BASA: Coach of the Year - Explanation of My Votes

Coach of the Year

1- Bob Bradley
2- Dominic Kinnear
3- Dave Sarachan

The top pick for coach of the year was a complete no brainer. Chivas USA were the absolute worst team in MLS during the 2005 season period, with a record of 4-22-6. Insert Bob Bradley and we have a playoff caliber team that finished smack dab in the middle of the table and a much more respectable record of 10-9-13 the following year. With Bradley, Chivas abandoned their initial thought of operating the team with exclusively Latin based or Latin American players and brought in a healthy mixture of young players – such as Rookie of the Year candidate Jonathan Bornstein – and veteran players like Razov and Palencia.

In 2005 Dominic Kinnear managed the San Jose Earthquakes to the best regular season record in the league. After a horrific off-season involving relocation and rebranding, the Earthquakes traveled southeast and became the Houston Dynamo. Through the move Kinnear kept much of the same core of players and at times this year looked like the great San Jose team of 2005. Any coach that can keep a team winning (11-8-13) after a move deserves recognition.

Some might question why choose Chicago Fire coach Dave Sarachan over New England’s Steve Nicol when the Revolution finished with a better overall record. The key here is personnel. For long periods during the year New England were major under achievers. Now, Nicol can’t really control a pair of his players getting offers from overseas only to get turned down by the league (who owns all player contracts), but he should have still been able to keep his boys motivated.

The Fire have gone out and had a very solid year, taking third in the East and taking the US Open Cup title away from Los Angeles.

The consensus voted Peter Nowak very highly, and some might think for good reason as his DC United were the top team in the league. My only problem is they did all their winning in the first half of the season and then coasted through the last half. United practically sealed up a playoff spot in July, then only won three times since the All-Star game. But, I probably shouldn’t complain too loud as RSL got 4 points (a win and a tie) out of DC during the middle and late in the season.