on the
table is a plan to split the league into three divisions for scheduling
reasons. Teams have already submitted possible schedules along those
lines ... Longtime MLS man John Borozzi has been contacted by Kansas City for the GM job vacated by Doug Newman earlier this year. He is not expected to get it, but he should ... Charlie Stillitano may have finally reached the end of the road in New York: high-level league sources indicate that they are putting pressure on MetroStars owner Stu Sobotnick to make a
change ... National team star Joe-Max Moore has apparently spurned the New England Revolution in favor of a richer contract with Premiership side
Everton in England, according to the Boston Globe ... Money man Phil Anschutz remains staunchly committed to the MLS; in addition to the Denver stadium proposal on the table, a new stadium is also being floated for the Chicago Fire ... Brian Remedi, long considered the best man in USSF's public relations department, has accepted a job with ISL, leaving a big void to be filled on the men's national team side.
Jamie Trecker, editor of Kick! magazine, writes regularly for ESPN.com. You may e-mail him at jamie_trecker@go.com; while he guarantees he will read all letters, he regrets that he cannot guarantee a reply because of overwhelming volume. | |
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