Minnesota United part ways with head coach Adrian Heath
The club's first and only coach of their MLS era, Heath departs the Loons with just two games remaining in the regular season and Minnesota sitting three points shy of the ninth-and-final playoff spot in the West. Assistant Sean McAuley will take over as interim coach through the end of the year.
MLS announces nominees for 2023 Year-End Awards
Major League Soccer on Thursday announced the nominees for the 2023 Year-End Awards. MLS clubs determine nominees and can nominate a maximum of two players for certain awards. Take a look at all the nominees here.
USMNT roster for October friendlies announced
The US men's national team have called in 23 players for an October international window that includes marquee friendlies against four-time World Cup champion Germany (Oct. 14) and African powerhouse Ghana (Oct. 17) on home soil. There are two MLS players in Gregg Berhalter's squad: Atlanta United center back Miles Robinson and New England Revolution fullback DeJuan Jones.
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We officially have our nominees for end-of-season awards. There areā¦ a lot. Every team gets to nominate folks. Which is how we end up with a player who has just one goal and two assists being nominated for Landon Donovan MLS MVP. I donāt think we should be too worried about Lionel Messi winning the award, though.Ā
Still, we need to narrow this thing down a bit. Without declaring a winner outright, letās shorten up the shortlist for end-of-year awards as best we can. Iām sure everyone will agree with our final decisions. Or at least be proud of us for trying our best.
- Bradley Carnell - St. Louis CITY SC
- Pat Noonan - FC Cincinnati
- Oscar Pareja - Orlando City SC
A trend I noticed putting these together is that it usually didnāt get hard until the third person. There are generally two surefire candidates for each award and then you have to think a bit. As of now, I think it makes sense to include Oscar Pareja in the shortlist. He wonāt win over Noonan and Carnell for obvious reasons, but Pareja came into the season with a weird amount of criticism thrown his way. His seat even felt kind of warm if you talked to theā¦ uhā¦ most eager Orlando City fans. Itās almost like the years of Jason Kreis and James OāConnor kept the seat permanently warm.
He's responded to that by helping guide the team to what will likely be the second or third-best record in the league. Thatās despite a brief stint in CCL. Along the way, heās had to make some tough decisions. In particular, he opted to go with SuperDraft pick Duncan McGuire at striker over (now former) DP Ercan Kara and generally started IvĆ”n Angulo on the left wing over DP MartĆn Ojeda. If you, like us here at The Daily Kickoff, believe a manager is generally only as good as his players, then you probably have to concede those are two relatively bold personnel decisions that appear to have impacted Orlandoās season for the better.
I could have also opted for a manager like Wilfried Nancy, whoās clearly very, very good at this. But it felt like a good time to give Pareja his flowers.
- Alan Pulido - Sporting Kansas City
- Miles Robinson - Atlanta United
- Bobby Wood - New England Revolution
Thereās genuinely stiff competition for the Comeback Player of the Year award this year. Alan Pulido returned from an ACL tear that caused him to miss all of 2022 and has put up 13 goals and three assists in 24 starts this season. Miles Robinson came back from an Achilles tear that caused him to miss most of 2022 and all of the World Cup and has largely looked effective for an Atlanta side thatā¦ letās just say they havenāt made life easy on their center backs at times. And Bobby Wood returned from an abductor injury that forced him to miss most of 2022 and has quietly put up seven goals and five assists for New England.
- Thiago Almada - Atlanta United
- Duncan McGuire - Orlando City SC
- Noel Buck - New England Revolution
- Aidan Morris - Columbus Crew
Thereās a clear front-runner here, but that didnāt make it any easier to narrow this down to three. Duncan McGuire is certainly the SuperDraft Pick of the Year after a season thatās seen him put up 10 goals and three assists. McGuire spent last year battling his way through the Big East. He spent this year averaging 0.70 goals per 90 in MLS. Thatās the third-best mark in the league among players with more than 1,200 minutes. The only two better are Giorgos Giakoumakis and JoĆ£o Klauss.
