The 2018 USL awards are out and, once again, no Louisville City player or coach won one. Some are a bit bent out of shape about that, and that’s okay. How is it that the team that has won two USL Cups in a row can’t pick up a single individual award? The answer is, in part, that these awards go to a vote at the end of the regular season, before the playoffs start. In other words, the winner of the league’s main prize is irrelevant for these annual awards.
That’s okay! A player or coach should be judged on the season’s body of work. Emanuel Ledesma had a fabulous season. I’ve got no gripes about him winning Player of the Year or whatever it’s called. Matt Pickens was a solid goalkeeper for a very defense-oriented team. Forrest Lasso is a very good defender. I think Paco is better, but I’m admittedly biased. Alan Koch piloted the most expensive roster in USL history to the most points won by a team in USL history. I’m sure that was difficult.
It doesn’t matter. You don’t get stars on your badge for winning Player of the Year. You don’t get stars for winning the regular season. You don’t get them for winning Coach of the Year or Goal of the Year or Save of the Year or whatever. The prize that matters most in the USL is the Cup. If you deny it, you’re being willfully ignorant and that’s a you problem, not an everyone else problem.
I think James O’Connor got wrongly snubbed last year. I think he and the Triumvirate and Hackworth got snubbed this year, though it’s admittedly hard to award a COY award to five different people all at once. Cam’s probably pleased as punch to have the Golden Boot, but in the end it doesn’t matter. None of those awards do, in the end. Ask JOC or Luke or Paolo or Cuatro or Cam or Hackworth what they’d rather have. Hell, ask Alan Koch or Ledesma or Pickens or Lasso. They’d all give you the same simple answer: a cup winner’s medal.