Wisconsin Soccer Central

Jesse Marsch (Racine Case) won seven trophies during his 14-year career as a hard-working midfielder in Major League Soccer with D.C. United, Chicago Fire and Chivas USA. On Tuesday, the 42-year-old earned one for his work as a coach.

Marsch, who led the New York Red Bulls to the Supporters' Shield as the league's top regular-season team in his first season, was named MLS Coach of the Year. He is the second person with Wisconsin ties to claim the award – Milwaukee's Bob Gansler was the 2000 MLS Coach of the Year for the Kansas City Wizards.

The Red Bulls and FC Dallas finished the 34-game schedule with identical 18-10-6 records, but the Red Bulls won the tiebreaker to collect the Supporters' Shield for the second time in the past three years.

Marsch received 50.9 percent of votes from MLS club officials, 64.79 percent of votes from league media members and 36.36 percent of votes from players to beat out FC Dallas' Oscar Pareja and Carl Robinson of the Vancouver Whitecaps for the award.

The Princeton graduate started his coaching career as an assistant to longtime mentor Bob Bradley with the U.S. national team from 2009 to '11, then was the first coach for the Montreal Impact when they joined MLS from the North American Soccer League. He led the expansion Impact to a 12-16-6 record in 2012, then left the club after one season by what both sides termed "mutual consent."

Marsch served as a volunteer assistant at Princeton in 2013 and '14 before taking over the Red Bulls last January.

He had a challenging start to his tenure: He was hired by new sporting director Ali Curtis to replace Mike Petke, a popular former New York player who was fired as coach after leading the Red Bulls to the Supporters' Shield in 2013 – the first trophy for the club, which was a charter member of MLS when it started in 1996.

On Twitter: @jessemarsch

• Ethan Finlay (Marshfield) played a role in the fastest goal in Major League Soccer postseason history as the host Columbus Crew blanked Marsch's Red Bulls 2-0 in the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals Sunday in Ohio. Justin Meram touched the opening kick to Federico Higuain, who played the ball back to midfielder Wil Trapp. His long ball was flicked on by Kei Kamara and Finlay tried to control it at the top of the box, but it fell to Meram, who fired past Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles just 9 seconds into the match. (Watch below) Leg 2 is Sunday in Harrison, N.J., with kickoff at 6:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. The winner advances to play the Portland Timbers or FC Dallas in MLS Cup on Dec. 6. On Twitter: @EthanFinlay13

• Rosie Malone-Povolny (Marquette) had a hat trick as host Medkila IL confirmed its place in Norway's top-flight Toppserien next year in commanding fashion Saturday, routing Grand Bodø 5-0 to win the two-leg playoff series 8-0 on aggregate. Malone-Povolny opened the scoring in the 3rd minute and added another in the 8th to quickly end any thoughts of a comeback by the Division 1 side. She closed out her huge day with a goal in the 67th, then was subbed out in the 70th – the final 20 minutes marked the only time this season Medkila played without Malone-Povolny on the field. She finished with 12 goals in 27 appearances in all competitions in her third season with Medkila, including six goals in her final four matches.
• Genevieve Richard (UW) and Nojima Stella Kanagawa Sagamihara will play Speranza FC Osaka Takatsuki in a two-leg series Dec. 4 and 11, with the winner claiming a spot in the top-tier Nadeshiko League Division 1 next season. Nojima Stella (21-5-1) finished second in Division 2 this season, while Speranza was 4-15-5 overall and was ninth out of the 10 teams in Division 1. Nojima Stella was ousted from the Empress Cup over the weekend, falling to Division 1 Albirex Niigata Ladies 2-1 after extra time. On Twitter: @GenRichard_GK
• Carlos McCrary, who played three seasons with the Madison 56ers in the National Premier Soccer League, scored his third and fourth goals of the season Nov. 14 as Sportfreunde-Seligenstadt beat host Eintracht Stadtallendorf in the German fifth-division Hessenliga. McCrary pulled the visitors level in the 67th and added an insurance goal in the 82nd for Sportfreunde-Seligenstadt (8-7-2), which is in seventh place in the 17-team league. On Twitter: @CarlosMcCrary