2011 NADI Review

The story of the North American Division I 2011 season was not the championships won by the Houston Comets or Zacatepec but rather the season put in by the Order of the Georgia Peach Sporting Authority, and most notably their veteran striker, twenty-eight year old Nicola Brighenti who scored an amazing 24 goals in 28 league games. Led by Brighenti, MLS veteran Kheli Dube and on-loan winger Steven Owens, the Peaches looked to be the class of the league, but faded at the end of the season to finish in second behind the Comets.

Joining the two champions and Georgia in promotion are The Golden Wolves of Albuquerque, Real Miami, Correcaminos UAT, The Rochester Rhinos, and LA Firpo.

Challenging Brighenti as the best player in NADI was Correcaminos’ eighteen year old defender David Chávez. In a bewildering vote, Brighenti was left out of the MVP voting entirely, with Chávez beating out Reboceros de la Piedad’s Boyd Parham (who is destined shortly for Chelsea) for the award. The Young Player of the Year was won by New England’s Willie Roberts (on loan at Lighthouse), who edged out Owens and the Comets’ Lance Miller.

NADI always has a lot of churn: going down this year are Victoria, Marquense, Platense, the Islanders, Árabe Unido, Comunicaciones, Salamanaca, The Santa Fé Red Devils, the New York Giants, the Phoenix, the Memphis Blues, and the Penn Yan Mustangs.

NADI Awards

Goalkeeper of the Year: Graham McSweeney (Comets)

Defender of the Year: Scott Jones (Vancouver)

Midfielder of the Year: Humberto Gutiérrez (Correcaminos)

Striker of the Year: Nader Kara (Correcaminos)

NADI All Stars

GK: McSweeney

D: N’Faly Kouyate (Árabe Unido), Jones, Chávez, Marco Reda (Vancouver)

M: Julio César Cruz (Olimpia), Mick Johnson (Real Miami), Gutiérrez, Wycliff Kambonde (Georgia)

F: Brighenti, Kara

NADI Select XI

The Select XI showed only two changes, with Marathón’s Said Maulid replacing Kambonde in midfield and Parham replacing Kara up front.

July, 2011 Awards

Not surprisingly, given Racing Club’s general ineptitude and the heavy cup schedule for the Houston Comets, July was quite light on awards for the five focus teams. Each had a single player named in the Team of the Week, Keneil Luccioni for Racing Club Haïtien and Kevin Friedland for the Comets. It was the first such honor for either player. Racing Club’s David Barron finished second in Manager of the Month voting in NADII, behind Guerreros’ Pablo Moreno. Elsewhere in North America:

• New York Red Bulls coach Jim Magilton claimed his second Manager of the Month award on the young season, a reflection of the Red Bull’s dominant performance to date in North America’s top division.
• The Player of the Month awards were dominated by youngsters, and defenders at that, with 19 year old Arturo Ledesma of Atlante finishing ahead of New England’s 17 year old Adam Johnson. In third place, Tigres UANL’s Israel Jiménez, at 21, was the veteran of the trio.
• The Young Player of the Month award was claimed by the Red Bulls’ prodigy, Ukrainian Andriy Yarmolenko, who finished ahead of Johnson and Jiménez.
• Colorado’s teenage striker, Nick Johnson, was named Player of the Month in NACL while Irapuato’s Francisco Mora claimed his second Young Player of the Month honor.
• Willie Roberts, on loan at Lighthouse from the Revolution, was the NADI Young Player of the Month while Correcaminos UAT’s David Chávez won the overall award. Vancouver’s Ivoirian import Serge Deblé and Reboceros de la Piedad’s Boyd Parham were second and third respectively for both awards.

August 2010 Awards

There are seventy-five teams in NADII, so being named to the team of the week is quite an accomplishment. In August, Houston saw four players earn that honor: Victor Ramirez, Ralph Murphy, Marcus Westwood, and Felix Garcia. Perhaps more surprisingly, a member of Racing Club Haïtien, Guadeloupian midfielder Liam Parmentier, was named to that squad for the first time in the team’s history.

In England, where the quality of play is higher, but the amount of competition significantly less, Chelsea saw six players named to the EPL Team of the Week: Yury Zhirkov, Ricardo Carvalho, Simon Vukcevic (twice), Didier Drogba, John Terry, and Edin Dzeko. Drogba finished behind West Brom’s Scott Carson in the player of the month voting, ahead of Burnley’s Matt Derbyshire while Arsenal’s young winger Theo Walcott was selected as the Young Player of the Month in the league.

Veracruz swept the NACL player of the month awards, with John Javier Restrepo edging out teammates Pedro Domínquez and César Valoyes for the award. A trio of defenders—Dorados’ Víctor Silva, Correcaminos UAT’s David Chávez, and Alajuelense’s Cristían González—topped the young player of the month lists in that league. Further down, sixteen year old Boyd Parham continues to outclass NADI for Reboceros de la Piedad while Blizzard FC’s Chris Haworth was the best young player in NADII for the second consecutive month.

Blizzard FC's Chris Haworth.

Aresenal's lightning-quick Theo Walcott.

Racing Club's first NADII Team of the Week selection, Liam Parmentier.