SAN JOSE - Major League Soccer today announced that San Jose Earthquakes teammates Pat Onstad and Ronald Cerritos, who helped lead their team to the best record in MLS, were selected as the winners of the 2005 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and 2005 Kraft Global Fair Play awards respectively.
Onstad, who earns his second Goalkeeper of the Year award in three seasons, had one of the best statistical seasons as a goalkeeper in MLS history. Along with being one of only five players to start and play in every minute of all 32 MLS regular season games (2880 minutes), the 37-year-old veteran led the League in wins (18), shutouts (12), goals against average (0.97), and save percentage (77.2 percent). With a talented group of defenders in front of him, the Canadian international served as the last line of a defense that surrendered a League-low 31 goals during the season. He became the third goalkeeper in MLS history to post a goals against average below 1.00 for a season while playing over 2000 minutes. His 12 shutouts mark the second highest single-season total in MLS history. Onstad narrowly edged out Matt Reis of the New England Revolution while defending Goalkeeper of the Year Joe Cannon of the Colorado Rapids finished in third place in the voting. The award marks the third time in the last four years that an Earthquakes goalkeeper has earned the title.
"It is nice to win this award," Onstad said. "Especially considering the way the season started, it was great to be able to turn things around. I think the Goalkeeper of the Year award, out of all the individual awards, is more team oriented than anything else. For me to win this award shows how well we have done defensively this season."
Cerritos was the epitome of sportsmanship throughout the 2005 season and claimed the Kraft Global Fair Play award. San Jose's all-time leading goal-scorer returned to the Quakes this year after playing with Dallas, D.C. United and in his native El Salvador during the past three seasons. In 30 games played in 2005, Cerritos was only whistled for 21 fouls committed in 2,308 minutes played. Consistently one of the cleanest players in the League, Cerritos has only received one yellow card caution since the 1999 season, a span of 115 games. Justin Mapp of the Chicago Fire and D.C. United's Brian Carroll finished second and third respectively.
"I am happy to be recognized for this award," Cerritos said. "I always want to play hard, but I also always want to play fairly. I think it is great for so many players from this team to be recognized, because everyone has had such a great season so far. Hopefully we can continue to play well in the playoffs."
Four Earthquakes are finalists for other MLS season ending awards, which will be announced at a later date. Cerritos is also one of three finalists for the MLS Comeback Player of the Year, to be announced October 25. Head coach Dominic Kinnear is a finalist for MLS Coach of the Year, to be announced November 1, Danny Califf is a finalist for Defender of the Year (October 25) and Dwayne De Rosario is one of three finalists for Honda Most Valuable Player (November 10).
Kinnear overhauled the Quakes prior to 2005 and led them to the Supporter's Shield and a record-breaking 18-4-10 finish, as San Jose set an MLS record for fewest losses in a season and became just the second team in MLS history to record over 60 points. Kinnear guided the Quakes to the only unbeaten home record in league history. De Rosario finished the season leading MLS in assists with 13 and scored nine goals in 2005, in addition to being named the MLS October Player of the Month. Califf was a main reason the Earthquakes defense was the best in MLS, allowing only 31 goals. Since Califf joined the starting lineup May 25 after recovering from a knee injury, the Quakes recorded 10 shutouts.
The MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and the Kraft Global Fair play award were determined by equal voting from the media (33.33 percent), MLS players (33.33 percent) and MLS coaches and general managers (33.33 percent). With each voting category representing one-third of the total votes, the formula used for determining the award winners involved assigning 33.33 total points to each category for a possible total of 99.99 points. Therefore if a player received 50 percent of the votes in any of the three voting categories, he would earn 16.67 points (half of 33.33) for that category. The voting totals were as follows:
MLS Goalkeeper of the Year
Media Players Coach/GM Total
Pat Onstad 11.60 8.32 10.49 30.41
Matt Reis 7.35 11.92 9.88 29.15
Joe Cannon 2.94 4.30 6.48 13.72
Kraft Global Fair Play - Individual
Media Players Coach/GM Total
Ronald Cerritos 6.00 5.08 7.04 18.12
Justin Mapp 4.29 5.82 4.65 14.76
Brian Carroll 4.57 5.43 2.66 12.66
MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Winners:
2005:
Pat Onstad - San Jose Earthquakes
2004:
Joe Cannon - Colorado Rapids
2003:
Pat Onstad - San Jose Earthquakes
2002:
Joe Cannon - San Jose Earthquakes
2001:
Tim Howard - MetroStars
2000:
Tony Meola - Kansas City Wizards
1999:
Kevin Hartman - Los Angeles Galaxy
1998:
Zach Thornton - Chicago Fire
1997:
Brad Friedel - Columbus Crew
1996:
Mark Dodd - Dallas Burn
Kraft Global Fair Play Award - Individual Winners:
2005: Ronald Cerritos - San Jose Earthquakes
2004: Eddie Pope - MetroStars
2003: Brian McBride - Columbus Crew
2002: Mark Chung - Colorado Rapids
2001: Alex Pineda Chacon - Miami Fusion
2000: Steve Ralston - Tampa Bay Mutiny
1999: Steve Ralston - Tampa Bay Mutiny
1998: Thomas Dooley - Columbus Crew
1997: Mark Chung - Kansas City Wizards
