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Charles Barnard: Ned Grabavoy. I could give this award to Javy as well but I thought I would spread the love. Grabavoy had a career year this year. He set career highs in both goals and assists and really proved a glue to the midfield. He also was the team leader in minutes played.
Chad Loveland: Kyle Beckerman. Our skipper, Mr Kyle Beckerman had maybe the best year of his career. Career high goals with 4, with 6 helpers to boot! He was the named man of the match for the Gold Cup final, helped US secure first win in Mexico in Qualifying, got called up to the National Team on a super regular basis. Oh and found times to lead a young RSL team and help bring along several new players to the team and not skip a beat. You know the coaching staff deserves a ton of credit but so does Kyle.
Matt Montgomery: Javier Morales. The number of options here is staggering: Three of our starting midfielders are rightly in contention, performing at top-of-career levels. Kyle Beckerman, Ned Grabavoy, and Javier Morales are all players who have made substantial impacts this year, but the choice of Javier Morales is a difficult one to avoid. He scored more goals this season (8) than in any of his previous seasons with RSL, and his assist count (10) was second only to 2008's 15. Surely those levels of production are noteworthy, and considering plenty thought he was done for a short time ago, there's a remarkable quality to it. Morales's impact on the team is also worth noting, as our fortunes vary greatly when he's not in the side - perhaps owing to missing the start of the season, but something of note regardless.
Randal Serr: Kyle Beckerman. I thought long and hard about picking Grabavoy for midfielder of the year, but at the end of the day Kyle Beckerman is a consistent U.S. Men's National Team caliber talent. He is stellar in the defensive midfield position and he is one of the main reasons that RSL is the best possession team in MLS. Beckerman is quality.
Jake Simons: Ned Grabavoy. Ned stepped into the formidably large shoes of the lost and gone Will Johnson this year with great success. There were many murmurings last year that Ned was washed up, done for, overstretched, and that he didn't deserve to be on this team. This year he put in an amazing effort, surpassing his previous mark for goals and was instrumental in the success we have seen this year.
Join the discussion: Share your pick for midfielder in the year. Not one of these players? Tell us why.