Jordan Morris, Chad Marshall among Sounders up for MLS awards

Major League Soccer announced this week the finalists for a number of is end-of-the-season awards, with a handful of Sounders players among those honored.

Jordan Morris is one of three finalists for Rookie of the Year. He broke more than one record on the way to scoring his 12 goals for Seattle in 2016. Center-back Chad Marshall didn’t make the cut for Defender of the Year, but he is up for the Fair Play award thanks to his career-low 13 fouls and two yellow cards in the regular season. The Sounders’ last finalist is Nicolas Lodeiro, who despite arriving late in the season is up for Newcomer of the Year. In just 13 regular-season matches for Seattle, Lodeiro scored four goals, racked up eight assists, and is credited as one of the key influences on the Sounders’ miraculous push for the playoffs.

Check out the full list of finalists on the MLS’ website.

Morris currently has a goal in the round-of-16 of AT&T Goal of the Year, his excellent strike against Toronto FC on July 2. Morris’ goal has already been voted ahead twice, and he’ll need even more votes to progress to the quarterfinals of the tournament-style contest. Fans can vote here for Morris’ goal.

Goalkeeper Stefan Frei has also progressed to the round of 16 for the Save of the Year for his save against NYCFC on June 25. Fans can vote here for Frei’s save.

Notes

• Sounders players Cristian Roldan and Damien Lowe (who was loaned to Minnesota United for the 2016 season) have officially graduated from the Generation Adidas program after this season. What’s important about the changing of designation is that the players are no longer automatically protected in the Expansion Draft during this coming offseason. If the Sounders hope to keep one or both players, they’ll have to designate them as one of their “protected” players. Roldan is certainly a lock for this designation, as the Sounders clearly see him as a long-term asset.

• As of Wednesday, Roman Torres, Flaco Fernandez and Andreas Ivanschitz have not returned to full training with Seattle and are considered day-to-day by head coach Brian Schmetzer. They still have a chance to be ready for the trip to Dallas over the weekend, but it feels pretty unlikely at this point. Torres suffered a hamstring issue during or after the Sporting KC match, Flaco seems to have irritated a similar hamstring problem, and Ivanschitz’s knee is still not 100 percent after injuring it a few weeks ago.

• If the Sounders make the Western Conference Finals, their home match would be on Tuesday, Nov. 22 due to a home scheduling conflict with the Seahawks. The return leg away would be the following Sunday.

Spenser Davis also covers the Sounders for Sounder at Heart.