With J Hutcherson -- For those of you that have ever wondered who is on the list for Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player, it's the rosters from every team in the League. Seriously, the drop down list on the voting page includes pretty much everybody.
Fair enough, all things considered, even if slightly inaccurate clicking could have someone voting for Stewart Ceus instead of Conor Casey or Marvin Chavez instead of Jeff Cunningham.
It's a little easier for Goalkeeper of the Year. In that part of the ballot, it's one per team. That might make it a little complicated for DC United, but there's not even the option to do something clever like prop up a backup over a starter.
What makes Thornton's '09 run even bigger is that this was supposed to be the year of Kasey Keller. Here was a guy who chose to leave the highest level in European soccer to play for an expansion team. He's done an amazing job, running up a scoreless streak and basically being the difference between Seattle winning and losing games. Considering the playoff margin, he's a solid choice for Seattle's team MVP.
There's a quote making the rounds that has Keller saying he wants to play into his forties, good news for all involved. But he hasn't been the best keeper in the Western Conference.
Add in Thornton returning from that bizarre almost snub with the All-Star selections that ended up with him injured and missing games, and he should be the mid-season comeback player of the year. Simply put, there's been no part of his game that has let his team down.
When Chivas USA squandered a long layoff before finally returning to form, it coincided with Thornton recovering from injury, getting injured all over again, and then working his way back into the starting job. Keep in mind, we're talking about a player who has only missed three regular season games. Sure, that number would have been higher without that post-All-Star layoff courtesy of the SuperLiga schedule, but there it is.
This from a guy who was dismissed years ago as being unable to regain the physical form from the last time he was the League's best keeper. That was three clubs and a waive ago, with enough people writing him off literally and figuratively.
Zach Thornton's 2009 is an MLS story. A player who has that peculiar American in Europe experience of signing for the big club but never seeing a game, who spent the bulk of his career behind two of the best players in United States National Team history, and rebuilt his reputation as the last person you want to try to score against.
He's big time, certainly as major as anything this League has shown us this season. Sure, the Jeff Cunningham story also carries with it the revival aspect and it could very well put Dallas into the playoffs. Then again, with two games left to play, Thornton is working on a Conference championship. He's got a 0.78 goals against average, a dozen shutouts, and the presence that comes from the team out in front of you knowing you'll keep them close.
Absent Thornton, and Chivas USA is a slightly above average MLS team. Maybe they make some noise over a stretch of the season, but there's ample evidence for why they're down the table and the playoffs are an issue. Thornton changes that in a way that no other player in MLS has in 2009.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
