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SANDY — Major League Soccer announced the finalists Wednesday for the league's year-end awards, which included two Real Salt Lake players and its sideline boss as finalists for three of the 12 awards.
RSL defender Nat Borchers (Xbox Individual Fair Play), head coach Jason Kries (Coach of the Year) and goalkeeper Nick Rimando (Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year) are all finalists for this season’s MLS year-end awards, which will be announced in a rollout from Nov. 25-Dec. 5.
Borchers, who is a finalist for the Xbox Individual Fair Play award, is up against Chicago Fire defender Jalil Anibaba and Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe. MLS stated it selected these finalists based on objective criteria such as fouls committed, cards received, games and minutes played, and also subjective evaluation of sportsmanlike behavior.
MLS will announce the Xbox Individual Fair Play award along with the AT&T Rookie of the Year and Xbox Team Fair Play awards on Nov. 25
Kreis, who is up for Coach of the Year, is up against New York Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke and Portland head coach Caleb Porter. The MLS Coach of the Year award will be announced on Dec. 2 along with the Comeback Player of the Year.
Rimando, who is up for the Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year award, is also up against Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen and Portland goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. The Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year award along with the Newcomer of the Year award will be announced by MLS on Dec. 4.
MLS determined the finalists for these year-end awards by using the polling of three different voting groups — players, clubs (coaches, technical directors, etc.) and media.
Other MLS year-end awards that will be announced between Nov. 25 and Dec. 5 are Defender of the Year, MLSWORKS Humanitarian of the Year, Referee of the Year, Assistant Referee of the Year, 2013 Best XI, AT&T Goal of the Year, Save of the Year and Volkswagen Most Valuable Player.
RSL returns to the pitch this weekend as it travels to Portland to face the Timbers in the second leg of the Western Conference final on Sunday. Kira Terry is a sports writer covering Real Salt Lake for KSL.com. Follow her on Twitter, @kiraterry.
