Climbing the Ladder

MLS - Week 17 Notes (plus Gold Cup)

2009-07-12T04:45:00.001-05:00

1) The USMNT have now gone 16 matches in a row undefeated in Gold Cup play, dating back to the 2003 third place match. That ties the record set by Mexico, whose streak lasted from 1991-2000 and also began in a third place match.

The streak:

1	2003-07-26	3rd	Costa Rica	3-2	W

2	2005-07-07	Grp	Cuba	4-1	W
3	2005-07-09	Grp	Canada	2-0	W
4	2005-07-12	Grp	Costa Rica	0-0	D
5	2005-07-16	QF	Jamaica	3-1	W
6	2005-07-21	SF	Honduras	2-1	W
7	2005-07-24	F	Panama	0-0	D

8	2007-06-07	Grp	Guatemala	1-0	W
9	2007-06-09	Grp	Trinidad	2-0	W
10	2007-06-12	Grp	El Salvador	4-0	W
11	2007-06-16	QF	Panama	2-1	W
12	2007-06-21	SF	Canada	2-1	W
13	2007-06-24	F	Mexico	2-1	W

14	2009-07-04	Grp	Grenada	4-0	W
15	2009-07-08	Grp	Honduras	2-0	W
16	2009-07-11	Grp	Haiti	2-2	D

The USA has still only lost four games in Gold Cup history, twice each to Brazil and Mexico.

I wasn't too worried during the match, as I remembered the last minute goal the USA scored the last time we played Haiti. Danny Califf scored in the 94th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw in Miami in 2004. It was also notable for being the only time John Wolyniec started for the USA.

Incidentally, I almost forgot the USA was playing yesterday due to the lack of an off day between the second and third group games. Totally missed Friday's games because of that.

2) Home/away discrepancy update:

NY - played 3 more away games
CHI, NE - played 2 more away games

CHV - played 2 more home games
SEA, TOR - played 3 more home games

3) Did you know that of the 39 nominees for MLS Rookie of the Year from 1996-2008, only three were teenagers? I'm going by the age they were on July 1st. Those three were Santino Quaranta, Freddy Adu, and Chad Marshall (none of whom won). None of the main candidates this year are that young.

The average of a ROTY nominee is 21.91 years, while the average age of the winners is slightly older at 22.13 years. The three oldest winners, all over 23, were Mike Duhaney, Rodrigo Faria, and Sean Franklin. That's not good news for Franklin to be in the same boat with arguably the worst two winners in league history.

4) Most sub appearances without starts. This little known single season record could be in danger of falling in 2009. Jamil Walker is the current record holder with 19 in 2003. However, he has a few serious challengers this year, most notably Eric Avila of FC Dallas. Through 17 games, Avila has come off the bench 14 times without starting (including last night).

Unfortunately, FCD is likely to fall out of contention very soon which means that he probably will be starting a few matches at least. Other contenders for the record (or at least the top ten) are Michael Kraus (11), Mike Banner (9), Greg Dalby (8), Roger Levesque (6), and Duncan Oughton (6).

5) Bruce Arena's LA Galaxy team has now won three straight 1-0 matches to jump up the standings. The team is winning with their defense (4th in the league) because their offense certainly hasn't been up to the task (13th).

It's not normal for Arena's teams to be defense oriented, however. In the four full seasons he's coached in MLS (1996-98, 2007) that hasn't been the case. In each of those years his teams have ranked higher on offense than on defense. Look:

Team Ranks

		OFF	DEF
1996	DC	2	6
1997	DC	1	5
1998	DC	2	3
2006*	NY	8	5
2007	NY	3	9
2008**	LA	1	14
2009***	LA	13	4

* Only coached 12/32 games.
** Only coached 10/30 games.
*** Season is not over yet (17/30 games).

Open Cup - Home & Away

2009-07-08T04:32:00.001-05:00

We all know that the Open Cup matchups are not a random draw like the FA Cup. Teams are matched together by region, and deciding who hosts is based on which teams bid for it. It's hard not to notice how some teams always seem to play at home or away. For example, DC United has hosted every Open Cup match they've played in 2008 and 2009 so far. They'll also host the semifinal against Rochester.

It's obvious that everyone would like to see a random draw implemented eventually, but it doesn't make financial sense (especially for the lower league teams) right now. That's not what this post is about. Instead, I thought it would be interesting to see how many Open Cup winners have played more away games than home games en route to the title.

