This only includes the CCL and national team games. Francisco Calvo (Costa Rica and Minnesota United), Michael Bradley (USA and Toronto), Bradley Wright-Phillips (England and New York Red Bulls), and Sebastian Giovinco (Italy and Toronto) are the four MLS players on the Best XI. Of the 22 players on the Men's XI and Women's XI, Wright-Phillips and Giovinco are the only ones with a non-Concacaf nationality. Mark Geiger was second in Male Referee of the Year. https://www.concacaf.com/en/awards/...organ-named-2018-concacaf-players-of-the-year is the article.
Only CONCACAF could manage to get a best 11 with players not from CONCACAF in a lineup with players not playing in CONCACAF. Yet still manage to leave off Josef Martinez. The world is their oyster.
They left off Josef Martinez, yet included a center back from a defense that was worst in MLS in 2017 and tied for second-worst in 2018.
Alyssa Naeher wasn't remotely close to being the NWSL keeper of the year, and is only holding on to the WNT #1 job by smoke and mirrors. She is a fine keeper, but her being women's keeper of the year and Alex Morgan being women's player of the year tell you all you really need to know about these lists.
It's not just the World cup being important. It's that it only includes international competitions. MLS is irrelevant.
Only CONCACAF...only CONCACAF. Which begs the question...wonder what the all-AFC (or CFA) team would look like using CONCACAF's convoluted criteria?
Unlike comparing MLS players to each other, comparing players in different leagues requires making a judgment about the strength of each league, or excluding domestic leagues entirely. CAF had 152 people vote for 5 players for Men's Player of the Year using a 5-4-3-2-1 point system, but I didn't find criteria defined.