BASAs: Defender of the Year

1st 2nd 3rd Points 1 Bobby Boswell 8 3 43 2 Jose Burciaga 3 2 2 23 3 Facundo Erpen 4 12 4 Chris Albright 3 2 11 5 Eddie Robinson 1 1 6 5 C.J. Brown 2 6 7 Pablo Mastroeni 1 5 7 Claudio Suarez 1 5 7 Michael Parkhurst 1 5 7 Craig Waibel 1 2 5 11 Tony Sanneh 1 1 4 12 Jimmy Conrad 1 3 12 Greg Vanney 1 3 14 Bryan Namoff 1 1 14 Aitor Karanka 1 1 14 Marvell Wynne 1 1 14 Ugo Ihemelu 1 1 (5-3-1 scoring system) Defender of the Year is possibly the most interesting award. That's because without the benefit of stats, it's hard to judge defensive abilities (especially as a casual observer). As someone who didn't grow up with the game (except for a youth league), it took me a couple years to get a good tactical sense of soccer. Plus, you have to watch a lot of games to get a good sense of every team in the league. So that's the explanation of why 17 different players from 10 different teams received votes (no Columbus/RSL). Just like last year, only the winner was named on half the ballots. Boswell is the runaway winner here and he just won the official award as well. Everyone expected that. After him is where it gets interesting. Burciaga and Conrad were the two other official MLS finalists. Burcaiga is the runner up here, but Conrad only received one second-place vote. IMO, this is the more accurate position for him as he may have got that nomination on reputation alone (I don't believe they released the voting results like last year). How does a team ranked 10th in goals allowed get two guys in the running for best defender? The best defenses in the league this year belonged to New England, Los Angeles, and DC United in that order. Despite that, virtually no support for Revs guys. Results Schedule 10/23-Goalkeeper of the Year (Troy Perkins) 10/24-Coach of the Year (Bob Bradley) 10/25-Rookie of the Year (Jonathan Bornstein) 10/26-Defender of the Year (Bobby Boswell) 10/27-Young Player of the Year 10/30-Midfielder of the Year 10/31-Old Player of the Year 11/1-Forward of the Year 11/2-Favorite MLS Player 11/3-Most Annoying US Soccer Personality 11/6-Best XI 11/7-USMNT Player of the Year 11/8-MLS Player of the Year