Look at the history of the MLS MVP award and a trend becomes pretty clear. Voters tend to like guys who create goals -- either by scoring or passing -- and play for Supporters’ Shield contenders. In the previous 15 seasons, the MVP has been an attacking player in all but one of them (goalkeeper Tony Meola won in 2000) and played for a team that either won the Shield or was runner-up in 10 of them.
MLS Third-Season Awards: Landon Donovan Our Runaway MVP Favorite
Nick Rimando tabbed as top goalkeeper, John Spencer is out coach of the year.
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So, it should hardly be a surprise that Landon Donovan was picked as the MVP favorite a third of the way through the season by the SB Nation Soccer editors. Donovan leads MLS with eight goals and his Los Angeles Galaxy easily have the most points in the league.
On the 15 ballots our editors cast, Donovan was the MVP pick on 13 of them. The only other player to get any votes was Thierry Henry, who's second in the league with six goals and whose New York Red Bulls have the second most points in the Eastern Conference.
Our voters were also asked to select their top picks as goalkeeper and coach of the year. Both races were more contentious, but John Spencer and Nick Rimando were the clear winners.
In the case of top coach, Spencer received seven of the 14 votes. The other eight votes were distributed to five other coaches, with Bruce Arena, Peter Nowak and Robert Warzycha each receiving two votes and Jason Kreis and Schellas Hyndman each receiving one.
Our voters were obviously impressed by Spencer's ability to turn the Portland Timbers into a force, at least at Jeld-Wen Field, in their first MLS season. At the time of the vote, the Timbers were 5-0-0 at home, and even after losing to DC United last Sunday, they appear well on their way to becoming just the second MLS expansion team since 1999 to make the playoffs during their inaugural season.
Only three goalkeepers received any votes and Rimando's 10 votes easily outpaced Faryd Mondragon's three and Stefan Frei's two. Again, it's worth noting that these votes were cast prior to last weekend's games, so Rimando's support was based on his allowing two goals during RSL's first eight matches. Rimando probably deserves at least some support this year, simply to make up for the fact at the disservice that he received last year when Donovan Rickets inexplicably won the award. Frei may seem like an odd choice to garner support, considering his league-worst goals against average (1.77), but he also plays behind the worst defense in the league and has made some of the seasons more spectacular saves.
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