Before we get too deep into the playoffs, I thought it would be good to share my MLS end-of-season awards ballot. There were a lot of really good candidates this year, but for the most part I felt like the winners were pretty easy decisions because of particularly standout performances.
MVP: Leo Messi
As recently as a month ago, there seemed to be some genuine debate about who would win MVP. Messi put that to bed with probably the greatest closing MVP push in MLS history. Starting with the game against the Sounders on Sept. 16, Messi tallied 10 goals and eight assists over his final eight league games. He finished with 29 goals and 16 primary assists, topping Carlos Vela’s amazing 2019 campaign while playing about 300 fewer minutes. This was the easiest MVP vote in history…
Best case for a Sounder: Cristian Roldan was the Sounders’ best player, I’d argue, and in a world where No. 6’s get serious consideration for MVP, I’d have been inclined to make the case for him.
Coach of the Year: Jesper Sørensen
There are probably three or four coaches who in any given year put up a season that would be worthy of this award, but I feel like Sørensen was a pretty easy pick in the end. Not only were the Whitecaps extremely good this year — 63 points — but they did that while navigating one of the busiest schedules in the entire league, winning the Canadian Championship and getting to the Concacaf Champions Cup final. Oh, and they did this while navigating the tumult of being put up for sale and mostly with a roster that was very similar to the one that finished on 47 points a year ago.
Best case for a Sounder: There was a time shortly after the Leagues Cup final when I thought Brian Schmetzer might be able to make a run at this. But after that four-game winless run knocked the Sounders out of contention for a top spot in the West, I think the case was simply too hard to make. I will say that I think this was Schmetzer’s most impressive coaching job of any complete season.
Goalkeeper of the Year: Dayne St. Clair
Another award that I thought ended up being pretty easy to decide, St. Clair was good by basically every metric. His 1.00 goals against average was second best in the league, he led the league with a 79.9 save percentage, was fourth with 10 shutouts and was second in post-shot xG (+9.7). No one else could match that type of across-the-board goalkeeper performance.
Best case for a Sounder: It remains a crime that Stefan Frei has never won this award, and if he had stayed healthy, maybe there’s a chance he wins it. But once he missed a couple of months, it really didn’t matter how well he played outside of that.
Defender of the Year: Tristan Blackmon
This one was a little tougher, but I tend to give this to the best player on the best defense. While the Philadelphia Union allowed fewer goals, the Vancouver Whitecaps gave up fewer xG and frankly I just like Blackmon’s game better than anyone on the Union enough that I was willing to overlook that he missed nine games.
Best case for a Sounder: Jackson Ragen really leveled up this year, and that’s on the heels of being a finalist last year. He remains the best passing centerback in the league and it’s genuinely baffling that he can’t get a sniff at the United States national team.
Newcomer of the Year: Anders Dreyer
Another really easy pick since Dreyer would have been my non-Messi MVP pick. Dreyer was an expansion team’s dream, scoring 19 goals and leading the league with 17 primary assists. Dreyer also finished with 30 goal-creating actions, which were second only to Messi. The guy really did it all.
Best case for a Sounder: The Sounders didn’t make any big signings from outside the league this year, in case you’d forgotten.
Young Player of the Year: Diego Luna
I’m going to just straight up admit that I made a mistake on this one. I didn’t give it as much consideration as it deserved and went with Luna before doing more complete research. Don’t get me wrong, Luna was good. His nine goals and seven assists are the most of anyone eligible, just edging out Owen Wolff’s seven goals and eight assists. But if I had given myself a little more time, I think I’d have picked Orlando City’s Alex Freeman or possibly even Obed Vargas. Freeman had an outstanding season for a fullback with six goals and three assists, while Vargas had three goals and five assists. If Luna wins, though, he’ll be deserving.
Best case for a Sounder: I am going to kick myself for not voting for Vargas if this ends up being close.
Best XI: 433
I admittedly cheated a little bit on the Best XI. While I selected an actual left back and right back — that’s probably a first for me — I chose to shoehorn Chicago Fire midfielder Philip Zinckernagel into a central role despite his playing on the right virtually all year. But MLS allows me to make him a midfielder and darn it, I’m taking advantage after he had 15 goals and 15 assists to help get his team back into the playoffs.
Otherwise, I feel like this was pretty straightforward. Cristian Roldan, for me, has been the best No. 6 in MLS and that attacking quartet is as good as any in league history. I guess you could quibble with me not having a real 9, but I didn’t feel like Sam Surridge was so good as to justify leaving one of those front three off.
Defensively, I might regret not having Jackson Ragen in my team. He’s been really good and I think he deserves more attention than he’s getting, but the Whitecaps and Union have been so good defensively that I felt like Tristan Blackmon and Jakob Glesnes deserved the nods.
Note: Although I selected referee, assistant referee and humanitarian award winners, I didn’t include them here as a sort of protest. I really don’t think those are awards that the national media should be voting on and believe PRO should select their own winners and some sort of panel should choose the humanitarian. I also didn’t share my vote for Comeback Player in part because I wasn’t really blown away by any of the candidates.
