The time is now to choose winners for MLS’s 2018 awards. We take a close look at all of them, plus a pair of best XIs.
With one week remaining in the 2018 MLS season, it’s time to dish out some awards. We’ll look at the core awards, some made-up ones, and a couple of best XIs. Let’s go:
Most Valuable Player
- Josef Martinez (Atlanta United)
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic (LA Galaxy)
- Wayne Rooney (D.C. United)
- Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls)
- Carlos Vela (LAFC)
There is a compelling case that Zlatan should win MVP. I considered vaulting Ibra to the top of the rankings, despite Martinez blowing long-held league scoring records out of the water.
When Zlatan was in the starting lineup the Galaxy won 10 times in 23 games, and when he either sat or came off the bench, LA won just three, and one of those was the magical LA Derby game in which he scored two goals in his debut. On a team that for most of the season’s stretch run disregarded defense entirely, he was at times the sole catalyst. One late July game against Orlando saw him score three and assist one in a chaotic 4-3 win. It’s a miracle the Galaxy have a shot at the playoffs.
Ibrahimovic enters the season’s final game with 22 goals and 10 assists in 2,053 minutes, astounding per-game rates. At one point during the season, he was significantly out-pacing even Martinez, who was essentially scoring a goal per game for most of the year. The assists help Zlatan; they indicate how important he was to everything the Galaxy did.
He was purely the fulcrum. Josef was not that to Atlanta, because he didn’t have to be — Miguel Almiron took most of the creative reigns, and there were plenty more options in ATL’s attack. Martinez was the poacher, the high-volume finisher. Zlatan had to do it all.
Much of LA’s gameplan was to punt the ball to Zlatan and hope he could do something. Part of the goal was to eliminate the backline’s responsibilities as much as possible, and part of it was demanded by the sheer presence of Zlatan. You don’t throw the Lion on the field and not feed him. It’s a fairly effective strategy, dumping most of the offense’s responsibility on Ibra. He clearly could handle it.
Per American Soccer Analysis, Zlatan took part in 24.5 Galaxy possessions per game, second among pure strikers who played 1,000 MLS minutes. Martinez’s figure was just 16.4. Ibra’s xGBuildup/96, measuring the total expected goal value of possessions in which he did not shoot or assist the shot, was 0.64. He was involved regardless of whether he was finishing the play.
Martinez finished at 0.44 xB. His role was explicitly defined as a poacher’s, and he was exorbitantly effective at it. He scored 30 goals, this coming after a season in which he scored 19 goals in 17 starts, easily superior to Zlatan’s current per-game pace. The man puts the ball in the net, and he did it at 27.5 xG — indicating he was finishing at a high rate.
One crucial difference between Josef and Zlatan was team success. Atlanta are in line to win the Supporters’ Shield, while the Galaxy are teetering at the playoffs’ edge. Winning matters in any MVP race.
Perhaps most consequential: LA’s defense, and Zlatan’s role in it. As much as Ibra can’t control Jorgen Skjelvik tumbling over himself trying to clear the ball, Zlatan was an overall minus on the defensive end. Defending from the top of the formation is important, and LA were generally bad at that. Martinez is dogged in Atlanta’s full-field press.
Josef deserves the award, for his otherworldly scoring, for his helping Atlanta to likely the league’s best record, and his overall fit on the field. You don’t have to mold the system around him. Zlatan basically drove the bus and flew the plane, but in soccer, an NBA-style Alpha rarely works.
Rooney slips in at number three after leading D.C. United to their epic late-season run. He isn’t as obviously dominant as Zlatan is, and his box-score stats don’t jump off the page, but his effect on DCU cannot be overstated — he stepped into that team midseason and immediately took a young, uncertain squad to heights never before imagined. He’s had an indescribable effect, bringing a know-how and experience that has levitated D.C. to an impressive playoff spot.
