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Real Salt Lake Announces 2006 Team Award Winners

October 18, 2006 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Real Salt Lake News Release


SALT LAKE CITY (Wednesday, October 18th, 2006) Real Salt Lake is pleased to announce the team's award winners for the 2006 season. The winners were voted on by RSL players, coaches and fans. All award winners will be honored on tonight's Jerry Seiner Coaches Show, taking place at the Ice Berg Café located inside the Jerry Seiner dealership at 500 West and 1500 South, just west of I-15, from 5:30 -7:00 p.m.

TEAM MVP: JEFF CUNNINGHAM

Real Salt Lake forward Jeff Cunningham has been selected as the team's 2006 "Most Valuable Player", following a career year for the speedy striker. Cunningham was also awarded the "Budweiser Golden Boot", the award given to the MLS leading scorer. RSL Head Coach John Ellinger traded for Cunningham with the intention of improving the team's offensive output, and Cunningham delivered exactly that.

"Jeff had an amazing year for us", said Coach Ellinger. We brought him here to be our catalyst on offense, and he responded with one of his best seasons of his MLS career. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is his 16 goals, but he also had 11 assists. When he wasn't finishing the play off with a goal of his own, he was setting up one of his teammates. His pace and attacking ability are among the finest in all of MLS, we are fortunate to have him on our team. This award is much deserved and a reflection of Jeff's commitment this season, I am excited to see what he brings as an encore next year."

Cunningham, 30, scored 16 goals and recorded 11 assists in 31 games during his ninth MLS season and now has 90 career goals. His 2006 goal total matched a career high, equaling his goal output during the 2002 campaign as a member of the Columbus Crew. During his stellar goal scoring run this season, Cunningham passed Preki (79 goals), Raul Diaz Arce (82 goals) and Roy Lassiter (88 goals) on the MLS all-time goal scoring charts and now has the fourth highest goal total behind only RSL Captain Jason Kreis (108), DC United's Jaime Moreno (105) and Chivas USA'S Ante Razov (98).

Cunningham was honored when informed of the award, but would have liked to see the team battling for the MLS Cup.

"Of course it's nice to be recognized for hard work, but this is a team game", said Cunningham. I was able to have a good season, but I wouldn't have posted the numbers that I did if it wasn't for my teammates. Next year, I will gladly give up the Golden Boot and Team MVP if it means we qualify for the playoffs. We battled hard during the second half of the season, just to get back in the race. But we have to learn from our mistakes; we had a bad start to the season and it turned out to be a little too much for us to overcome. I am sure we will come out of the gates firing next season so we can avoid having to dig ourselves out of a hole. I am excited to see what we can do next year after a full year together. We just ran out of time this season, but mark my words, this team will be tough to beat next year, all year long."

After spending one season with the Colorado Rapids, Cunningham was traded to Real Salt Lake for forward Clint Mathis and had his most productive season in MLS. He had career highs in games played (31), games started (26) and minutes played (2,404).

Cunningham earned MLS Player of the Week honors four times during the 2006 season and was Player of the Month in August.

DEFENDER OF THE YEAR: CAREY TALLEY

Holding MF Carey Talley has been named the 2006 Real Salt Lake "Defender of the Year", due to his stellar season at the holding midfielder position. RSL Head Coach John Ellinger brought Talley to Salt Lake during the 2005 off season to provide depth and veteran leadership to the team, but Talley's overall play was a bit of a surprise to even the RSL Coach.

"I knew Carey would be a good fit for us; that's why we brought him here", said Ellinger. He has been around the league for a long time and is well respected by his peers. We brought him to Salt Lake to show our young players how to be a professional and how to carry themselves, both on the field and off. Originally we planned on playing Carey at center back to compliment Eddie (Pope), but with injuries and World Cup obligations, we needed Carey to step up to the holding midfielder spot. I'll be honest, with Eddie gone, I knew I could count on Carey to step in and be a leader for our defense, but I wasn't expecting him to become such a valuable piece of our offense as well. He scored what should be the Goal of the Year (Talley's 40 yard blast vs. Chivas USA on July 26th) and had eight assists. Carey was one of our best overall players this season, and I think it's safe to say we got a bargain when we acquired him from Dallas. He was one of the main catalysts of our turnaround this season and is a big piece of the puzzle moving forward."

Talley played in 30 games for RSL this season, all of them starts, while logging 2,618 minutes. He recorded two goals and a career high eight assists, while anchoring the RSL defense from the holding midfielder position. Talley was acquired by RSL from FC Dallas, along with Goalkeeper Scott Garlick, in exchange for a player allocation on November 18th, 2005.

Talley was honored to be named the team's Defensive Player of the Year, but not surprisingly, was disappointed that team's season was cut short.