The answer? Since 1996, it's happened only once. That would be the 1997 Dallas Burn, who played three away games and won the championship at a neutral site.

Right now, Houston has won twice away at Austin and Charleston. They're scheduled to play at Seattle in the semis, so they would join the 1997 Burn if they go on to win the whole thing.

I would expect DC not to get the final at home if they make it again. It would be too unfair to have the same team host it twice in a row. That hasn't happened so far in MLS history despite three chances; Columbus hosted instead of LA in 2002, KC hosted Chicago in 2004, and Chicago hosted LA in 2006.

Seattle is the obvious choice to host the final if they make it that far with the crowds they've been getting. Houston would likely host against DC (no college conflict, and United play in Dallas a few days later), while the Dynamo against the Rhinos would be up in the air. I'd imagine Houston would probably get to host that matchup too, given the good crowds they've got for important playoff games in the past and the previously mentioned run of away games.

Open Cup Winners - Home/Away/Neutral Breakdown

1996	DC United	2-1
1997	Dallas	0-3-1
1998	Chicago	1-1-2
1999	Rochester	3-0-2
2000	Chicago	3-2
2001	Los Angeles	4-1
2002	Columbus	3-1
2003	Chicago	2-2
2004	Kansas City	3-1
2005	Los Angeles	3-1
2006	Chicago	4-0
2007	New England	2-2
2008	DC United	4-0

Notes:

The Fire played away matches against the Chicago Stingers/Sockers (same team, just changed the name) in 1998 and 2000, at Forest View Park. Now the Fire did play a US Open Cup match against another team there in 2000, but that was the regular stadium of the Stingers/Sockers so I think officially it was an away match.

The 1997 & 1999 finals were hosted by neutral sites. Teams that have hosted the final are 9-2, the only losses were in 2003 (New York) and 2007 (Dallas).

MLS: 1st Half vs 2nd Half Performance

2009-07-06T05:31:00.002-05:00

All 149 team seasons from 1996-2008 ranked by the improvement (in PPG) in the second half of the season compared to the first half. Shootouts counted as draws, and for the four teams in 2001 who played 27 games, I counted the first 14 as the first half.

Currently, every MLS team except New England has completed their first half of 2009. We just passed the halfway point in overall games over the weekend.

See below for more interesting stuff:

