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Magee, Keane, and Di Vaio top MVP nominees as MLS announces awards finalists

MikeMageeFireCrew (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Three names remain in the running for 2013 Major League Soccer MVP after the league revealed the finalists for its end-of-season awards.

Robbie Keane, Mike Magee, and Marco Di Vaio are all in the running for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, though none of the trio remain in the MLS Cup playoffs. MLS Golden Boot winner Camilo Sanvezzo and New York Red Bulls standout Tim Cahill failed to make the final list.

The Coach of the Year race should be tightly-contested, with Mike Petke, Caleb Porter, and Jason Kreis the three finalists. Jose Goncalves is a finalist for both MLS Newcomer of the Year and MLS Defender of the Year after a terrific first season with the New England Revolution.

MLS will announce the award winners starting on Monday with the Rookie of the Year and Fair Play (Individual and Team) Awards. MVP will be announced last, on Dec. 5.

Here is a closer look at all of the finalists for the MLS end-of-season awards:

MLS END-OF-SEASON AWARD FINALISTS

Rookie of the Year

Deshorn Brown (Colorado Rapids)

Dillon Powers (Colorado Rapids)

DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)

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Individual Fair Play*

Jalil Anibaba (Chicago Fire)

Nat Borchers (Real Salt Lake)

Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers)

*Selected by MLS based on objective criteria such as fouls committed, cards received, games and minutes played, as well as subjective evaluation of sportsmanlike behavior.

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Team Fair Play

Houston Dynamo

LA Galaxy

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

*Selected by MLS based on objective criteria such as fouls committed, cards received, and on subjective evaluation of sportsmanlike behavior.

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Defender of the Year

Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City)

Jose Goncalves (New England Revolution)

Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy)

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Humanitarian of the Year

Jeb Brovsky (Montreal Impact)

Dwayne De Rosario (D.C. United)

Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

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Referee of the Year

Ismail Elfath

Hilario Grajeda

Baldomero Toledo

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Assistant Referee of the Year

Frank Anderson

Bill Dittmar

Kermit Quisenberry

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Coach of the Year

Jason Kreis (Real Salt Lake)

Mike Petke (New York Red Bulls)

Caleb Porter (Portland Timbers)

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Comeback Player of the Year

Kevin Alston (New England Revolution)

Conor Casey (Philadelphia Union)

Lamar Neagle (Seattle Sounders FC)

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Goalkeeper of the Year

Jimmy Nielsen (Sporting Kansas City)

Donovan Ricketts (Portland Timbers)

Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

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Newcomer of the Year

Jose Goncalves (New England Revolution)

Nigel Reo-Coker (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)

Diego Valeri (Portland Timbers)

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Most Valuable Player

Marco DiVaio (Montreal Impact)

Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy)

Mike Magee (Chicago Fire)

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What do you make of the nominees? Any glaring omissions or undeserving candidates? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Toledo must have some dirt on Garber or the PRO organization or something. His screw up in the 2nd leg of the RSL/LA Galaxy playoff was startling in it’s blatant lack of understanding referee basics. And yet there he is, year after year, with his bad haircut and his creepy oversized torso.

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  2. Yeah – I’m not quite as upset with Klinsmann, maybe just because I didn’t watch the last two games, but otherwise I agree with all your main points there.

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  3. After suffering through the Scotland match and then watching a frustrating game against Austria, two games during which the guys were not able to score a goal (other than Cameron’s disallowed goal), I am convinced that Klinsmann has made a big mistake not bringing in Magee for a test during the past year. Our attackers for those two games were generally disappointing, with performances ranging weak to awful.

    Eddie Johnson is a forward but Klinsmann keeps playing him over and over and over and over at left wing and he fails every time, as he did against Scotland and Austria. Sacha as a central attacker against Scotland was a bust, and Bacon, in my opinion, was not much better as central attacker against Austria, very much still in the “poor performance” category. He was in over his head. Most disappointing of all was Bedoya on the right wing. I can almost hear Zusi’s sigh of relief. And Brek Shea after showing a tiny bit of promise against Scotland with a couple of decent moves in an otherwise forgetable showing, could not have been much worse against Austria.

    I would bet 25 cents that MVP candidate Magee would have shown better than at least a couple of these attackers and possibly would have taken top honors. Magee needs to be brought in to the January camp and given a look.

    Okay, let’s hear it. Let’s cue the chorus: “Yeah, Magee can do okay in MLS but he isn’t good enough for international soccer. ”

    Oh yeah? And the attackers who played in the last two friendlies have better pedigrees than Magee? If Caleb Porter or Jason Kreis were coach of the USMNT you can be darn sure that Mike Magee by now would have been called in for a test. Quite frankly, after seeing Klinsmann the Tinkers screw-ups playing Cameron out of the position, not to mention Eddie Johnson and Damarcus Beasley and Brad Evans and Fabian Johnson and that’s just the starters. Let’s not forget my two favorite Klinsmann Tinks: Daniel Williams several times at right wing and Jose Torres at left back. Where was I? Oh yeah. I think that Porter and Kreis probably are better judges of talent than Klinsmann, not to mention strategically more adept.

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    • I think our best line-up will be:

      F. Johnson–Jozy–Landon

      Clint

      Bradley—–Jones

      Beasley–Besler—Gonzo–Cameron

      I think Landon could play where I have Clint and AJ could be a good wing option.

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  4. Assistant Referee of the Year? Seriously? Wow.

    Other than that, my individual picks (on some):
    Rookie: Powers
    Defender: Besler
    Humanitarian: Reis
    Coach: Porter (toughest call of the bunch)
    Comeback: Alston
    GK: Rimando
    Newcomer: Goncalves
    MVP: Keane

    Reply

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