One could easily make the argument that Charlie Davies deserved the MLS Comeback Player of the Year award the moment he stepped onto the field in the first game of the season, and clinched it in a walkover when he scored twice for D.C. United against Columbus in his first minutes since his horrific car accident back in October 2009.
Alas, after a full season and voting for the award that is split between club officials/front offices, the media and MLS players, Davies was edged just barely for the award by Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, who suffered a ruptured Achilles in 2010 – while playing on loan for AC Milan – that might very well have ended his career but came back with an MVP-caliber season for the Galaxy, who will face Houston in the 2011 MLS Cup on Sunday.
The voting is key to how this award shook out. Take a look:
|
Comeback |
% of Club Votes |
% of Media Votes |
% of Player Votes |
Weighted Total |
|
David Beckham (LA) |
17.02 |
22.84 |
19.90 |
59.76 |
|
Charlie Davies (DC) |
13.83 |
26.70 |
17.28 |
57.81 |
|
Dominic Oduro (CHI) |
18.09 |
10.47 |
12.96 |
41.52 |
|
Geoff Cameron (HOU) |
17.21 |
8.90 |
12.35 |
38.46 |
|
Jack Jewsbury (POR) |
4.26 |
11.52 |
6.79 |
22.57 |
First, note that the media had Davies over the other candidates and by big a bigger margin than either of the other two sets of voters. But the vote of club officials and front office staff is was where this thing was decided. Not only did Davies fail to capture the largest portion of those votes, neither did Beckham. Chicago forward Dominic Oduro, who scored 12 goals for Houston, and Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron, who missed half of last season with a knee injury, returning to start 33 games and tally five goals and five assists, both came away with more. Of course, the only thing Oduro came back from was being underproductive, and the official description of the award is this: “Honors an MLS player who has overcome injuries and/or adversity in order to achieve success during the 2011 regular season.”
But this is about Davies, whose return to the field was nothing short of inspirational. The thing is, after his initial dramatic return, he didn’t help his case, getting nearly half of his goals (4 of 11) from penalty kicks – and drawing a couple of those with controversial embellishment – while struggling to find his form at all over the latter half of the season. There was even the revisiting of how his accident happened in the first place when news of his lawsuit against the club that served the driver of the vehicle surfaced just before the end of the season.
Something had to make people think twice about voting against him. Should they have? Probably not.
