When I decided that I needed to name a defender of the year, only one name came to mind, and it's only sort of a name. With that, you can guess, but if you can't or refuse to for some reason, it's Borlave. But as that wouldn't really be fair to anyone involved for the illustrious Crossbar Awards (oh, my.), I'll name a single player. But who?
That's really the question of the day, isn't it? Let's run through our options quickly, then I'll make the award, ramble a bit, and be done with it. (What did you expect?) In order of (league) appearances:
Nat Borchers (30 played, 30 started): What is there to say about Nat that hasn't already been said? He's a tough-tackling dynamo whose intelligent play has kept our side from falling to defeat over and over and over. Together with Jamison Olave, he's formed a partnership that any side in the league would be thrilled to have. His stats are marred only slightly by the receipt of two red cards: One against Chivas (last-man challenge) and one against New England (for making a clean tackle in the box), but he received only a single yellow card and committed less than half a foul per game on average. That, you see, is quite remarkable indeed. It's no mistake that he was in the running for Defender of the Year.
Robbie Russell (26 played, 22 started): Robbie Russell might be getting up there in age, but he's showed repeatedly that he's still got something left in his tank. Though his campaign was struck by injury, he was constantly putting in the shifts we needed.
Jamison Olave (24 played, 24 started): The other half of Borlave — the side that made the MLS Best XI in addition to being named in the Defender of the Year shortlist — had a great campaign when he was fit. He's proven a bit injury-prone but not disastrously so, and were it not for the vast improvement of Chris Schuler this season, we'd have been in a worse spot. Still, Olave's been as essential as anybody to this side, and it's refreshing to see that he's certainly got his head on rich — he only picked up three yellow cards, where last season, he picked up eight. That's improvement.
Chris Wingert (23 played, 22 started): Chris Wingert would certainly have seen more time on the pitch if not for an unfortunate arm break, but 23 matches played when we have three full backs vying for two spots isn't terrible. He's been solid if not remarkable, but we need players like that in our side.
Tony Beltran (22 played, 19 started): Tony Beltran has rapidly become a vital part of our side, supporting our attacking play as ably as he does the defensive play. He's constantly working as hard as he can, and that's been absolutely essential. When he missed the last month or so of the season, we looked almost pedestrian, and it affected our ability to perform as we needed to. I'll stop just short of saying that we'd have won with him in the side, but it's quite interesting to see how essential he's been.
Chris Schuler (20 played, 16 started): Chris Schuler started the campaign with some problematic performances, and he didn't always look up to the task, especially from a tactical perspective. At some point, that changed. It was almost an instantaneous action, and he was suddenly a very capable backup. Watching Chris Schuler mature into a good player has been very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing that continue.
Rauwshan McKenzie (2 played, 2 started): I don't think there's much to be said about Mr. McKenzie, as we really haven't seen enough of him to make a real judgment. Imagine if we'd all rushed to judgment on Chris Schuler at the beginning of the season — we'll see how he improves next season, perhaps.
Blake Wagner (2 played, 1 started): Blake Wagner once won a free kick really late in a match after coming on as a sub. I can't remember who that was against, but we won as a result. That's all I really have to say about him. He came in mid-season, but when we needed a left back, we opted for Chris Schuler. That's got to be a bit damning, as well as Schuler played.
So, who's the Defender of the Year for me? It's got to be Nat Borchers. He's stepped his game up well, and though he did pick up two reds, only one was justified, and one was unfortunate. His foul count's been stellar, he's scored a goal or two (actually, three), and he played more minutes than any other outfield player.
So, 'til tomorrow, when I'll name my Midfielder of the Year.
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