3 St. Louis City SC players named finalists for MLS Awards

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - It has been a wildly successful season for St. Louis City SC, with the club clinching the top spot in the MLS Western Conference playoffs in its inaugural season.

The club will now prepare to play rival Sporting KC with Game 1 set for Sunday at 8 p.m. City SC fans can listen to the game on KMOX, Y98 and on the Audacy app.

As the team prepares to play their rival, the team did get a bit of good news Thursday before the game.

On Thursday, MLS have announced the finalists for the league's year end awards, and three City SC players and head coach Bradley Carnell are all featured among the finalists.

Unsurprisingly, Carnell and goalkeeper Roman Bürki were named finalists for the Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year and Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year respectively.— y - St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) October 26, 2023

Centre back Tim Parker was named a finalist for MLS Defender of the Year and midfielder Edward Lowen was named a finalist for MLS Newcomer of the Year, along with Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi.— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 26, 2023

St. Louis City SC, along with Atlanta United and FC Cincinnati, were the most represented clubs among finalists.

Carnell and Bürki both should have a good chance to win their awards though their competition do also have very solid cases.

For Burki, the former Borussia Dortmund first-team goalkeeper has had as perfect of a inaugural first year in MLS as he could, finishing with the second-most saves in MLS(123), the fourth-best save percentage in MLS among those who saved at least 90 shots, (74.5%) and eight Clean Sheets. Along that, he was the starting goalkeeper for the MLS All Stars during the team friendly against Arsenal.

Carnell is the man in charge of an expansion side that has by far has the best inaugural season in American Soccer history, and helped the team clinch a regular season conference title.

For Lowen, he has had a good first season in MLS, with the former Bundesliga player racking up the fourth most assists in MLS (14) and the sixth most shots on goals for a midfielder (79), but when your competition is arguably the greatest soccer player ever, and with how well he jumped into MLS, it would be hard to bet against Messi winning MLS Newcomer of the Year.