New York Red Bulls forward Juan Pablo Angel was voted player of the Month for October. Angel scored three goals and tallied one assist during the final month of the regular season as the Red Bulls finished with a 1-2-1 record and qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs.
New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst was named the winner of the MLS Fair Play award, and the Revolution earned the MLS Team Fair Play award, recognizing the MLS club with the fewest disciplinary points during the 2008 regular season.
Parkhurst is claiming his second consecutive MLS Fair Play Award. The 24 year-old New England Revolution defender from Cranston, R.I., becomes the third player to win the award twice and second to do it in consecutive seasons. Steve Ralston, his Revolution teammate, won the award in consecutive years in 1999 and 2000. Mark Chung is the other two-time winner.
Parkhurst was a pillar at center back for the Revolution again in 2008. He started 28 games for the Revolution, ranked second on the team, behind Jay Heaps, in minutes played with 2,520, and committed only nine fouls. For the second consecutive season he did not receive a caution or red card. Parkhurst, the 2007 Visa MLS Defender of the Year, was a member of the 2007 MLS Best XI and is a three-time MLS All-Star.
The New England Revolution claimed the Team Fair Play award for accumulating the fewest disciplinary points (300) of any team during the 2008 regular season. Disciplinary points are assigned as follow: 4 points for each caution received, 10 points for each red card, 0.50 points for each foul committed and a reduction of 15 points for each game that a team completes without receiving any cards or action from the MLS Disciplinary Committee.
Major League Soccer announced today that Chicago Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch was voted the 2008 Panasonic Goalkeeper of the Year.
Busch, 32, led the Chicago Fire to the playoffs in his first full season as a starter since 2004, when he was a member of the Columbus Crew. Busch started and played every minute (2,700) of all 30 regular season games for Chicago. He led the club to a second place finish in the Eastern Conference (13-10-7) and ranked first in the League in shutouts (10), was tied for second in wins (13) and second in goals against average (1.10).
Injuries plagued Busch's career during 2005 and 2006 with the Crew, and Chicago traded for him before the 2007 season. He served as a back up to Matt Pickens throughout most of 2007, but after Pickens departed, Busch took over the starting job. He played in 20 games combined from 2005-2007 and recorded just seven wins in that three-year stretch. But this season, Busch excelled, facing more shots than all but two MLS goalkeepers and recording the top save percentage mark at 78.2 percent. San Jose's Joe Cannon ranked second in save percentage at 74.7 percent.
Busch played five seasons in the USL prior to making his Major League Soccer debut in 2002. The former collegiate All-American at UNC Charlotte anchored a Fire defense that allowed a meager 33 goals, second-best in MLS this season. Busch becomes the 11th different player to win the Goalkeeper of the Year award. Only Cannon and Pat Onstad have won the award more than once. He led the voting ahead of Columbus Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer and New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis, the other finalists named last week.
Conference Semifinals - 1st Leg Thursday, October 30 Chicago Fire @ New England Revolution 0-0 Saturday, November 1 Houston Dynamo @ New York Red Bulls 1-1 Chivas USA @ Real Salt Lake RSL 1, CHV 0 Columbus Crew @ Kansas City Wizards 1-1
Conference Semifinals - 2nd Leg Thursday, November 6 New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire, 8:30 p.m. ESPN2, Deportes Saturday, November 8 Kansas City Wizards @ Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m. HDNet, DK, MLSLIVE.tv Real Salt Lake @ Chivas USA, 10:30 p.m. FSC, FSE Sunday, November 9 New York Red Bulls @ Houston Dynamo, 3:00 p.m. TeleFutura
Conference Championships Thursday, November 13 to Sunday, November 16
MLS Cup 2008 - Home Depot Center, Carson, CA Sunday, November 23 Eastern Conference Champions vs. Western Conference Champions 3:30 p.m. ABC, TeleFutura
BOSTON -- Steve Nash became one of the first NBA stars to popularize playing soccer in the offseason. The Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett has taken Nash's idea a step further by setting up a soccer field in the backyard of his suburban Minneapolis home.
Kevin Garnett plays soccer in the offseason as part of his conditioning routine. "I put in two goals there," Garnett said. "When it's time to get back in shape I get my friends and go in the backyard and start messing around. It's just for conditioning."
But Garnett is not ready to bend free kicks like Beckham, or even like Nash.
"Steve Nash is a lot more for real about it," Garnett said. "Mine is more recreation, having fun, and messing around. He actually knows how to bend the ball and that type of stuff. I'm just a fan and enjoy watching it, more than a true competitor."
Nash grew up with soccer. His father played semi-professionally in South Africa, and his brother, Martin, played for the Canadian national team. Garnett was introduced to the sport by a boyhood friend, Bug Peters.
"Bug played when he was young and he is a huge soccer fan," Garnett said. "About six or seven years ago, when YouTube first came out, there was some footage of Ronaldinho on there. Freestyle was big at that time and I just gravitated towards it.
"Like tennis, I was screaming watching the Williams sisters. You tend to like it for whatever you like it for. You are a fan of it, you appreciate it and it draws you to it. Then, being a fan and having favorite players causes you to be more of a fan.
"I play a lot of video games. I got on a video game and that teaches you the players and their style. Now, you want to get better at the game so you really watch it and it makes it all come full circle, of becoming a fan and appreciating the sport."
Garnett's favorite soccer-related video games?
"FIFA '09, World Cup, Euro League. I enjoy it all."
Favorite players?
"Ronaldinho, Didier Drogba, I like watching Cristiano Ronaldo. Wayne Rooney is a tough kid -- I enjoy watching him. Lionel Messi. Frank Lampard and John Terry of Chelsea."
Favorite team?
"Chelsea."