Luciano Acosta has arguably been even better as a secondary creator, but he has not been able to carry the weight on his own. Rooney upped everyone’s level to the point that Acosta is a legitimate MVP candidate in his own right. I’d normally be hesitant to put a player who played half a season this high on the MVP list, but Rooney led D.C. on such a dramatic run that he deserves his place.
Wright-Phillips scored more than 20 goals and was the best player on a Red Bulls team that could still win the Shield. Vela was the centerpiece and attacking fulcrum of expansion club LAFC.
Almiron may have won this whole award if Martinez’s goalscoring pace hadn’t maintained its insane rate. The midseason emergences of Zlatan and Rooney hurt the cases of more established MLS players like BWP, and eliminated the chance of a non-attacker slipping in — Diego Chara or Cristian Roldan would have been candidates had there been an opening.
Defender of the Year
- Graham Zusi (Sporting KC)
- Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls)
- Chad Marshall (Seattle Sounders)
This year’s Defender of the Year race lacks a clear winner. SKC’s Ike Opara won last season relatively easily as the best defender on one of the better defensive teams in league history. There is no obvious choice this time.
Dating to Bobby Boswell in 2006, this award has been given to a stout central defender — Opara was only the latest in a line of Marshall, Matt Besler and Jose Goncalves. Center-backs naturally have the upper hand over full-backs as pure defenders, with little responsibility going forward.
It’s time that an outside back wins. Graham Zusi, on track to play every minute of the regular season, should get it. He’s intrinsic to SKC’s success, part of a worldwide soccer trend focusing on the usefulness of full-backs — Zusi is a legitimate fulcrum with the ball essentially as a fourth midfielder, orchestrating Sporting’s possessions all over the field. He completes passes and handles the ball at the rate of Michael Bradley-level midfield distributors.
Zusi can defend and won’t get beat in behind, though it does happen. Long and Marshall have been as solid as ever for two good teams, but Marshall is hurt by early woes and Long’s game-losing mistake in the July 18 Hudson River Derby against NYCFC doesn’t help, either. Those two and FC Dallas’s Matt Hedges (a very close fourth here) didn’t have dominant enough seasons to overtake Zusi’s usefulness.
There were plenty of contenders hanging around, though there seem to be fewer and fewer center-backs at the level of the three behind Zusi. Opara had a down season. Leandro Gonzalez-Pirez plays too much of a risk-reward game. Inconsistency prevailed for defenders in places like Portland, New York City and Salt Lake.
The second tier of contenders behind Hedges includes Columbus’s Jonathan Mensah, who led one of the league’s most effective backlines; Philly’s Auston Trusty, who joins Zusi in the every-minute club; Long’s backline partner Tim Parker; and Atlanta stalwart Michael Parkhurst. Interestingly, there are no full-backs on that list.
Goalkeeper of the Year
- Stefan Frei (Seattle Sounders)
- Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew)
- Tim Melia (Sporting KC)
As wide open as the Defender of the Year race is, the keepers have it beat. This race has no obvious winner, and in all honesty, a lot of MLS goalies have had bad years. A few of the stalwarts have cost their teams games — Nick Rimando has struggled for RSL, Luis Robles and Brad Guzan have looked unsteady at times, and last year’s clear winner, Melia, has given up too many soft goals.
Frei wins nearly by default, basically by avoiding howlers and generally not making himself look bad. He dominates Keeper xG numbers at American Soccer Analysis, and he’s played his best in the last few weeks of the season. Only one clear mistake holds him back: his mishandling of a Laurent Ciman free-kick early in the season that handed Seattle a tough-luck loss.
Steffen has the most range of any keeper in the league, as well as the highest future ceiling. Errors playing out of the back in Columbus are his downfall.
Some goalies have stood on their heads at times — Bobby Shuttleworth in Minnesota, Evan Bush in Montreal and Tyler Miller for LAFC have had their moments. But too many howlers (particularly in Bush’s case), as well as insecurity dealing with difficult situations, hurt them. New England’s Matt Turner was once a favorite, but coach Brad Friedel eventually benched him.
Frei is a deserving winner. It’s hard to see anyone else beating him out.