Change in the Second Half of the Season

			Difference	1st Half	2nd Half
1	2005	COL	1.063	0.875	1.938
2	2001	CLB	1.000	1.231	2.231
3	2006	LA	0.938	0.750	1.688
4	1997	LA	0.875	1.063	1.938
4	2005	SJ	0.875	1.563	2.438
6	2008	HOU	0.867	1.267	2.133
7	2002	NE	0.857	0.929	1.786
8	2006	RSL	0.813	0.813	1.625
9	2002	LA	0.786	1.429	2.214
10	1996	CLB	0.750	0.938	1.688
10	1999	SJ	0.750	0.875	1.625
12	1996	DC	0.688	1.188	1.875
12	1996	NY	0.688	0.938	1.625
12	1998	MIA	0.688	0.750	1.438
12	1998	TB	0.688	0.875	1.563
12	1999	MIA	0.688	0.688	1.375
12	2006	NY	0.688	0.875	1.563
18	2003	COL	0.667	1.000	1.667
19	2005	CLB	0.625	0.875	1.500
19	2005	DC	0.625	1.375	2.000
21	2004	CLB	0.600	1.333	1.933
21	2007	RSL	0.600	0.600	1.200
21	2008	SJ	0.600	0.800	1.400
24	1997	NY	0.563	0.875	1.438
25	2007	CHI	0.533	1.067	1.600
26	1998	COL	0.500	1.188	1.688
26	1999	LA	0.500	1.563	2.063
28	2007	DC	0.467	1.600	2.067
28	2004	NE	0.467	0.867	1.333
30	1996	KC	0.438	1.125	1.563
30	1997	CLB	0.438	1.125	1.563
30	1998	NE	0.438	0.813	1.250
30	1999	TB	0.438	1.000	1.438
30	2000	CHI	0.438	1.563	2.000
30	2006	CHI	0.438	1.250	1.688
36	2007	LA	0.400	0.933	1.333
37	2001	KC	0.396	1.143	1.538
38	2001	COL	0.385	0.692	1.077
38	2001	LA	0.385	1.615	2.000
40	2000	DAL	0.375	1.250	1.625
40	2000	DC	0.375	0.750	1.125
40	2005	CHV	0.375	0.375	0.750
40	2006	NE	0.375	1.313	1.688
44	2002	COL	0.357	1.357	1.714
45	2007	CHV	0.333	1.600	1.933
46	2003	LA	0.267	1.067	1.333
46	2004	SJ	0.267	1.133	1.400
48	1997	DAL	0.250	1.250	1.500
48	2000	NY	0.250	1.563	1.813
48	2000	TB	0.250	1.500	1.750
51	2002	CHI	0.214	1.214	1.429
52	2003	NE	0.200	1.400	1.600
52	2003	CHI	0.200	1.667	1.867
52	2003	DC	0.200	1.200	1.400
52	2003	SJ	0.200	1.600	1.800
52	2007	COL	0.200	1.067	1.267
52	2008	CLB	0.200	1.800	2.000
58	1996	NE	0.188	1.000	1.188
58	2000	MIA	0.188	1.188	1.375
60	2002	KC	0.143	1.214	1.357
60	2002	CLB	0.143	1.286	1.429
62	2004	DC	0.133	1.333	1.467
62	2004	NY	0.133	1.267	1.400
62	2008	DAL	0.133	1.133	1.267
62	2008	KC	0.133	1.333	1.467
62	2008	RSL	0.133	1.267	1.400
67	1998	SJ	0.125	1.125	1.250
68	2001	CHI	0.071	1.929	2.000
69	2008	CHV	0.067	1.400	1.467
69	1996	TB	0.063	1.875	1.938
69	1997	TB	0.063	1.438	1.500
69	1998	DC	0.063	1.875	1.938
69	1999	CLB	0.063	1.500	1.563
69	2005	KC	0.063	1.375	1.438
75	1996	DAL	0.000	1.375	1.375
75	1997	SJ	0.000	1.125	1.125
75	1998	KC	0.000	1.125	1.125
75	1999	DC	0.000	1.875	1.875
75	1999	KC	0.000	0.813	0.813
75	2000	CLB	0.000	1.188	1.188
75	2001	NY	0.000	1.615	1.615
75	2003	CLB	0.000	1.267	1.267
75	2007	HOU	0.000	1.733	1.733
75	2008	COL	0.000	1.267	1.267
85	1997	KC	-0.063	1.625	1.563
85	1998	DAL	-0.063	1.250	1.188
85	1999	CHI	-0.063	1.688	1.625
85	2000	COL	-0.063	1.375	1.313
85	2005	NY	-0.063	1.500	1.438
90	2004	COL	-0.067	1.400	1.333
90	2004	KC	-0.067	1.667	1.600
90	2007	CLB	-0.067	1.267	1.200
90	2008	NY	-0.067	1.333	1.267
94	1999	NY	-0.125	0.688	0.563
94	2006	DAL	-0.125	1.688	1.563
94	2006	KC	-0.125	1.250	1.125
97	2007	NE	-0.133	1.733	1.600
97	2008	CHI	-0.133	1.600	1.467
99	2001	NE	-0.148	1.071	0.923
100	1999	DAL	-0.188	1.875	1.688
100	2005	CHI	-0.188	1.625	1.438
100	2006	CHV	-0.188	1.438	1.250
100	2006	CLB	-0.188	1.125	0.938
104	2004	CHI	-0.200	1.200	1.000
104	2003	DAL	-0.200	0.867	0.667
106	2002	DAL	-0.214	1.643	1.429
107	2001	DAL	-0.231	1.462	1.231
108	2000	LA	-0.250	1.688	1.438
109	2004	DAL	-0.267	1.333	1.067
109	2007	KC	-0.267	1.467	1.200
111	2001	DC	-0.308	1.154	0.846
112	1996	SJ	-0.313	1.563	1.250
112	1997	NE	-0.313	1.438	1.125
112	2000	NE	-0.313	1.563	1.250
112	2000	SJ	-0.313	1.063	0.750
112	2005	LA	-0.313	1.563	1.250
112	2005	NE	-0.313	2.000	1.688
118	2004	LA	-0.333	1.600	1.267
118	2007	NY	-0.333	1.600	1.267
120	2002	NY	-0.357	1.429	1.071
121	1998	CLB	-0.375	1.750	1.375
121	2005	RSL	-0.375	0.813	0.438
123	2001	SJ	-0.385	1.923	1.538
124	2003	KC	-0.400	1.600	1.200
124	2007	DAL	-0.400	1.667	1.267
126	2001	TB	-0.407	0.714	0.308
127	2002	DC	-0.429	1.357	0.929
128	1997	COL	-0.438	1.500	1.063
128	1998	CHI	-0.438	2.000	1.563
128	2006	COL	-0.438	1.500	1.063
131	2008	DC	-0.467	1.467	1.000
131	2008	TOR	-0.467	1.400	0.933
133	2002	SJ	-0.500	1.857	1.357
133	2006	HOU	-0.500	1.688	1.188
135	2003	NY	-0.533	1.667	1.133
136	2008	LA	-0.600	1.400	0.800
137	1996	COL	-0.688	1.375	0.688
137	1996	LA	-0.688	2.000	1.313
137	1997	DC	-0.688	2.188	1.500
137	1998	NY	-0.688	1.563	0.875
137	1999	NE	-0.688	1.375	0.688
137	2000	KC	-0.688	2.125	1.438
143	2007	TOR	-0.733	1.200	0.467
143	2008	NE	-0.733	1.800	1.067
145	1998	LA	-0.750	2.563	1.813
146	2001	MIA	-0.846	2.462	1.615
147	2006	DC	-0.938	2.188	1.250
148	1999	COL	-1.063	2.125	1.063
149	2005	DAL	-1.250	2.125	0.875

