NEW YORK -- Landon Donovan of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire and the Columbus Crew's Guillermo Barros Schelotto are the finalists for Major League Soccer's most valuable player award.
The league announced finalists for its year-end awards on Thursday. Winners will be announced in the coming weeks, with the MVP announcement airing live on ESPNews on Nov. 20.
Schelotto led Columbus to a league-best 17-7-6 record in the regular season, recording a league-leading 19 assists. Blanco had 11 assists in helping the Fire reach the playoffs, while Donovan had two hat tricks and led the league with 20 goals.
Jon Busch of the Fire, William Hesmer of the Crew and Matt Reis of the New England Revolution are finalists for the goalkeeper of the year. Busch is also a finalist for comeback player of the year.
Jimmy Conrad of the Kansas City Wizards, Chad Marshall of the Crew and Bakary Soumare of the Fire are finalists for defender of the year. Newcomer of the year finalists are Darren Huckerby of the San Jose Earthquakes, Claudio Lopez of the Wizards and Andre Rocha of FC Dallas.
The coach of the year finalists are Dominic Kinnear of Houston Dynamo, Sigi Schmid of the Crew and Frank Yallop of the Earthquakes.
