MLS reveals finalists for MVP and other year-end awards

Andrew Wiebe

NEW YORK — Major League Soccer announced the finalists for its 2011 year-end awards on Monday.

The winners will be announced over the next 10 days during the lead up to the MLS Cup final on Nov. 20, beginning with Rookie of the Year and the Xbox Fair Play Individual & Team of the Year on Tuesday and culminating on Nov. 18 with the Volkswagen MVP and Commissioner’s Award.

The three players vying for the Volkswagen MVP award include the regular-season assist leader (Brad Davis), the 2011 Golden Boot winner (Dwayne De Rosario), and one of the top attacking prospects in North America (Brek Shea).

Davis led MLS with 16 assists for a Dynamo squad in which no player scored more than five goals during the regular season.

De Rosario put together a career year in 2011 with 16 goals and 12 assists while splitting time between Toronto FC, the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United.

Shea picked up the offensive slack for FC Dallas following a season-ending injury to 2010 MVP David Ferreira and solidified his place in Jurgen Klinsmann’s national team setup by leading FC Dallas with 11 goals to more than double his previous career high.

Coach of the Year will come down to the two managers who led their teams to the top regular-season records in MLS by a wide margin, LA's Bruce Arena and Seattle's Sigi Schmid, and Peter Vermes, who engineered a worst-to-first turnaround with Sporting Kansas City after starting the season with 10 games on the road.

Voters pulled nominees for Defender of the Year from two clubs, narrowing the field to the Real Salt Lake duo of Nat Borchers and Jámison Olave as well as LA Galaxy stalwart Omar Gonzalez. Borchers and Olave combined to lead RSL to the second-best defensive record in the league, and Gonzalez anchored MLS’ best defense as the Galaxy gave up just 28 goals in 34 games, eight fewer than any other team.

Rookie of the Year will be the award of the season announced, and it will go to one of three Eastern Conference freshmen. Philadelphia’s Michael Farfan scored two goals and dished out three assists in just 13 starts for Peter Nowak. Perry Kitchen made 30 starts for D.C. United while playing in multiple positions across on the back line and midfield, and Sporting's C.J. Sapong led all rookies in points with five goals and five assists and was the only Sporting player to appear in all 34 regular-season matches.

The finalists all of the year-end awards were determined by polls of MLS players, general managers, coaches, referees and members of the media.

THE FINALISTS

Rookie of the Year Finalists – Winner to be announced Nov. 8

Michael Farfan (Philadelphia Union)
Perry Kitchen (D.C. United)
C.J. Sapong (Sporting Kansas City)

Xbox 360 Individual Fair Play Finalists* – Winner to be announced Nov. 8

Darrius Barnes (New England Revolution)
Kosuke Kimura (Colorado Rapids)
Sébastien Le Toux (Philadelphia Union)

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.

Xbox 360 Team Fair Play Finalists – Winner to be announced Nov. 8