USL News Release

 

Monday, September 11, 2006

 

TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues announced Monday the Statistical Award winners for the 2006 USL First Division season along with the Team and Player of the Week honors for the final week of the regular season.

The Scoring and Goal Scoring Championship finished in a tie between two polar opposites with Seattle rookie Cam Weaver and 1994 Brazilian World Cup MVP Romario of Miami completing the season with an identical 18 goals scored and 39 points.

Just as the season was preparing to get underway, expansion Miami sent a stunning headline that traveled the globe with their signing of the former World Cup MVP to join fellow 1994 Brazilian teammate Zinho.

On the other side of the nation, Seattle University’s Weaver was the last player to make the squad for the defending champion Sounders.

When Cuban international Maykel Galindo was knocked out of the lineup in a terrible collision to the face in a friendly, he stepped up and shouldered the scoring burden. The 6-4 forward scored four goals in the first five games and found the back of the net in 14 games over the course of the season with a four-game goal scoring streak midseason. He steadily remained ahead of Romario for most of the season, extending his lead to five goals with five games remaining in the season.

That’s when the veteran Romario took over and made the charge to close the gap and eventually tie the rookie. He torched Atlanta for four goals, including a hat-trick, in a weekend away-home series to pull within one goal and one point in the two categories. Then a header in the first of two games in Puerto Rico in the final weekend put the pair level in goals and Romario ahead by one point.

The following night Weaver registered an assist to share both titles. The two finished ahead of Puerto Rico’s Alen Marcina (13 goals, 26 points) and Vancouver’s Joey Gjertsen (12 goals, 31 points).

Romario’s efforts were assisted in part by Zinho, who finished as the Assist Leader on the season to take the league honor for helpers with 10 on the season. He finished three ahead of Toronto’s Jamie Dodds, who made a late charge, and Vancouver’s Joey Gjertsen, who looked early on to be a contender for the goal scoring championship. The two helped guide the first-year club to the league’s best goal total with 47 on the year, seven more than Vancouver.

It was the same old story on the other end of the pitch with Montreal’s Greg Sutton earning the Goalkeeper of the Year honor with the lowest goals against average (0.500) for the fourth straight season behind a stellar defensive back line that also helped guide back-up Andrew Weber to second in the same category at 0.571 as both finished above the minimum 1,000 minute plateau for eligibility. The 2004 league MVP opened the season with five shutouts in the first six games before missing the middle part of the campaign due to a broken finger. Weber posted seven shutouts in his absence with Sutton returning to notch a fourth straight clean sheet in his return and posting three straight to close the season.

Rochester’s Scott Vallow finished third in GAA, but led the league in shutouts (14), wins (13) and minutes (2,520), concluding the season as the only goalkeeper in the league to play every minute. Atlanta defender Matt Bobo was the only other play to not miss a minute in 2006.

 

The All-League First and Second Team selections will be announced Wednesday, September 13. The finalists for Defender, Rookie, Coach of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards will be announced Tuesday, September 19 with the winners announced at the championship banquet prior to the USL First Division Championship Saturday, September 30.

Toronto forward Kevin Jeffrey’s hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Minnesota Sunday put an exclamation point on an amazing turnaround for the Toronto Lynx season that saw the club rebound from an 11-game winless run to open the season to finishing the year unbeaten in their last 10 at home and going 8-3-6 in their remaining 17 games. In the end, the Lynx only missed the playoffs by six points.

After proving a threat in a 0-0 draw at Montreal two nights earlier, Jeffrey opened the scoring five minutes into their season finale against the Thunder. An own goal four minutes later gave the Lynx a 2-0 lead.

Jeffrey pushed the margin to a commanding three two minutes before the break and finished the hat-trick in the 58th minute on the second of two assists midfielder Jamie Dodds had on the night.

Jeffrey scored nine goals down the stretch with two assists, finishing eighth in points with 20, one ahead of Dodds, and tied for sixth in goals.