MLS Hands Out Goalkeeper And Rookie Of The Year Awards; Team And Individual Fair Play Honors

In the first wave of Major League Soccer's postseason awards for 2010, the league named Los Angeles Galaxy's Donovan Ricketts the Goalkeeper of the Year, DC United defender Andy Najar the Rookie of the Year, the Philadelphia Union's Sebastian Le Toux the league's Fair Play winner and the San Jose Earthquakes the Team Fair Play winner.

Ricketts defeated Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando and FC Dallas' Kevin Hartman for the award and is the first Galaxy player to win it since Hartman did so in 1999.

Ricketts is also the first non-US or Canadian player to win the award, having been born in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In his second season in the league, Ricketts posted 11 shutout wins, seven of them on the road, and had the second-best goals against average in the league behind Hartman.

Najar, a 17-year-old defender, became the first ROTY winner from the United since former defender and interim head coach Ben Olsen won it in 1998, is the first at defender to win the award since Clint Dempsey in 2004, is the youngest to ever win the award, is the second to win it from a last place team, following Maurice Edu of Toronto FC in 2007, and is the first player to be promoted from an MLS team's youth academy to their senior team to win it.

He had seven goals and two assists in all competitions in 2010 and beat out Danny Mwanga of the expansion Philadelphia Union and Tim Ream from the New York Red Bulls.

Le Toux, a forward, won the Individual Fair Play Award for the second straight season, tallying ten fouls in 2010 but receiving no yellow cards. In 2009, with the Seattle Sounders, he had seven fouls but no yelloe cards. He defeated retiring Chicago Fire star C.J. Brown and 2010 MLS Budweiser Golden Boot winner Chris Wondolowski of the San Jose Earthquakes for the award.

In 2010, Le Toux had 14 goals and 11 assists for the Union.

Finally, the Earthquakes, who last won the Team Fair Play Award in 2001, the year they won the MLS Cup, led the league in having the fewest fouls with 286 and tied for the fewest yellow cards issued at 40.