Newcomer of the Year
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic
- Carlos Vela
- Wayne Rooney
This award basically nominates itself. Vela tops Rooney for his overall body of work, something that isn’t valued as much in the MVP race.
Apologies to Darwin Quintero, who deserves recognition somewhere for his work in Minnesota. He’s managed 11 goals and 14 assists on a dreadful team with no midfielders. If the Loons approached the playoffs, Quintero would be in the MVP discussion.
Diego Rossi, Kaku and Borek Dockal would also like a word here. Zlatan, Vela and Rooney are just too good and too important.
Most Improved Player
- Mauro Manotas (Houston Dynamo)
- Luciano Acosta (D.C. United)
- Alphonso Davies (Vancouver Whitecaps)
This is a made up award, replacing the Comeback Player of the Year. I define it as a player who was in the league before this current season and, well, improved. I don’t include Homegrown-type players who arose this season after playing very little in prior years, like Cannon, who played all of one MLS minute in 2017.
Manotas quietly vaulted near the top of the scoring leaderboards with 17 goals in 29 starts. He’s taken steps forward as an all-around striker. He puts thought into more of his passes, he knows how to use his body when playing with his back to goal, and in a straightforward 4-3-3, he finds wingers Romell Quioto and Alberth Elis with consistency. He’s always been a smart runner, but those runs have come with better timing and disguised movements.
Acosta needed Rooney to reach his full, magical potential. He shouldn’t be penalized here for showing vast improvement when a striker legend showed up. Acosta produces goals and attacks pockets of space with springy confidence, squirming through every tiny half-space with impeccable ball control. His passes are aggressive and skillful. When he’s on his game as a secondary creator, he is nearly unstoppable.
As for Davies, well, he earned a big contract with Bayern Munich. This was his breakout year.
Rookie of the Year
- Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake)
- Chris Mueller (Orlando City SC)
- Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union)
Baird is the clear winner, scoring eight goals and five assists while carving out a starting position for RSL. Mueller has been mostly good for Orlando, and McKenzie is a good young starting defender in Philly, but this award is Baird’s.
Best XI No. 1
To finish this out, here’s the Best XI. It’s a 4-3-3:
GK: Stefan Frei
RB: Graham Zusi
CB: Chad Marshall
CB: Aaron Long
LB: Kemar Lawrence
CM: Diego Chara
CM: Alejandro Bedoya
CM: Miguel Almiron
FW: Bradley Wright-Phillips
FW: Josef Martinez
FW: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
I have a philosophy with these best XIs: They have to incorporate some level of normal soccer logic, and they should honor players at every position, not just the attackers. Thus how Bedoya and Chara overtake Vela, Rooney, Dockal, Kaku and Quintero. This doesn’t have to be completely realistic, but everyone should get their due and that includes midfielders who don’t wear number 10.
I thought about the left-back position for a while until I realized Lawrence plays it. He’s quietly a very good and useful player.
Best XI No. 2
This one is a three-at-the-back with wing-backs who wouldn’t play wing-back in real life. The non-attackers got their recognition up there, so let’s have some fun:
GK: Zack Steffen
DEF: Milton Valenzuela
DEF: Matt Hedges
DEF: Reggie Cannon
LWB: Darwin Quintero
RWB: Ignacio Piatti
CM: Tyler Adams
CM: Borek Dockal
CM: Kaku
FW: Carlos Vela
FW: Luciano Acosta
There are no actual forwards in this! I decided that best XIs value time on the field, which eliminated Rooney (and makes Zlatan’s spot more impressive) and opened the door for a squadron of quasi-creators.
Next: The best under-20 player on every MLS team
I’ll admit that I originally had Wil Trapp in the midfield until deciding Tyler Adams was the worthier choice. Dockal and Kaku are Assist Kings, and a three-man backline featuring two full-backs is exciting.
PS: I tried hard to put my favorite MLS player, Julian Gressel, somewhere in here, but it did not work out. Maybe next time, Julian.