Awards and Announcements Aplenty

The final awards of the 2009 MLS season will be handed out this week, with a Galaxy player at the heart of most of them.

Yesterday, Landon Donovan was named to the MLS Best XI for the second straight season and he could claim another prize on Thursday, when the league announces the Volkswagen Most Valuable Player award. Landon has never before won the award and only needs to beat out fellow nominees Jeff Cunningham of FC Dallas and Shalrie Joseph of New England to scoop the top individual honor in MLS.

The team will fly to Seattle on Thursday, so hopefully we'll be able to pass along some good news before we take off.

Speaking of awards, don't forget to go to MLSnet.com on Wednesday to find out if Alecko or Landon has won the AT&T Goal of the Year award. Alecko's long range blast from Giants Stadium was one of 10 finalists, as was Landon's Goal of the Week winner from the August 8 win at New England. No Galaxy player as won the Goal of the Year award since Carlos Ruiz did so in 2002, so be sure to check out MLSnet.com tomorrow morning to find out who won.

As much as the Landon and Alecko would love to win that award, I think that they would be more than happy to bypass that award if they can guarantee to get their hands on this come Sunday evening.