Major League Soccer today announced the 2022 Best XI Presented by Continental Tire, a collection of elite performers from the 2022 MLS regular season and one of the most prestigious annual honors a player can receive. The Best XI – recognizing the league’s top players at each position as determined by media, MLS players, and MLS club technical staffs – features the league’s most exciting talent. Representing seven nations and six clubs – all of which qualified for the Audi 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs – this group of 11 stars features six players who were selected to their first Best XI.
2022 MLS Best XI Presented by Continental Tire
Goalkeeper:Â Andre Blake (Philadelphia Union)
Defenders:Â Jakob Glesnes (Philadelphia Union), Kai Wagner (Philadelphia Union), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC)Â
Midfielders: Luciano Acosta (FC Cincinnati), Sebastián Driussi (Austin FC), Dániel Gazdag (Philadelphia Union), Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC)
Forwards: Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas), Brandon Vázquez (FC Cincinnati), Carlos Vela (LAFC)
After producing the second-best goal differential (+46) in MLS history, the Philadelphia Union placed four players on the Best XI roster, which is tied for the second most in league history (D.C. United: 1997, 2006; Chicago Fire FC: 1998, 2003; LA Galaxy: 2010, 2011; New England Revolution: 2021) behind only the Miami Fusion’s five in 2001. The Union became the second club in MLS history club to have a goalkeeper, two defenders, and one midfielder in the Best XI, joining Sporting Kansas City in 2012.
Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Andre Blake was selected to the Best XI for the third time in his career, the most by a goalkeeper in MLS history. Blake allowed just 0.76 goals per game in 2022, marking the best average by a goalkeeper who played in all 34 games of a single season. Additionally, his 15 shutouts tied Sporting Kansas City’s Jimmy Nielsen in 2012 for the second most in a season in league history.
Blake is joined by two of his backline teammates in Jakob Glesnes and Kai Wagner, both of whom earned MLS Best XI selections for the first time in their careers. Glesnes was the only outfield player in MLS this season to start and play every single minute (3,060) and did so for a defense that allowed just 0.76 goals per game, which was the second-best mark in a season in league history. Wagner was impressive in both defense and attack, as he set the MLS single-season record for assists by a defender, providing 15 in 2022.
Gázdag earns his first Best XI selection after producing a club-record 32 goal contributions (22 goals, 10 assists) in the regular season. The Hungarian international became the sixth player in MLS history with at least 20 goals and 10 assists in a single season. Of Gázdag’s 61 shots in 2022, he scored on 22 of them for a 36.1% conversion rate – the highest by an MLS player with at least 10 goals in a season since New York City FC’s Frank Lampard (36.4%) in 2016. He joins the Chicago Fire’s Nemanja Nikolić (2017) as the only players from Hungary to earn MLS Best XI honors.
