The NWSL MVP was announced on Wednesday and there it was no surprise that Crystal Dunn of the Washington Spirit was named. Dunn had an incredible year for the Spirit and rightfully deserved the award.
Dunn, 23, is the youngest player to ever with NWSL MVP honors. Kim Little and Lauren Holiday were 24 and 25 respectively win they won the award in 2014 and 2013. It also marks the third straight year that the Golden Boot winner, the player with the most goals, was named MVP.
In 20 appearances, Dunn scored 15 goals. She set a new NWSL record with 0.75 goals per team game in 2015. Her 15 goals in 2015 rank second to Little’s 16 goals scored in a season. What makes it even more impressive is that Dunn scored one less goal in four less games.
Dunn had a lot of firsts this year. She was named NWSL Player of the Week six times, an NWSL record. The previous record was three times which was held by Portland Thorns midfielder Veronica Boquete. She was named NWSL Player of the Month in August. In the month of August, she scored six goals and added one assist. She also scored her first NWSL hat-trick on August 1st against the Houston Dash in the first half.
She led the NWSL in shots (84), shots on goal (48) and finished with three assists on the season. She played a total of 1,711 minutes, 89 minutes short of playing every minute of the 2015 NWSL season.
In her team’s semi-final match against the Seattle Reign on September 6th, she was virtually nonexistent. She had only one shot and it was wide of goal. Dunn and the Spirit will be looking to do better next season and make yet another run to the NWSL Championship Game.
The NWSL awards are voted on by a selection of journalists that cover the league on a consistent basis, club officials, players and fans