BASAs: Best XI

The Official BASA Best XI Onstad, Califf, Robinson, T.Marshall, Joseph, O'Brien, C.Gomez, DeRosario, Donovan, Twellman, J.Moreno Ok, my system for picking the Best XI is a little different. I was going to just take the highest point getters from the individual awards, but I decided it would be better for each person to name their own Best XI using whatever (real) formation they chose. After looking at the goalkeepers, I then took the top ten field players regardless of position. I did this by counting the number of times they were named in a Best XI (out of 12). It's similar to World Soccer's "Team of the Month" that they always have. Any ties were broken by the players' positions in their individual awards (the next tiebreaker was points). Here's how the voting went: Votes 1 Pat Onstad 9 2 Matt Reis 3 Votes 1 Taylor Twellman 12 2 Dwayne DeRosario 10 3 Jaime Moreno 8 4 Christian Gomez 8 5 Danny Califf 7 6 Shalrie Joseph 7 7 Landon Donovan 7 8 Eddie Robinson 5 9 Tyrone Marshall 5 10 Ronnie O'Brien 5 11 Michael Parkhurst 5 12 Clint Dempsey 5 13 Jimmy Conrad 4 14 Youri Djorkaeff 4 15 Justin Mapp 2 16 Wade Barrett 2 17 Jay Heaps 2 18 Amado Guevara 2 18 Mark Chung 2 20 Hercules Gomez 1 21 Brian Carroll 1 22 Jeff Cunningham 1 23 Greg Vanney 1 23 Samuel Caballero 1 25 Ricardo Clark 1 25 Daniel Hernandez 1 25 Brian Mullan 1 25 Paolo Nagamura 1 25 Brian Namoff 1 25 Steve Ralston 1 25 Dema Kovalenko 1 25 Bobby Boswell 1 25 Freddy Adu 1 25 Chad Marshall 1 25 Eddie Gaven 1 25 Steve Jolley 1 25 Thiago 1 Twellman was the only unanimous choice. There was a 5-way tie for the last 3 spots. Robinson and Marshall finished 2nd and 3rd for Defender of the Year, and O'Brien finished 4th for Midfielder of the Year. Those guys make the Best XI, while Parkhurst (5th for Defender) was just edged out. His teammate Dempsey finished 7th in the Midfielder voting and also misses out. Donovan makes it despite only finishing 4th in the Forward voting. He finished behind his teammate Hercules Gomez there, but only one person named Hercules to their Best XI. Interesting. Earthquakes players got 4 of the 11 spots, while only 5 teams were represented. 39 different players were named in total, including 7 each for DC, NE, and SJ. The expansion teams were the only ones not to have a player voted for. It's also interesting that only 4 of the 11 are American (at least international football-wise). Also represented are Argentina, Bolivia, Canada (2), Grenada, Ireland, and Jamaica. Results Schedule 10/24-Goalkeeper of the Year (Pat Onstad) 10/25-Coach of the Year (Dominic Kinnear) 10/26-Rookie of the Year (Michael Parkhurst) 10/27-Defender of the Year (Danny Califf) 10/28-Young Player of the Year (Clint Dempsey) 10/31-Midfielder of the Year (Dwayne DeRosario) 11/01-Old Player of the Year (Youri Djorkaeff) 11/02-Forward of the Year (Taylor Twellman) 11/03-Best XI 11/04-Player of the Year (Bigsoccer thread)