Noel Buck burst onto the scene early and played well enough to get two calls from the England U-19 squad. The 18-year-old has been a centerpiece in midfield for a Revs team set to finish with one of the leagueās better records. And Aidan Morris has been the same for the Crew. Per FBref, Morris is in the 94th percentile among midfielders in passes attempted and the 98th percentile for pass completion percentage while still finding time to be in the 98th percentile in tackles plus interceptions.
- Giorgos Giakoumakis - Atlanta United
- Eduard Lƶwen - St. Louis CITY SC
- Evander - Portland Timbers
This is a tough one to predict. Are voters naturally going to go with Giakoumakis? Heās tied for the league lead in non-penalty goals and leads the league in goals per 90. Of course, choosing Giakoumakis almost feels like weāre ignoring the outstanding year Lƶwen has had. Roman BĆ¼rki is the most significant contributor to St. Louisā success this year, but Lƶwen is 1(b) on that list. Heās been unreal in midfield and has put together an all-around season thatās seen him significantly contribute as a goal scorer, chance creator and (to a lesser extent, but still) defensive presence.
Meanwhile, Evander is starting to quietly live up to his price tag a little more each week. He wonāt get more votes than GG or Lƶwen, but heās been the driving factor behind Portlandās surge to the playoffs out West. He has nine goals and four assists on the season and has scored four times in his last six games. No one has benefited more from Miles Joseph taking the restrictor plates of this team.
- Matt Miazga - FC Cincinnati
- Robin Jansson - Orlando City SC
I tried, but I genuinely couldnāt pick a third. There are usually two clear standouts this season in the discussions Iāve seen about this award. Miazga has been a cornerstone for the Supportersā Shield winners, while Jansson has outstanding numbers and looks great in the eye test for Orlando.
Normally I would have taken this opportunity to proselytize for a fullback to get their due in this award, but no one stands out like Kai Wagner did last year. Sorry, fullbacks. Itās going to happen one day, though. Iām fully prepared to fight the good fight when handed a sword.
- Roman BĆ¼rki - St. Louis CITY SC
- Daniel - San Jose Earthquakes
- Andre Blake - Philadelphia Union
We can go purely off numbers here and feel very, very good about our choices. By looking at post-shot xG (a measure of how often a shot is likely to go in based on where itās placed on goal) minus goals allowed, we can get a great sense of how effective a 'keeper has been as a shot-stopper. BĆ¼rki is putting up one of the best-recorded seasons in the past decade, Daniel has been outstanding and technically even better than BĆ¼rki on a per-96 basis, and Blake has slowly but surely climbed his way back into the top three in this stat after a slow (by his standards) start to the year.
- Luciano Acosta - FC Cincinnati
- Thiago Almada - Atlanta United
- DĆ©nis Bouanga - LAFC
I could talk about this now OR make yāall wait for the final MVP Power Rankings next week.
Iāll probably just make you wait. You wonāt believe whoās number one though.
Toronto FC midfielder Servania out with knee injury: Toronto FC midfielder Brandon Servania is out long-term after suffering a torn left ACL. The 24-year-old joined TFC in an offseason trade with FC Dallas, tallying one goal and one assist in 28 games (21 starts). Servania was a homegrown player for FCD, where he played from 2018-22.
Messi, FarĆas & Almada called up for Argentina World Cup qualifiers: Lionel Messi has been called up by Argentina for the October international window despite his injury problems with Inter Miami CF, highlighting a 34-man roster that also includes Herons' teammate Facundo FarĆas and Atlanta United star Thiago Almada.
- Charles Boehm looked at FC Cincinnatiās journey from the Wooden Spoon to the Supportersā Shield.
- LAFC's DĆ©nis Bouanga is your Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire.
- Joe Lowery looked (by the numbers) at the 2023 MLS Year-End Awards Favorites.
- Cristian Roldan returned the Seattle Sounders to the playoffs.
- DĆ©nis Bouanga took the Golden Boot lead as LAFC clinched a playoff spot.
- Hereās your Team of the Matchday presented by Audi.
- Take a look at Canadaās roster for their Japan friendly.
- Voting for AT&T 5G Goal of the Matchday is now open.
Good luck out there. Here is a dog who is good at soccer.