Nashville SC star midfielder Hany Mukhtar received a capper to his stellar season on Tuesday when he was named Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player.

Mukhtar scored a league-leading 23 goals to win the Golden Boot and added 11 assists. He had a hand in a league-high 65.4 percent (34 of 52) of his team’s goals.

It marks the second straight season he led the MLS in goals contributed. He had 16 goals and 12 assists last season.

“If you’re a good individual player, you’re only as good as your teammates,” Mukhtar said in a press conference. “I have the pleasure of playing with amazing teammates and amazing guys and they make me shine.”

Mukhtar, 27, is the first German-born player to win MLS MVP honors. He is also the first Nashville SC player to win it. The club began playing as an expansion team in 2020 and Mukhtar was the first Designated Player it signed.

Mukhtar received 48.03 percent of the votes from a panel of players, technical staff and media. He finished well ahead of Austin FC forward Sebastian Driussi (16.8 percent) and Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Andre Blake (7.87 percent).

“The dream has come true for me,” Mukhtar said. “This is a special moment for me and my family.”

Mukhtar was lured to Geodis Park in Nashville on Tuesday by being told there was a photo shoot. Upon his arrival, the scoreboard was playing messages from his parents in Germany, his fiancé, close friends and teammates expressing their congratulations.

The video messages included congratulations from players on the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and NHL’s Nashville Predators.

“This is the best video I have ever gotten in my life,” Mukhtar said near the end of it.

Mukhtar scored 10 goals in a seven-match stretch late in the season to become the overwhelmingly MVP favorite.

He has 43 goals and 27 assists in 79 matches (73 starts) in three seasons with Nashville.

Nashville SC went 13-11-10 this season and lost to the LA Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs.

Galaxy forward Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez (3.6 percent) and LAFC forward Cristian Arango (3.53 percent) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the balloting.

–Field Level Media

Major League Soccer will not discipline D.C. United forward Taxi Fountas over his alleged use of racist language toward an opponent despite ruling that his version of the events was not credible.

The league announced Monday that it could not independently confirm that Fountas used a slur against Inter Miami defender Damion Lowe during a Sept. 18 game and thus couldn’t punish him.

Fountas was pulled from the Sept. 18 contest after defender Aime Mabika and his teammates supposedly heard what was said and made the allegation, with the Miami players telling the referee they would not continue to play if Fountas were to stay on. D.C. United manager Wayne Rooney subbed Fountas out of the game, and the team kept Fountas out of its last two matches of the season as MLS conducted an investigation.

The league stated that Fountas and D.C. United cooperated fully with the probe. Major League Soccer’s statement regarding its findings reads in part, “While the league investigation could not independently verify the allegation, MLS did not find credible Fountas’ claim, made during interviews conducted as part of this investigation, that he said nothing in that moment — discriminatory or otherwise.

“Video of the incident clearly shows Mabika suddenly reacting to something he believed he heard from Fountas. MLS was unable to confirm independently, through additional eyewitness accounts, video footage or audio recordings, what Fountas said in that moment, as has been the league’s long-standing practice in determining player discipline for these types of allegations.”

Fountas will be allowed to resume action in MLS at the start of next season.

D.C. United said in a statement,” The club appreciate and accept the findings of the league’s investigation, as well as the conclusion that the act in question could not be confirmed following several interviews that took place with individuals involved and nearby the incident, including those closest to the situation, as well as through an in-depth review of audio and video from multiple broadcast angles. Additionally, the club would like to acknowledge Taxi Fountas’ cooperation throughout the investigation.

“D.C. United are committed to continuing to do the work needed to uphold one of our club’s core values that racism has no home in our sport and we must be proactive in our efforts to create a place where all feel welcome and respected.”

Fountas, a 27-year-old Greece native, just completed his first season in MLS. He played 21 games for D.C. United, making 17 starts, and finished with a team-high 12 goals and three assists.

Mabika, a 24-year-old Zambia native, played in 15 games (13 starts) for Miami this year. He has no goals and one assist in parts of two MLS seasons.

