Bouna! Congratulations on being named the 2007 Class VI Player of the Year. Are you going to Disneyland?!?
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My vote for Bouna Coundoul: by Donna Feldman
He was my pick for several reasons.
One being: who else has played in all the games? The roster has turned into a blur of players coming and going for every reason imaginable: injury, cards, trades, US team duty and other stuff I haven't thought of.
New players got the call, and many of them have done really well. But they only played a few games. Through it all, Bouna has been pacing the net in his characteristic swaggering style. Except when he's pouncing on a shot, diving for a shot or launching himself into a crowd to grab an incoming shot. He single-handedly saved several games from disaster, including the recent Chivas win.
I also have to say, being the parent of a goal keeper, I have a special empathy for the peculiar and difficult job of protecting the net. TV highlights always show the scores, with the goalie doing a face-plant or diving the wrong way. PKs are rarely the goalie's fault, yet he's the one who gets the thankless task of going one-on-one with the kicker in a David v Goliath battle.
If the defense is falling apart and couldn't stop a birthday party balloon from floating by, the goalie is the one left alone to deal with the point-blank shots.
If the game is all at the other end, the keeper has nothing to do. Mend the net maybe? Trim the grass? And regardless of who let that breakaway through or got a yellow card in the box, the keeper ends up feeling ultimately resonsible for the scores that go in. It's mentally tough. So congratulations to Bouna for taking care of business with style and skill.
Posted by mark at October 19, 2007 05:57 AM