Next up in the SaH awards season is Breakout Player of the Year. Voting is combined in one post for both the Seattle Sounders and OL Reign awards. You can continue to vote for just one team’s awards if you feel insufficiently informed to vote for both.

This award is open to players who had an unexpectedly strong season in 2022 — performing above what the prognosticators and fans thought the player was capable of doing. This could be a young player or rookie who had a strong year, a player who showed increasing potential, or a veteran who proved themselves in new ways.

Past Sounders winners: Josh Atencio, Alex Roldan

Past Reign winners: This is a new category for OL Reign voting

Reign Voting

Olivia Van der Jagt

Olivia Van der Jagt was selected in the third round of the 2022 NWSL Draft. She wasn’t expected to get significant playing time in her rookie season. but Van der Jagt’s ability to read the game, combined with her work rate, made the rookie a key asset in the midfield. She played in 26 matches across all competitions — earning a goal and assist as a box-to-box and sometimes defensive midfielder.

Sam Hiatt

After injuries derailed the start of her NWSL career, Sam Hiatt was a consistent starter on the Reign’s league-leading defense in 2022. The centerback played 27 matches this year in all competitions. The preferred partner to Alana Cook, Hiatt was 11th in the league in clearances per 90 minutes and was tied for 6th in blocks per 90. Sam the Shredder (her new Ride of the Valkyries nickname) was extremely poised in the box and made it hard for opponents to get shots off.

Phallon Tullis-Joyce

The OL Reign goalkeeper made a name for herself with Stade de Reims in France prior to her arrival in Seattle, getting nominated for goalkeeper of the year in 2021. Still, many Reign fans didn’t predict the immediate impact Phallon Tullis-Joyce would make. According to FotMob, she had the second-best save percentage in the league (75.6%). She also was nominated for 2022 Goalkeeper of the Year and had the lowest goals-against average in the NWSL Challenge Cup for goalkeepers with more than two starts (conceding 5 in 7 games).

Sounders Voting

Jackson Ragen

The Tower of Power went from 16 starts and 1440 minutes with Tacoma Defiance in the USL Championship in 2021 to 14 MLS starts, 9 MLS sub appearances, 1 start in the Open Cup, 3 starts and 3 sub appearances in the Concacaf Champions League in 2022. That’s 1774 competitive minutes with the top-flight side, and then toss in two MLS Next Pro starts for good measure.

Ragen surged forward in 2022, becoming the third-best regular CB for the Sounders.

Marlon Vargas

Heading into 2022, Marlon Vargas had six goals in the USL Championship. The frequent winger up until 2021, he was always ready, a rotational player off the bench.

In ‘22 there was a new Marlon. He could play any role in the front six, including the 6. He scored 13 goals in MLS Next Pro while playing more minutes than the last two seasons combined. It was a coming-out party.

Obed Vargas

Back on May 4, 2022, Obed Vargas entered the biggest match of the Seattle Sounders' existence. It was the CCL final, second leg. Seventy thousand people were in the stands and Designated Player João Paulo went down injured. Obed came on in minute 29, playing 61 of the most important minutes of his young career. Back in 2021, Obed played just 77 MLS minutes. He finished the season with 1,277 competitive minutes and never took the pitch for Tacoma Defiance. He was just 16.