Today the team made their honorees for this past season. Danny Royer won the well deserved MVP, in the absence of BWP, he stood above the fray getting it done, this was sponsored by Alcatel. Defensive Plyaer of the Year went to Cristian Casseres Jr., no small feat with others playing in the back on their respective national teams. No surprise as he was a finalist for Humanitarian of the Year league wide, Luis Robles took home this distinction. Amro Tarek, is the Newcomer of the Year.
Royer, for his part, the 30 year old had his best numbers as a Red Bull of all his quartet with the club. He was tops in goals with 11 as his 8 assists tied him for tops in that other vital offensive category. What a 3 year run he has had with double digit goals in each of them and now stands in the 6th spot all time for goals with the team, with 35 in league play, in 2019 as a whole he struck for 14 goals over 39 games, 3 dozen of them starts.
Casseres Jr., had an effective start, then became a staple in the starting lineup after the All-Star break. At just 19, the Venezuelan internatinal won 183 duels, had 174 recveries, 31 interceprtions & played a role in fully 2/3's of the team shuouts for his defensive numbers. They were supplemented by a trio of goals and a quartet of assists over 26 MLS games with 22 starts. For his national team, Cristian was with the U-20's with 9 starts in the South American Championship and started for the U-23's in facing Brazil.
Tarek who arrived in the preseason had 20 starts as a centerback, all but 1 a start, with the team going an impressive 10-6-4 over those games. He was on the field for just over half of the 9 blank sheets with 5. Getting his first goal in May , a 3-2 win over the Galaxy and an assist in a 2-2 draw with the Whitecaps, his best points total in MLS play.
Robles, did even more on the Humanitarian front this year. He of course kept up on his personal visits to the hospital and personal contributions, he linked up with the famiiles of seriously ill children, hosting them at games and training sessions alike.. This afforded them a look at the day in the life of a pro athlete as did his visitis allow him into their world via hospital visitis to see how they deal with their maladies. He took to the catwalk in the Laureus Sport for Good fashion show, along with other top pro athletes, at a benefit Gala & fashion show, the proceeds of which went right back to support the Laureus Foundation and their work to get all children access to high quality sports programmings.