Garnett met Drogba when Chelsea visited the Los Angeles Galaxy last year.
"I enjoy watching Drogba on TV," Garnett said. "They had a meet-and-greet for Chelsea in L.A. and I brought some family and they met him, also. We exchanged numbers there and when we went to London [during the 2007-08 NBA preseason] he came to watch us play.
"I didn't know soccer players were big NBA fans until then. [Cesc] Fabregas was at our game in London and I think [Emmanuel] Adebayor and a couple other guys were there. We met [Alessandro] Del Piero when we were in Rome."
The NBA schedule has prevented Garnett from attending games in person. He did get to the Brazil-Mexico friendly at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 12, 2007, which set a New England soccer attendance record with a crowd of 67,584.
"It was a zoo, it was crazy," Garnett said. "It takes me half an hour to get to a Patriots game and it took three and a half hours to get to the Brazil-Mexico game. I didn't know Boston had that big a Brazilian population. Yeah, it was the craziest sporting event I've been to. The Olympics was something crazy, but it was like a Walt Disney show."
Garnett said he has turned down a chance to be involved in small-side games such as the charity match Nash set up in New York in June.
"They want to make me play goalie and I want to be a striker," Garnett said. "I don't want to be a goalie. I don't have striker's skills, I just want the liberty of not only passing the ball but also the liberty of shooting the ball, or at least trying to be a striker.
"I know, everybody wants that. But in basketball I'm good at being a liaison between the scorer and the passer and making sure everyone is getting better. In soccer, I don't want to do that. I want to kick the ball all over the place."
Garnett has a striker's mentality, a concept of the team game mixed with a selfish streak and a willingness to fire away. His soccer progression is sort of the opposite of Hakeem Olajuwon, who was a goalkeeper growing up in Nigeria before he turned to basketball.
"I never play soccer anywhere else except in my own backyard," Garnett said. "That way, I know the rules. I know if someone is fouled, nine times out of 10 I take the free kick, or I'm the one taking the penalty kick. That's why I play on my ground."
Garnett is not reluctant to shoot from anywhere at any time, part of the reason for "countless" balls having to be fished out of a pond in his yard.
"Luckily I have groundsmen who know how to swim and good adidas balls that float," Garnett said.
Garnett is hoping to attend games at San Siro, now that Ronaldinho has joined Milan, and Stamford Bridge, but might not be able to for a while. The 2010 World Cup is another possibility.
"I've never been to Africa and Dikembe Mutombo wants to get me over there, but I just haven't had the time," Garnett said. "I definitely want to go to the World Cup. So, I'll probably go to Capetown, make a trip there first to see what I'm in for. I definitely want to do that.
"I promised myself to take a vacation to see either a Serie A game in Italy or the Premier League. I really want to see AC Milan and someone told me I should go to Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea. That will probably be an event. But I really haven't had the liberty and, hopefully, I'll have two more short summers like I had this time. After I retire I see myself going and seeing some games."
Garnett keeps tabs on the European game via a running feud with rival supporters on the Celtics' staff.
"For the most part, I follow it," Garnett said. "Some teams have gotten better this year. Robbie Keane is with Liverpool. Manchester City surprised me a little bit by getting Robinho. I didn't see that coming. But they've got all kinds of money."
The team's massage therapist, Vlad Shulman, also supports Chelsea.
"Me and Vlad, we walk around here and get beat on the head a little bit," Garnett said.
A few days before the Celtics' season opener, Garnett was talking soccer at the team's Waltham, Mass., practice facility, tossing verbal jabs at media relations coordinator Brian Olive and Cameron Twiss, the son of vice president of media services Jeff Twiss. Both are Manchester United supporters, and they got an earful after Everton tied United 1-1.
"Soccer is growing, the appreciation and desire for it is growing," Garnett said. "Now, we need to get a soccer channel here."
Reminded that several channels already exist, Garnett said: "No. I mean in here [at the Celtics' training facility]. So we can watch right here."
MADRID, Spain -- Jozy Altidore is making history at Villarreal by being the first American to score in Spanish league. even getting into the Spanish league history books. Altidore's 90th minute goal Saturday in Villarreal's 4-1 victory at Athletic Bilbao earned the teenage striker a special billing.
Word is that Altidore might be loaned out in January when the transfer market opens. His transfer depends on injuries to Villarreal players.
If a move comes, Altidore hopes to play either in England's Premier League or a league that is similar to Spain's.
"This year is definitely a learning experience, I'm not expected to step in immediately and score 20 goals. I'm here this year to learn how things go in La Liga and get experience and train with these guys to make me a better player," said Altidore, who joined the Spanish league runner-ups in a $10 million offseason move from the New York Red Bulls -- a record price for a Major League Soccer player. Goalkeeper Kasey Keller is the only other American to have played in La Liga.
"My technique has gotten better, I read plays a little bit earlier. Technically, I'm a little bit sharper, especially when I'm playing here with all of these guys," said Altidore, who signed a six-year contract to play at El Madrigal. "It'll get better from here even if I still have a long way to go in terms of adapting."
Altidore isn't the only who's noticed a change.
"He's improving with every practice. He's adapting well in practice and when he does get a chance to play," Pellegrini said. "He has a natural ability and we want to harness that, but with time. There is no rush. I just hope he takes advantage of the opportunities when he gets them."
Altidore said his move to Spain has surpassed expectations and he has easily settled into Spanish lifestyle, comparing it to time spent in Miami. The Spanish is coming along thanks to classes, and so is his on-field training, which could help him cement a starting spot on the U.S. roster.
"Everyone here is so technically sound so you're forced to have that same technique or touch or you'll easily be noticed," he said. "Just the little movement off the ball and finding open spaces, playing here has benefited me."
