Sporting KC’s Feilhaber, Melia among finalists for MLS honors

Two Sporting Kansas City players have been chosen as finalists for Major League Soccer’s end-of-year awards, the league announced Tuesday.

Midfielder Benny Feilhaber is one of three players nominated for the Landon Donovan MVP award, and goalkeeper Tim Melia is being considered for Comeback Player of the Year.

Feilhaber, 30, set MLS career-highs in 2015 with 10 goals and 15 assists, ranking second in MLS in the latter category. He added two goals and five assists in Sporting Kansas City’s run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship, becoming the club’s all-time assist leader in the tournament. Across all competitions in 2015, Feilhaber started 36 of 38 appearances and recorded a club-record 20 assists, including five of the game-winning variety in MLS.

Feilhaber is in contention to be the third player in Sporting KC history to receive the honor behind midfielder Preki (1997, 2003) and goalkeeper Tony Meola (2000). Feilhaber’s teammate Graham Zusi was a finalist in 2012.

The Columbus Crew’s Kei Kamara, a former Sporting player, and Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco also are MVP finalists.

Melia, 29, enjoyed a breakout sixth season this year after backing up MLS All-Stars Nick Rimando at Real Salt Lake and Dan Kennedy at Chivas USA. He was waived by Chivas USA in July 2014 and served as a League Pool goalkeeper during the latter half of the year. After earning emergency call-ups from Sporting KC, FC Dallas and D.C. United, he signed with Sporting KC in December.

Melia secured a starting role in May and became the first goalkeeper in MLS history to record six shutouts in his first nine league matches for a new club. He ended the season with nine clean sheets and a 15-8-5 record in all competitions, making two saves in Sporting Kansas City’s penalty shootout win over the Philadelphia Union in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final.

Among MLS goalkeepers, Melia finished third with a 72.6 save percentage while also ranking in the top 10 in wins, shutouts and goals against average despite serving as a backup in March and April.

Kansas City players have earned the Comeback Player of the Year award on four occasions, more than any other team. Tony Meola landed the honor in 2000, Chris Klein in 2002 and 2005, and Eddie Johnson in 2007.

Also nominated for Comeback Player honors are Wil Trapp of Columbus and Diego Valeri of Portland.

Finalists for other honors:

▪ Rookie of the year: Fatai Alashe of San Jose, Cyle Larin of Orlando City and Matt Polster of Chicago.

▪ Defender of the year: Laurent Ciman of Montreal, Matt Hedges of FC Dallas and Kendall Waston of Vancouver.

▪ Coach of the year: Jesse Marsch of New York, Oscar Pareja of FC Dallas and Carl Robinson of Vancouver.

The Comeback Player of the Year award will be announced on Nov. 18, and the MVP award will be announced Dec. 2. The rookie, defender and coach awards will be announced on Nov. 10, 11 and 24, respectively.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Sporting KC’s Feilhaber, Melia among finalists for MLS honors."