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We’re a little over halfway through the year. Time to check in on who might be up for some end-of-season awards if the season ended right now at this very moment.
MLS Referee of the Year
Seems self-explanatory. I have no other potential finalists.
MLS Comeback Player of the Year
- Robin Lod - Minnesota United
- Lewis Morgan - New York Red Bulls
- Gonzalo Higuaín
It probably stops and ends here, right? Lod is coming back from a meniscus tear in his right knee that forced him to miss nearly the entire 2023 season. Injuries led to Morgan playing only 296 minutes last season.
Lod has returned to guide Minnesota to a playoff spot in the West while picking up the mantle in Bebelo Reynoso’s absence. He has five goals and 10 assists this season. Morgan is helping power New York’s attack and has nine goals and four assists on the year. Take your pick here. You’re probably right either way. I’m personally taking Lod though.
Anyway, congrats to Gonzalo Higuaín on winning this award for the third straight season.
MLS Defender of the Year
- Justen Glad - Real Salt Lake
- Miles Robinson - FC Cincinnati
- Moise Bombito - Colorado Rapids
- Adilson Malanda - Charlotte FC
I’ve long maintained that they should just let the good folks at Extratime pick this award. They’re the only ones paying close enough attention. They’ve got to be locked into every defender so they can drop their annual “30-best Third-Choice Center Backs” list (probably). But, trust me, all four of these dudes have been really good on teams that are having great seasons.
A couple of notes. First, Bombito may be swooped up by a team in Europe before he has a chance to grab this award. Second, Robinson is in a really interesting position. With Cincy in an injury crisis at center back, it will basically be Robinson’s back line and his alone when he gets back from USMNT duty. If he can keep Cincy’s defense steady in the middle of multiple absences, he would probably be a shoe-in for this.
Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year
- Matt Freese - New York City FC
- Steve Clark - Houston Dynamo FC
- Patrick Schulte - Columbus Crew
This is one of those awards that doesn’t need to be overthought. These three have been the three best shot stoppers in MLS this year relative to the post-shot xG they’ve faced. Basically, based on the placement of the shots on targets they’ve tried to save, they’ve kept out more goals than anyone else. Seems like a pretty important thing for a goalkeeper, right?
Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year
- Pablo Mastroeni - Real Salt Lake
- Dean Smith - Charlotte FC
- Wilfried Nancy - Columbus Crew
For me, this comes down to Mastroeni and Smith. They’ve taken teams on smaller budgets to places no one expected this year. Mastroeni lost his entire assistant coaching staff, adapted, and has helped guide his side to a tie atop the Western Conference. Smith came in and immediately established Charlotte as one of the best defensive sides in the league. He’s helped push The Crown to a top four spot in the top-heavy East despite only having one DP. There’s a good argument that no coach has had as clear an impact for the better on his team.
But Wilfried Nancy is really good at this and somehow hasn’t won it yet and, well, sometimes single-season awards are more like multi-year achievement awards.
Landon Donovan MLS MVP
- Chicho Arango - Real Salt Lake
- Lionel Messi - Inter Miami
- Lucho Acosta - FC Cincinnati
Not to give away next month’s MVP Power Rankings too much, but, c’mon. Arango has a league-best 26 goals contributions, Messi has 25 and Acosta has 24. None of these teams would be at the top of the Supporters’ Shield race without them.
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