4 Union players appear on team of the season
Union midfield star Dániel Gazdag may think he was snubbed from the top tier of MVP candidates with his team-record 22 goals and six assists this year.
And a lot of people may think Kai Wagner should have been Defender of the Year.
But few people doubted both would make Major League Soccer’s team of the season, and the league announced Wednesday that they indeed did. Gazdag and Wagner are two of four Union players on the Best XI, along with Defender of the Year winner Jakob Glesnes and Goalkeeper of the Year winner Andre Blake.
It’s the first time Gazdag, Glesnes, and Wagner have made the Best XI and the third time for Blake. Wagner could have made it in past years, but outside backs tend to get overlooked.
Wagner made sure that wouldn’t happen this year. He was the league’s best left back and the Union’s top scoring-chance creator along with his defensive efforts.
There weren’t many other surprises on the squad.
Nashville center back Walker Zimmerman was the third defender in the 3-4-3 formation, an easy call for his commanding presence. But that left the Union’s perpetually overlooked Jack Elliott and New York City FC stalwart Alexander Callens on the outside.
In the midfield, newly crowned MVP Hany Mukhtar of Nashville and runner-up Sebastián Driussi of Austin were locks to join Gazdag. Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta rounded out the quartet, beating out candidates that included Los Angeles FC’s Ilie Sánchez and CF Montréal’s Djordje Mihailovic. (Sánchez, a great defensive midfielder, was hurt by voters’ tendency to prefer attacking playmakers.)
The front three are Cincinnati’s Brandon Vázquez, Dallas’ Jesús Ferreira and LAFC’s Carlos Vela. Vázquez and Ferreira were slam dunks — the former had 20 goals and eight assists, and the latter had 18 and six.
Vela (12 goals, 11 assists) might have been the biggest surprise of the whole team. He beat a field that included his own prolific teammate Cristian Arango (20, four).
If you’re going to LA
There won’t be as many Union fans in Los Angeles for Saturday’s MLS Cup final (4 p.m., Fox 29, Univision 65 and TUDN) as there will be Eagles fans in Houston on Thursday for the Texans game, partly because LAFC has a big and boisterous fan base. But there still will be some Union fans heading west this weekend, and here’s a tip as they make their plans.
Banc of California Stadium sits right next to the LA Coliseum, and there’s a USC football game Saturday night. Because USC gets priority on the Exposition Park complex’s parking spaces, there will be no parking available to fans attending the soccer game.
If you’re planning to drive to the game, you’ll have to park across town at Dodger Stadium and take a shuttle bus. The good news is that the parking and shuttle bus will be free of charge.
The better news is that there’s a light rail line that goes out of downtown and stops right in front of Exposition Park, and it’s a 10-minute walk through the park to the stadium. And if you’re looking for something to do after the game, the same rail line goes all the way out to downtown Santa Monica, stopping just a few blocks from the beach.
More information is available on LAFC’s website.