Preki Up for the Hall

Wizards great, Preki, is up for induction into the US Soccer Hall of Fame this year. Preki is one of the leaders of this years new class, that includes Earnie Stewart and Jeff Agoos. Is Preki worthy of the hall of fame? In MLS terms most definitely. He's the first player to win 2 MVP awards (1997 and 2003) in both seasons, he led the league in scoring. In 2003, doing it at the age of 40. Throughout his career, players knew he was going to cut to his left, and it still didn't help them at all, as Marc Connolly put it so well back in 2005, Good ahead, try to stop Preki. He played 28 times for the US National team scoring 4 goals, the biggest being the only goal in the USA's only full national team win against Brazil.

The question becomes, is that enough. Preki was an average national team player, and got a late start on that career. He was an excellent MLS player, but as has seen in past years, being a great MLS player does not get you automatically elected (see Marco Etcheverry). It's starting to get to the point where US Soccer likely needs to consider an MLS only wing, where the league's greats can be elected on their play in the league alone.

And after looking over the rest of the list of nominees, there are 8 former Wizards up for election this year. Brian Bliss (in his last year of eligibility), Mike Burns, Mark Chung, Frank Klopas, Roy Lassiter, Preki, Mike Sorber, and Peter Vermes.