Referee of the Year Finalists (November 4) Alan Kelly Jair Marrufo Baldomero Toledo Assistant Referee of the Year Finalists (November 4) Frank Anderson Ian Anderson Eric Boria
The voting between the two Anderson brother's should be...impossible? I mean it comes down to the color of the badge I suppose, but I doubt any players realize that. It really is a statement to how good they are (and how much they are respected) that they both were nominated.
Well that's...interesting. Just to review, these are voted on by "current MLS players, MLS club staff (including coaches, technical directors, chief business officers and PR directors) and media members who consistently covered the 2016 regular season."
It's the opposite of interesting. It's entirely predictable (predictable as @Pierre Head asserting the award is pointless by reminding us later in this thread that Paul Tamberino won it 4 times in a row). This is the exact same list of three finalists from last year. And it makes sense. Kelly gets the most national tv exposure, plus the most notoriety because of his move here--that seals his spot. Toledo is the veteran who does the most big matches and the players all know him and, if they don't love him, at least respect him; so his spot is secure. And Marrufo did MLS Cup last year, has one of the lowest card counts, and is a veteran who has been around forever. It doesn't hurt that all three of them, in the grand scheme of things, avoided big controversies and reffed above average across the course of the season. It's very rare for this list to have a surprise. The basic formula is Name ID + Exposure + Longevity - Controversy = Finalist. I can recall only one surprise in a list of finalists for this award and that was Elfath 2013 (not saying it wasn't deserved, just that it was surprising because it didn't fit the mold).
Here I am! Well not quite what MR predicted. Although I still believe the award is somewhat pointless because of the people who vote for it, at least the finalists this year are all high quality referees who deserve to be on that list. In the Tamberino years, there were several other referees who were much better than he was by any measure (accuracy, fitness, discipline etc.) who should have won the award. Examples would be Stott, Kennedy, Hall, Terry, Grady, Valenzuela. They were on the FIFA referees' list, which Tamberino was not, (he was on the AR list) so it was very bizarre. The reason he won was because he was popular with the players, not because he was the best referee, and certainly not for 4 years in a row! Although he may not have been the worst, but was certainly in the lower 50% and I expect that not many of the assessors in MLS (and I knew a lot of them) at that time would have selected him. So in conclusion, it seems as though the selections have become more appropriate these days so perhaps the reference to what went on in the bad old days of MLS refereeing is no longer valid. PH