SANDY, Utah - At halftime of today's regular-season finale, Real Salt Lake honored its 2009 team award recipients on the Rio Tinto Stadium videoboard display. Based on voting by the organization's technical staff and senior management, defender Nat Borchers was recognized as the team's Most Valuable Player, while defender Jamison Olave was named Defensive Player of the Year. Another defender, Robbie Russell, received the squad's annual Humanitarian of the Year honor, while forward Robbie Findley earned the statistically-based "Golden Boot" award by virtue of leading the team with 10 goals during the 2009 regular season.
NAT BORCHERS - 2009 Real Salt Lake Most Valuable Player
One year after playing in all but one contest on the Real Salt Lake backline, defender Nat Borchers did himself one better in 2009, setting the squad's pace in minutes played, missing only 21 minutes of action en route to becoming the only RSL player to start in all 30 contests this season. While Borchers mans half of a bruising center-back tandem with Jamison Olave, the Colorado native's cerebral approach to the game has once again stood out, as he is again averaging less than a foul committed per contest. A trusted member of the locker room, Borchers was charged with serving as RSL's captain on a handful of occasions during the international absences of Kyle Beckerman.
Borchers perfectly encapsulates the player paradigm sought by RSL General Manager Garth Lagerwey and Head Coach Jason Kreis, that being American expatriates who have returned to MLS having lived, ate, breathed and slept the total immersion of a foreign soccer culture. The central defender helped anchor a revamped RSL backline that broke the club's single-season record with just 35 goals allowed, while also providing veteran leadership both on the field and in the locker room.
Borchers entered Saturday's MLS Matchday 30 action as one of only five field players and eight players overall to start every game for his squad this season, and ranking 6th in minutes played [including 3rd overall among field players behind only Darius Barnes (NE) and David Ferreira (DAL)] after missing only 21 minutes back on May 6 v. LA. Tonight, Borchers became only the 4th player in RSL history to start every match in a season, joining Chris Klein (2006), Kyle Beckerman (2008) and Nick Rimando (2008).
After two years in the Norweigan Tippeligaen, Borchers returned to the Rocky Mountains prior to the 2008 season intent on donating his time and efforts off the field to numerous clinics and public appearances on behalf of his new team - including a free clinic for youth players in his hometown of Pueblo, Colo., during a break in the RSL schedule last August. Borchers also helped spearhead a local awareness campaign on behalf of patients suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a cause he began to champion when his godson, Josh, was diagnosed with the type II form of the disease during his playing days in Colorado. As part of his community efforts, Borchers sponsored and helped to organize, in conjunction with the University of Utah Department of Neurology, an "SMA Awareness Night" during one of Real Salt Lake's home contests each of the last two seasons, personally donating dozens of tickets to SMA patients and their family members so that they could enjoy an evening of soccer.
Borchers continues his efforts throughout the year by recruiting teammates to visit SMA and Muscular Dystrophy patients at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City and organizing events similar to RSL's "SMA Awareness Night" in an attempt to create a broader local support system for those families dealing with the disease by bringing them together and sharing their experiences.
JAMISON OLAVE - 2009 Real Salt Lake Defensive Player of the Year
Real Salt Lake center-back Jamison Olave will forever be known as the man who scored the first RSL goal in Rio Tinto Stadium history last October, and the Colombian defender has put together a stellar effort in 2009 with three more goals to go along with the physically dominating, imposing and vacuum-like defensive efforts that MLS opponents have come to expect. Olave and his central partner Nat Borchers allowed just one goal in 450 minutes of play in a critical month of August while helping the squad to a 3-1-1 record, the lone goal being allowed on Aug. 1 in a 0-1 loss at Chicago.
That month saw four of the team's record 11 shutouts throughout 2009, as Olave - who also is tied for third on the team in scoring this season - joined his backline mates in snuffing most opposing attacks, with RSL setting a new franchise mark for fewest goals allowed in a season (35). RSL opposition routinely failed to register double-digit shots and more than two shots on goal.
ROBBIE RUSSELL - 2009 USSF Real Salt Lake Humanitarian of the Year
In his first full season in a Real Salt Lake uniform, defender Robbie Russell contributed heavily to Utah's MLS side both on and off the field. The cosmopolitan Russell, who was born in Ghana and lived in three continents before the age of five, served as RSL's spokesperson for Major League Soccer's continuing efforts behind the "Nothing But Nets" campaign against malaria, helping attract attention to the cause locally by hosting a clinic with NTN at Rio Tinto Stadium during MLS All-Star Week in Sandy.
Russell also donates time to the American Lung Association, who recognized his efforts to reach out to area schools children by speaking at clinics promoting the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle and avoiding the dangers of tobacco products. In addition, Russell shared his love for the sport with local youth soccer players by donating his time at several RSL-sponsored Youth Clinics and Camps throughout the team's 2009 season.
ROBBIE FINDLEY - 2009 Real Salt Lake "Golden Boot" winner
Thanks to a pair of goals in tonight's regular season finale, Real Salt Lake forward Robbie Findley finished the 2009 campaign with 12 goals, the second highest single-season total in RSL history, ranking behind only Jeff Cunningham's 16-goal performance back in 2006 and smahing his previous career-high of eight, set in his rookie season of 2007. In RSL's 2009 home opener, a 4-1 win over defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew, Findley notched the organization's first-ever hat trick, finding the back of the net three times in one of more special nights at Rio Tinto Stadium during the facility's first year. Findley's three multi-goal games on the season were tied for the second most in MLS, behind only Cunningham, the League's Golden Boot winner.
Findley, who now has 24 goals since joining RSL midway through his 2007 campaign in one of RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis' initial trades, broke Cunningham's RSL career scoring mark of 19 with a PK conversion in a 4-2 victory over Cunningham's FC Dallas side back on July 24. Findley's 12 goals ties him for 3rd place in the MLS Budweiser Golden Boot chart as of the finish of tonight's match, tying him with Seattle FC's Fredy Montero and defending MLS MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto of Columbus. Findley entered the weekend in the League's top 10 in another category, as he averaged 0.53 goals per 90 min (6th) in his first 26 appearances.
As RSL clawed its way back into postseason contention after the bizarre 18-day scheduling hiatus in early October, Findley returned to the scoresheet in a different fashion than usual on Oct. 14 against New York, as the fleet-footed forward notched a pair of assists in RSL's 2-0 win over the Red Bulls. The assists - Findley's first helpers in 21 games, dating back to another two-assist effort back on April 11 v. D.C. - marked his first point since he bagged a pair of goals in 24 minutes off the bench on Aug. 26 to secure a 4-0 win over Chivas USA. Along with his now 4 assists (T-3rd) on the squad, Findley has proven to be a dangerous attacking option either as a starter in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formations, or off the bench, utilizing his dazzling speed.
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