Award 7: The Harkesy

By definition, the Harkesy award goes to the United player who has demonstrated outstanding leadership ability. The award's namesake John Harkes is known as Captain For Life. Not only was he our team's first captain, but he was literally our team's first player.

1. United's captain this year is Jaime Moreno, and although Jaime is not the typical in-your-face Beckham style captain, I think he gets his point across. Moreno is usually cool and collected, and leads by example with his level of dedication and work ethic.

2. The other nominal leader of the team is the coach Tom Soehn. Soehn guided the team to a US Open Cup win (it's so easy to forget that). But his tactics and lineups this year have sometimes been questioned, and some indications late in the year may point to a theory that Soehn has maybe lost the support of his players.

3. Despite playing for a very short amount of time, a major leader in our locker room is Ben Olsen. One of my favorite memories of this club this year was the week that United announced the signings of Gallardo and los Gonzalos, Olsen took the group to see a Washington Wizards game as a sort of bonding experience. On and off the field, Olsen is our leader and our talisman.

4. It's not really worth even putting anyone else on here, is it? Early in the year I had Peralta penciled in as a nominee because he was a vocal leader in the defense, and I even considered adding Crayton. Gallardo, Emilio, and Simms have all worn the armband at some point this year, but really no one else is going to beat the above three for votes. If you disagree, please let me hear it in the comments.