Average of all 149 teams: 0.046 PPG

Average of the 13 MLS Cup winners: -0.077 PPG. Five improved, two had no change, and six did worse.

Average of the 104 playoff teams: 0.054 PPG. Average of the 45 non-playoff teams: 0.029.

How about the teams that pulled out playoff upsets? Of the 52 quarterfinal series, 15 have ended in upsets. However, the teams that lost (the higher seeds) averaged 0.206 vs 0.100 for the winners (lower seeds).

Team Averages

	Average	Better	Worse	Even
RSL	0.293	3	1	0
CLB	0.245	8	3	2
CHV	0.147	3	1	0
HOU	0.122	1	1	1
SJ	0.119	6	4	1
LA	0.094	7	6	0
CHI	0.079	6	5	0
COL	0.032	6	6	1
NY	0.012	5	7	1
NE	-0.009	6	7	0
DC	-0.021	7	5	1
KC	-0.034	5	6	2
DAL	-0.168	3	9	1
TOR	-0.600	0	2	0

TB	0.182	5	1	0
MIA	0.179	3	1	0

	Total	74	65	10

Dallas are second half flops; that's pretty obvious without any statistical analysis. Worst three years are 2005, 2007, and 2004. Funny how 2005 was the year Pizza Hut Park opened and they had 10 of the final 16 at home. As you can see above, it's the worst change in PPG ever.

I don't know if I would've guessed Columbus as the top longtime franchise for second half improvment, though. Their 2004 Supporters Shield team only ranks 4th behind 2001, 1996, and 2005.

How Teams With A Certain 1st Half PPG Did

1st Half PPG	Teams	Improved?
under 1.08	35	28-6-1
1.08 to 1.27	31	19-7-5
1.28 to 1.48	28	12-15-1
1.49 to 1.68	29	11-17-1
over 1.68	26	4-20-2

Of course, it's a lot easier for bad teams to get better and vice versa. The average of the final PPG for all 149 seasons is 1.38, so that's the basis behind the categories. As you can see, if you're doing exceptionally good or bad things are likely to swing a bit back to normal.

Know Your Gold Cup History

2009-07-02T05:47:00.001-05:00

All Time Stats: W-L-D records, top goalscorers, most tournaments scored in.

One big record could fall this year. The USA is 3 games away from matching Mexico's 16 game Gold Cup unbeaten streak.

Top Ten Moments (ussoccerplayers.com) - Nice article.

And why not relive the best Gold Cup ever (2007) by watching the comp I put together of all the goals? That tournament had it all: great goals, controversy (USA vs Canada), cindarellas (Guadeloupe), and a great, dramatic final (USA vs Mexico). You knew from the opening match (Canada vs Costa Rica), which featured a comeback and quality finishing, that it was going to be a good one. Too bad nobody outside of North America noticed.

Open Cup: Pathetic Night for MLS

2009-07-01T07:35:00.003-05:00

Number of normal starters in the first xi:

5-Chivas USA
4/5/6-New England (hard to tell with all the injuries)
3-Columbus
3-DC United
1-Chicago
1-Kansas City

So that's three per team. That's actually a bit generous, since for example I counted Gruenebaum/Brunner/Zayner for Columbus.

