Friday, October 2, 2009

Benny Award 4: The Donnety

By definition, the Donnety Award goes to the player who has been the biggest disappointment for DC United in 2009. The award's namesake Matias Donnet came to United in 2006 and was seen as a potential all star due to his pedigree after playing for Boca Juniors, as well as spending some time in Serie A. But Donnet turned into a huge disappointment, playing in only 8 matches for United.

Last year's "winner" by just a hair was the star-studded combination of Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo. These two were brought to DC with high hopes of establishing a goalkeeper competition. Wells won the competition, but then took 17 matches to earn his first clean sheet. Meanwhile, Carvallo looked awful in his few appearances.

1. Luciano Emilio has been a scapegoat for a lot of fans this season. His 9 goals this season leads the team, but that's down from 11 in 2008 and 20 in 2007. Emilio may be a big disappointment when you consider his $750,000 salary, but is he really the biggest disappointment this year?

2. Fred has demonstrated a noted drop-off since joining MLS from Australia's A League. His 2 goals and 4 assists this year is identical to his stats from 2008, but he has not had the impact on games that he was having in 2007, and he now sits solidly behind two rookies on our depth chart.

3. Danny Szetela joined United via the allocation system in mid-July, but has only played in two league matches. Initially we heard that he was benched because of the "coach's decision", which seemed to indicate that he had done something to piss Tommy off. But lately all we've heard is that he isn't playing because he just isn't as good as the other players in front of him. Regardless, Szetela has yet to make an impression on the team, which some might call disappointing.

4. Greg Janicki earned himself a starting job in central defense last year and was in position to be Jakovic's chief backup this year. Uninspiring play and one terrible performance against Marathon instead earned himself a regular spot on the "Not in 18" list, and then eventually on the DL.



Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and feel free to argue for your choice in the comments section.

Up next: The Grosy - Who is DC United's gutsiest player?

2 comments:

BrunoReturns said...

Frankly, for me, it is probably Gomez. I will select from the nominations, though.

The worst player of the bunch is definitely Fred. However, I had very low expectations and he has fulfilled those expectations, so I am not disappointed in him. I am disappointed that he is still on the team.

So, due to his coming to us from Europe and not even being able to earn a spot on the team, even though we were in the crunch and suffering through injuries, my vote goes to Szetela.

Martin Shatzer said...

If I had a fifth nominee it would have been Gomez, but I thought that his 6 goals and 4 assists were about what we probably expected from him (not on par with the 10 and 10 he was getting here in 2005-07, but much better than he got in Colorado last year).