The Union’s Kai Wagner and Jakob Glesnes earn spots on MLS’s team of the season

The Union’s return to prominence had many factors this year, and the biggest undoubtedly was the defense’s return to form.

The latest reward for that came Wednesday, when left back Kai Wagner and centerback Jakob Glesnes were named to MLS’s team of the year in voting by the league’s players, team staffs, and the media.

“It is good to feel like we are back on track after what we had last year,” Glesnes said. “We have been a good collective, the whole team, and when the team is doing well, then you’re getting some awards at the end of the year. And me and Kai are the lucky ones now, but there are other guys there as well that deserve to get that one.”

When the Union last topped the Eastern Conference in 2022, they set a league record for defensive stinginess by allowing just 26 goals in 34 games. Wagner and Glesnes both made the Best XI that year, their only nods before now, along with Andre Blake and Dániel Gazdag.

A year later, the goal number rose to 41, concerning but still respectable. Then came last year’s 55, and alarms sounded. Soon afterward, Jim Curtin was fired and Jack Elliott was gone.

There certainly was an expectation with Bradley Carnell’s arrival that the defense would improve. But the team started the year with just three first-team-caliber centerbacks, and Olwethu Makhanya had not yet played for the first team.

Four games into the campaign, Ian Glavinovich suffered a torn meniscus that ended his season and, eventually, his Union tenure. That left the Union with Glesnes, Makhanya, a converted outside back in Nathan Harriel, and a high-ceiling-but-unproven teenager in Neil Pierre.

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At the regular-season finale’s final whistle, the Union had allowed 35 goals in 34 games, even with a 7-0 loss at Vancouver in September.

Thus, the Union returned to the top of the standings in both that statistic and the one that counts most. Their goal difference also was No. 2 in the Eastern Conference at plus-22, trailing only the plus-26 of Lionel Messi’s Miami.

“I think [it was] a lot of hard work [and] passion from a lot of players who stepped up in a big way,” Wagner said. “Everybody got it in the mind that we have to be better than last season. I think that was straight from Day 1 in preseason [in] Spain on, and I think everybody contributed the right way.”

This year also marked Glesnes’ return to full health from sports hernia surgery in late 2023. The 31-year-old has talked a few times this year about how much that has mattered, and he showed it again in Saturday’s first-round-clinching win at Chicago.

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After conceding the foul that led to Jack Elliott’s Game 1-tying equalizer in the final minutes, Glesnes was sterling in Game 2. Yes, he laid down some robust challenges (leading to some pointed criticism from the Fire’s radio broadcasters), but no one in the press box thought them to be extreme. Chicago took the bait, and its lack of big-game experience was exposed.

“I loved to see how the energy was at halftime,” Glesnes said. “We came in there, and everyone was going at each other like, ‘OK, let’s kill this f— game off now. … We were frustrating them at their home, and to win, 3-0, there — no one was thinking that it had to be pretty, it was just needed to get the job done, and we did that in the first half.”

Glesnes and Wagner also were finalists for the league’s Defender of the Year award and were beaten out by the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Tristan Blackmon. He also had a fine year, albeit cut short by injuries, and Wagner and Glesnes seemed to split some votes. But there was no need for that this time, with all three of them plus Orlando City right back Alex Freeman — also a U.S. national team rising star — getting the Best XI honor.

Notably, it’s the first time in 21 years that four defenders have made the Best XI, with voters usually trying to shoehorn as many star attackers in as possible. MLS has gotten better in recent years about enforcing an actual formation on the ballot, giving voters options but still making them choose something recognizable.

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It’s also the first time in league history that two players who played the year as outside backs earned the honor. The only previous time that came close was in 2007: Jonathan Bornstein of the former Chivas USA and Michael Parkhurst of New England were chosen, but Parkhurst played centerback that year.

Wagner stood up for his job, as you’d expect.

“I feel like the last couple years, the Defender of the Year award, I call it the Centerback of the Year award,” the 28-year-old said, and in fact that understates the history. The last player to get the honor while playing as an outside back was the San Jose Earthquakes’ John Doyle in 1996, MLS’s inaugural season.

“I think outside back is, from my eyes, the hardest position to play in the whole game,” Wagner said. “We have to defend in the channels one-[vs.]-one all the time, we have to be strong going forward, we have to be strong defensively. I think that, finally, outside backs get a little bit more recognition is big.”

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And if future voters would like a reference, he’ll gladly provide one.

“I will keep calling it that outside backs should get mentioned a little bit more, and I’m ready to help with that,” Wagner said. “But I’m really, really happy that I’m in there.”

Goalkeeper: Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United

Defenders: Tristan Blackmon, Vancouver Whitecaps; Alex Freeman, Orlando City; Jakob Glesnes, Union; Kai Wagner, Union

Midfielders: Sebastian Berhalter, Vancouver Whitecaps; Evander, FC Cincinnati; Cristian Roldan, Seattle Sounders

Forwards: Denis Bouanga, Los Angeles FC; Anders Dreyer, San Diego FC; Lionel Messi, Inter Miami