I voted for Kevin Payne, but as much as anything it has to be a vote for Kyle Sheldon and the marketing staff at DC United. They were the biggest push behind the biggest media story of the year, the US Open Cup "feud" with Seattle. Well, them and the fans in the Twitterverse who were going at it with ECS for weeks before the game. The team did a great job of turning that riffing from the hardcore into hype in the mainstream.

The Open Cup propoganda was definitely the big story this year.
Anyone who was at that match can attest to the success of the marketing campaign. The crowd was electric, and it was probably the second best fan experience I have had at a United match, behind the '04 Eastern championship match.

I love the rose colored glasses you used for the Gomez story. "Easily surpassing Gallardo's production". True, but he was still a major disappointment this year. I wonder which of them had more minutes on the pitch in their year? Probably Gomez (especially if we include international play), but I would wager that it is closer than you might think.

I voted for Wallace and Pontius, but that was before reading AMT and Jeremy's comments. Now I'm not sure; while the emergence of the rookies is the bigger of the two events on the field, I'd definitely agree with Jeremy that the Open Cup game was one of the best fan experiences in years. Certainly the best this year. And we lost. So that says something.

Agree that you're being too kind to Gomez, too... I'd trade Gomez for a healthy and fit Gallardo in a heartbeat, even knowing that Fred and Emilio would do their best to flub the chances he creates for them. Bet Pontius would have finished a couple of these, though.

Gomez 1514 minutes to date in 2009. Gallardo had 1161 last year.

It's not a question though of trading a fit Gomez for a fit Gallardo. We'd all do that. But its not a question of skill. If Gallardo were here again, he'd get injured again. And somehow it would manage to be a special kind of injury that can only be healed on Argentinian soil. He just wasn't motivated to try his hardest while he was here. The same was true when he was playing for PSG.

It's not that Gallardo was great for us (he wasn't, and yes, fitness and motivation seem to be perennial problems for him when he steps across the Argentinean border), but that Jeremy's right that Gomez was still a major disappointment (unless, I guess, you weren't expecting much at all from him, but you've set up a comparison with Gallardo, who was supposed to lead us to international glory and eternal fame, or something like that). He's only been on the field for 3/5ths of the season, has exactly the same number of assists as Fred (who's had a horrendous season), and doesn't fit well into the formation that's become our best (4-4-2). But, even then, my point's not that Gomez is a bad player, or even mediocre -- even having declined as he has, he's still an above average MLS player. But he's not above average enough to be the fulcrum of a title-winning attack, which is what Gallardo was supposed to be, and that's why I don't think the storyline you've constructed is really accurate. It would have been great if Gomez came back to us in MVP-form and led us to another Supporter's Shield or Cup, but he's just not that player anymore.

Which leads me to what I think might be the real big story of the year: the slow and irreverisble decline of our veterans. I think we all hoped that, after a much brighter start to the season than we'd anticipated, the veterans (Olsen, Moreno, Gomez, Emilio) would be able to hold it together for one more year and somehow go out with a bang. But all four, despite showing flashes of quality and intelligence (Emilio, for instance, has worked really hard to do the little things this year -- holding up the ball, playing with his back to goal, winning balls in the air -- but has lost the predatory instinct that made him a valuable member of the team in the first place), haven't been able to play consistently at a high level, and so we've turned out mediocre. Ryan Johnson has more goals than Emilio. Josh Wolff has more than Jaime Moreno. Mehdi Ballouchy has more assists than Gomez. So does stick-a-fork-in-him-himself, Clint Mathis. Kheli Dube has twice as many game-winning goals as anyone on our team. Ben Olsen may have the best soccer brain on the team, be the heart and soul of the team, and have an underrated ability to beat his man with a sick turn, but how many times has he had to give up a free-kick because he wasn't quick enough or agile enough to stay with his man? (Roughly, thirty times.) It's not a pretty story, but can you honestly tell me that's not bigger than the Open Cup or the rookies?

Voted Wicks ... that was just a dumb thing to do.