MLS Announces Award Finalists

Major League Soccer has announced their award finalists for the 2014 MLS season. The awards announcements will be staggered, with the importance of the award dictating what day it comes out on. On November 24th, the AT&T Rookie of the Year, XBOX Fair Play Individual and Team of the Year will be announced.

The first announcement will be followed in quick succession by the MLS Defender of the Year, MLS WORKS Humanitarian of the Year and Referee/Assistant Referee of the Year announced on the 25th. They will then take a week off to allow play to commence, and on December 2nd the Coach of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and MLS Best XI will be announced. The following day, Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Volkswagen MLS MVP will be announced. The award release will be completed on December 4th when the AT&T Goal of the Year and MLS Save of the Year winners will be announced.

Headlining today's announcement was the fact that Lee Nguyen, Robbie Keane and Obafemi Martins. It is a minor surprise that record-breaking goal scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips is not on the shortlist, however Nguyen's 18 goals were by far the most of any other midfielder in the league and he almost single-handedly fired the New England Revolution into the playoffs.

Continuing on, the finalists for coach of the year are Gregg Berhalter of Columbus Crew, Ben Olsen of DC United and Sigi Schmid of Seattle Sounders. While it is a bit of a surprise not to see Bruce Arena on the list, the three candidates are undoubtedly deserving. Berhalter was a critical reason for Columbus' turnaround from Eastern Conference cellar-dwellers to genuine playoff contenders with a very young team and they look to have a great basis from which to kick on next term. Olsen completed the biggest one-year point swing in MLS history, taking United from last to first in the East. And of course, Schmid lead Seattle to its fourth Lamar Hunt US Open Cup and a Supporter's Shield victory and they are still alive in the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs.

Full List of 2014 MLS Award Finalists