Written by Michael Lewis

It’s been quite a year for former Long Island Rough Riders defender Tim Parker.

The Hicksville, N.Y. native scored the first goal in St. Louis CITY SC history and is among the three finalists for Major League Soccer’s defender of the year.

On Thursday, Parker was named one of final three along with Seattle’s Yeimar Gómez Andrade and FC Cincinnati’s Matt Miazga. This past season, Parker recorded a career-best four goals.

He also helped anchor a CITY SC backline to eight shutouts this past campaign.

The MLS defender of the year winner will be announced on November 8 at 10 a.m. ET.

In the expansion team’s league debut on Feb. 25, Parker scored St. Louis CITY’s first goal in the team’s 3-2 victory at Austin FC.

The 30-year-old veteran silenced the Q2 Stadium crowd and gave the expansion team a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute with a header off Eduard Löwen’s corner kick. Acquired following last year’s expansion draft in a trade with Houston Dynamo FC, nodded the ball home right past goalkeeper Brad Stuver.

It was Parker’s third MLS regular-season goal and first since 2018 in his first season with the New York Red Bulls.

The 30-year-old Parker performed for the Rough Riders during the 2012 Premier Development League season before turning pro.

The 6-2, 194-lb. center back played with Vancouver Whitecaps FC from 2017-2020 and reached the MLS Cup semifinals in 2018 with the New York Red Bulls.

Parker was traded by the Red Bulls to the Houston Dynamo in January 2021. He was acquired by St. Louis in a trade last November. St. Louis agreed to pay $500,000 to the Dynamo over the next two MLS seasons for Parker’s rights with Houston retaining a portion of his salary.