MLS also announced the result of its investigation into the hiring of Rooney on July 12, fining the team $25,000 for failing to follow the rules spelled out in the league’s Diversity Hiring Policy. Teams are required to have at least two candidates from underrepresented groups in the finalist pool for coaching hires, including at least one Black candidate.

According to MLS, D.C. United spoke with two candidates from underrepresented groups, but only one of those was actually in the finalist pool.

–Field Level Media

Julian Carranza scored the first goal and assisted the second two minutes apart, and the Philadelphia Union booked a spot in their first MLS Cup by rallying from an early second-half deficit to a 3-1 victory over the visiting New York City FC in Sunday’s Eastern Conference Final.

Daniel Gazdag and Cory Burke also scored for the top-seeded Union (19-5-10, 67 points), who avenged a 2-1 defeat to NYCFC in last year’s East final, in which Philadelphia played without 11 players because of a cluster of COVID-19 cases.

Jakob Glesnes and Jack McGlynn also provided assists for the Union, who have won 11 in a row at home including their two playoff games, and have won all three meetings against defending MLS Cup winners NYCFC (16-11-7, 55 points) since last year’s East final.

Philadelphia will have to travel to face Los Angeles Football Club in the MLS Cup final next Saturday night since LAFC secured the higher seed via the first tiebreaker of more regular season wins.

Maxi Moralez gave No. 3 seed NYCFC the lead in the 57th minute and sparked the game to life after it had featured more physical altercations than legitimate scoring chances to that point.

Alex Callens nearly doubled the advantage only a couple minutes later, with a header that forced Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake into easily his best save of the night.

Carranza then leveled the match in the 65th minute on a defensive lapse that turned the tide of the whole evening, when he somehow snuck out of surveillance of the NYCFC defense, running onto Glesnes’ simple throughball and slotting the ball past Sean Johnson.

He was again involved two minutes later to give the home side the lead and send a sell-out crowd into rapture when he reached McGlynn’s long diagonal ball and sent it back across the box.

Gazdag met it in strike and pounded a half-volley that left Johnson little chance.

Burke sealed the game with a bullish individual effort, taking a pass at midfield, fending off a couple physical challenges and, after a failed clearance from an NYCFC defender, hammering home the tally from close range.

–Field Level Media

Cristian Arango scored early, Kwadwo Opoku scored late and Los Angeles FC booked their first trip to the MLS Cup with a dominant 3-0 victory over visiting Austin FC in Sunday’s Western Conference final.

Between those goals, LAFC also scored from an own goal on an early-second-half corner kick to make good on the promise they’ve shown — leading the West since early May and winning the MLS Supporters’ Shield for earning the best regular-season record.

Twice, corners from LAFC’s first-ever player signing Carlos Vela led to goals for the home side, which delivered one of its best performances of the season.

West No. 2 seed Austin was outshot 22-7 overall and 10-1 in efforts on target as LAFC sealed the right to host the MLS Cup final on Saturday.

Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver made seven saves to acquit himself well as the second-year club’s first playoff campaign came to an end.

Substitute forward Maxi Urruti stuck out in the opposite manner, accidentally turning the ball into his own net shortly after his introduction to put the game more or less out of reach.

Austin might have found a way back into the game had one key decision shortly after that own goal gone their way.

Referee Armando Villareal was summoned by video assistant referee Timothy Ford to examine a potential penalty kick foul by LAFC defender Sebastian Ibeagha. But, perhaps surprisingly, he did not choose to point to the spot.

After a first half-hour of mostly one-way traffic, in which Jose Cifuentes struck the post in the 17th minute, Arango opened the scoring in the 29th.

He snuck away from marker Moussa Djitte at the back corner of the 6-yard box and flashed a quick header between Stuver and the left post.

It became 2-0 when Vela sent in another difficult inswinging ball. Urruti may have been screened on the play, and when the ball finally reached him it struck inadvertently off his head and inside the far post.

LAFC sealed things in the 80th minute when Opoku reached a pass that took a fortuitous bounce and hammered a low strike inside the right post from about 18 yards.

–Field Level Media