AUSTIN (KXAN) — It was a historic season for Sebastian Driussi and Austin FC, but not enough for the Argentine striker to earn the MVP Award. Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar is the recipient of the 2022 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player.

Driussi finished behind the Nashville attacker with second in all voting categories; players, media and clubs. The Austin FC leader averaged to have 16.80% of the vote, behind the 48.03% of Mukhtar.

The 22 goals by Driussi were more than double anyone else this season for the Verde and Black. That was just one behind the Golden Boot winner, Mukhtar, with 23.

Driussi and Austin FC finished the regular season second in the Western Conference and won two playoff games to advance to the conference finals. Mukhtar led Nashville SC to the fifth seed where they fell to LA Galaxy in the opening round.

The two expansion clubs met twice in 2022, both in September. Nashville won the first meeting 3-0 with Mukhtar scoring twice in what was billed as a clash between the two MVP favorites. The second match was back in Austin and ended in a 1-1 draw with both Driussi and Mukhtar scoring their team’s respective lone goal.

Mukhtar and Driussi finished ahead of Philadelphia Union’s Andre Blake who netted just under eight percent of the MVP vote. Driussi had seven assists on the season, good for second on Austin FC and four shy of the 11 of Mukhtar.