"I appreciate the award, but I am still upset that we don't have a game on Saturday", said Talley. This is a playoff team; actually, this is more than a playoff team. We can play with and beat anyone, as we showed over the second half of the season. With the core group of veteran guys we have in place, along with the young players who are making progress, I anticipate big things next season."

HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR: SETH TREMBLY

Real Salt Lake is pleased to announce that MF Seth Trembly has been named the team's 2006 "Humanitarian of the Year", following a year full of community and charity goodwill projects.

Trembly tore the ACL of his left knee during a pre season game on February 22nd 2006, in Bradenton, Florida, forcing him to miss the entire 2006 MLS regular season. After a successful 2005 campaign with RSL where Trembly established himself as a regular contributor to the team, Coach Ellinger expected big things from the player known to fans as "The Bulldog." But instead of hanging his head and dwelling on his injury, Trembly focused his energies equally on rehabbing his knee and making a difference in the community. His charitable spirit and hard work have benefited hundreds of people in and around Salt Lake City. Jamie Barton, RSL'S Director of Events and Community Relations, expressed her thanks for all of Seth's efforts during the 2006 season.

"People don't realize how much Seth has done in the community this year", said Barton. The "Soccer Rocks Utah" concert was an overwhelming success, and it was the total brainchild of Seth. He was always contacting me with ideas of how he could personally make a difference. He is truly dedicated to using his status as a professional athlete to improve the quality of life of other people. He spent countless hours working with children this season at soccer clinics, school appearances, and other community events. Literally thousands of dollars were raised for underprivileged youth as a direct result of Seth's efforts. This award is well deserved."

The following is a breakdown of the goodwill initiatives triggered by Trembly during the 2006 season:

"Soccer Rocks Utah", a concert at the Sandy Amphitheater that featured musical performances from several MLS personnel, including Trembly, RSL DF Nikolas Besagno and LA Galaxy General Manager Alexi Lalas. The "Soccer Rocks Utah" CD featuring performances from Trembly, Besagno, Lalas, and Colorado Rapids MF Pablo Mastroeni, was sold at the concert and has continued to be sold throughout the season.

Profits from both the concert and CD sales have raised nearly $20,000 dollars up to this point, with all of the proceeds going to "Right to Play" and "Kicks for Kids", two organizations that provide much needed funding to soccer programs for underprivileged youth. Right to Play looks for children to assist on a world wide scale, while Kicks for Kids is a locally focused foundation.

Trembly has also involved himself Utah's Heart 2 Home, a local version of ABC 4's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, performing yet again for another benefit concert helping to raise funds for the construction of a home for a family in need. Currently, he is drumming up support for the actual television show, Extreme Makeover, as the show has come to Utah to help a family rebuild a home and their life.

THREE RSL PLAYERS NAMED FINALISTS FOR LEAGUE AWARDS: Major League Soccer today announced the finalists for the 2006 MLS League Awards, and Real Salt Lake is represented in three separate categories.

GATORADE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR FINALISTS:

Mehdi Ballouchy - Real Salt Lake

Jonathan Bornstein - Chivas USA

Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA

Kraft Global Fair Play Finalists:

Chris Klein - Real Salt Lake

Justin Mapp - Chicago Fire

Steve Ralston - New England Revolution

Honda MLS Most Valuable Player Finalists

Jeff Cunningham - Real Salt Lake

Dwayne De Rosario - Houston Dynamo

Christian Gomez - D.C. United

Winners for each award will be announced in the coming weeks, beginning with the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and Kraft Global Fair Play winners on Thursday, Oct. 19. The Honda MLS Most Valuable Player will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 9 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, site of MLS Cup 2006, which is being played on Sunday, Nov. 12. The RadioShack Best XI will be announced at the MLS Awards Gala on Saturday, Nov. 11.

The finalists, listed in alphabetical order below for each award, earned the most votes in polling of MLS players, general managers, coaches, referees and members of the media. The U.S. Soccer Foundation Humanitarian of the Year will be determined by the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Major League Soccer and MLS club representatives and will announced on Tuesday, Oct 24.

For more information of the 2006 MLS Awards, including a complete listing of awards and finalists, please log onto www.mlsnet.com.

SOTO WINS "SIERRA MIST GOAL OF THE WEEK": Real Salt Lake MF Jafet Soto has won the "Sierra Mist Goal of the Week" award for the final week of the MLS regular season. Soto soared through the air to put home an 89th-minute overhead kick and provide RSL with a 1-1 draw against Chivas USA last Sunday at the Home Depot Center. It was Soto's first career MLS goal. The world class strike can be seen on www.mlsnet.com.

RSL captured the Sierra Mist Goal of the Week a league leading six times throughout the 2006 season, with Soto's goal joining tallies from Chris Klein (week two, week 21), Jason Kreis (week three), Jeff Cunningham (week 10) and Carrey Talley (week 17) as RSL'S 2006 GOW winners.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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