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SANDY, Utah (Saturday, November 1, 2008) - At halftime of today's first-ever Real Salt Lake MLS Cup Playoff contest, the team honored its 2008 team award recipients on the Rio Tinto Stadium videoboard display. Based on voting by the organization's technical staff and senior management, midfielder Javier Morales was recognized as the team's Most Valuable Player, while defender Nat Borchers claimed two awards - Defensive Player of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year - and forward Yura Movsisyan earned the statistically-based "Golden Boot" award by virtue of leading the team with seven goals during the 2008 regular season.
JAVIER MORALES - 2008 Real Salt Lake Most Valuable Player
Real Salt Lake MF Javier Morales was a relative unknown at the start of the season and an All-Star snub at the midway point, but there is little argument that the Argentine playmaker is meriting serious MLS Best XI consideration - despite being omitted for an MLS MVP Award finalist spot - after his brilliant season has brought Real Salt Lake to the postseason.
The proverbial straw that stirs the RSL drink, Argentine playmaker Javier Morales has re-written the RSL record books since last August's arrival from South America. Morales' 15 assists in 2008 ranked 2nd only to countryman Guillermo Barros Schelloto (19 - Columbus Crew), smashing RSL's single-season record, and his 17 career assists in just 36 games is a franchise-best. Starting 29 games and playing 2,511 minutes in his first full MLS season, Morales became the first player in RSL history to record assists in four straight games on 10/18 v. Dallas, when he provided two helpers in the first-ever win at Rio Tinto Stadium.
The seasoned playmaker's twice-monthly installments of the "Kyle & Javi" show, where Morales speaks English with teammate Kyle Beckerman waxing poetic in Spanish, have distinguished the 28-year old's sense of humor and showcased the comfort he and his family have found in Utah, the latest stop in a career that has seen the Buenos Aires native play in the Spanish Second Division (Vecindario, 2006/07) and Argentine Premier Division (Lanus, 1998-2000, 2003; Arsenal de Sarandi, 2000-2005; Newell's Old Boys, 2004; and Instituto de Cordoba, 2006).
NAT BORCHERS - 2008 RSL Defensive Player / Humanitarian of the Year Colorado native Nat Borchers perfectly encapsulates the player paradigm sought by RSL General Manager Garth Lagerwey and Head Coach Jason Kreis, that being American expatriates who return to MLS having lived, ate, breathed and slept the total immersion of a foreign soccer culture. The cerebral central defender helped anchor a revamped RSL backline that broke the club's single-season record with 39 goals allowed, while also providing veteran leadership both on the field and in the locker room. Borchers made his return to Major League Soccer with Real Salt Lake a massive success in 2008, starting all but one game (neck injury, 10/18) and playing 2,610 minutes for RSL in helping the squad to its first-ever postseason berth.
After two years in the Norweigan Tippeligaen, Borchers returned to the Rocky Mountains 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 in 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 2008 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 in September, personally donating dozens of tickets to SMA patients and their family members so that they could enjoy an evening of soccer.
Borchers will continue 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.
YURA MOVSISYAN - 2008 Real Salt Lake "Golden Boot" winner
A lethal combination of size, speed and ability, Armenian native Yura Movsisyan clinched RSL's 2008 MLS Cup Playoff position with his 90th-minute equalizer in the regular-season finale at Colorado, a goal that has been dubbed "The Million-Dollar Goal" by pundits for the short- and long-term opportunities the postseason affords RSL.
Movsisyan's heroics not only launched RSL into the Playoffs, but gave the striker the team's 2008 Golden Boot with 7 goals on the year, breaking the six-goal tie he shared with FW Robbie Findley and MF Javier Morales. The author of seven goals in the last 11 games, Movsisyan has seized his place in Head Coach Jason Kreis' lineup by coming through in the clutch, on the road (where six of his seven goals were scored) and in the MLS Reserve Division (co-leader league-wide with 8 goals in 2008).
Despite starting just 13 games with the senior team, Movsisyan ranked 7th in MLS in shots (69) and in SOG (33) and enjoyed a breakout month of September, during which he led MLS with 26 shots, 13 shots on goal, and 4 goals in 4 games played. On 9/13 @ New York, Movsisyan set a new RSL single-game record with 5 shots on goal while also taking 10 shots total, just one behind Andy Williams' club record of 11 (8/06/05 v. CHV) ...