Open Cup Primer 2009

2009-06-30T04:27:00.003-05:00

The 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup begins tonight for MLS teams, and I've updated the statistical leaders in many categories for the occasion. Eight qualifiers will take on eight lower league clubs in the next two days in what is always one of the most exciting parts of the season. The past two editions have seen only half the MLS teams (8/16) advance in this round.

With only two home games this year, it could be another ugly year for MLS. However, there are only 5 USL-1 teams and several of them face tough matchups (I can't imagine the Sounders going easy on Portland, for example). Traditionally, the trio of Charleston/Minnesota/Rochester are the toughest on MLS teams. On the other hand, CHI/DC/NE should have no problem with teams two and three divisons below them. See below for a list of lower-league wins over MLS teams.

And remember, a place in the CONCACAF Champions League is on the line! Teams like Kansas City and Seattle would be smart to put some emphasis on this tournament. BTW, those two teams will meet if they both win (potential quarterfinal matchups).

Don't forget to check out the history of MLS & Penalty Shootouts, with a detailed list of every single player's scoring rate. That will certainly be a factor.

And now, before you check out the huge list of statistics below regarding MLS teams in the competition since 1996, I want to mention two important things. First of all, player stats include only those while playing for MLS teams. If someone played in the Open Cup for a minor league team, I'm not including those stats here. I also need to point out that Open Cup qualifying games are not part of the tournament proper, and any results/stats from those games are not included here.

Be sure to check out usopencup.com for their great coverage of the tournament as a whole.

Oh, I almost forgot one very important stat: FC Dallas will not play in the Open Cup this season. They were the only MLS team to participate every single season since the league's inception.

Records - Overall

		GP	W	L	D	Pts	GF	GA	GD
1	Chicago	34	25	7	2	77	66	30	36
2	DC United	30	20	7	3	63	61	28	33
3	Los Angeles	28	20	7	1	61	64	30	34
4	Dallas	35	19	12	4	61	66	53	13
5	Columbus	23	15	7	1	46	51	29	22
6	New York	24	12	11	1	37	40	34	6
7	New England	20	10	7	3	33	40	29	11
8	Kansas City	20	10	8	2	32	40	27	13
9	San Jose	18	8	6	4	28	35	18	17
10	Colorado	19	8	11	0	24	20	35	-15
11	Miami	9	5	3	1	16	24	15	9
12	Tampa Bay	10	3	6	1	10	11	20	-9
13	Houston	5	2	2	1	7	9	7	2
14	Chivas USA	5	1	3	1	4	6	12	-6
15	Real Salt Lake	3	1	2	0	3	6	8	-2

DC jumped up to 2nd from 4th last year on their way to a perfect (4-0) championship run.

Records - vs MLS only

		GP	W	L	D	Pts	GF	GA	GD
1	Chicago	20	15	4	1	46	38	20	18
2	Los Angeles	16	10	5	1	31	30	20	10
3	Columbus	14	7	6	1	22	24	21	3
4	DC United	12	6	4	2	20	19	16	3
5	Dallas	15	5	8	2	17	17	28	-11
6	New York	12	5	6	1	16	22	19	3
7	Colorado	8	4	4	0	12	10	13	-3
8	Kansas City	8	3	5	0	9	12	12	0
9	New England	8	3	5	0	9	13	15	-2
10	Miami	5	2	3	0	6	8	11	-3
11	Houston	2	1	1	0	3	4	3	1
12	San Jose	6	0	4	2	2	3	8	-5
13	Real Salt Lake	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	-1
14	Chivas USA	1	0	1	0	0	2	5	-3
15	Tampa Bay	4	0	4	0	0	0	10	-10

Only two all MLS matchups took place last season: DC beating CHI and NE in the quarters and semis respectively.

Titles/Best finishes

4-Chicago (1998, 2000, 2003, 2006)
2-D.C. United (1996, 2008)
2-Los Angeles (2001, 2005)
1-Dallas (1997)
1-Columbus (2002)
1-Kansas City (2004)
1-New England (2007)
0-Chivas USA (round of 16: 2005, 2007, 2008)
0-Colorado (runners up: 1999)
0-Houston (semifinals: 2006)
0-Miami (runners up: 2000)
0-New York (runners up: 2003)
0-Real Salt Lake (round of 16: 2006)
0-San Jose (semifinals: 2004)
0-Tampa Bay (quarterfinals: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)

Most Goals - Overall

(italics = active MLS player)

1	Jaime Moreno	11
2	Carlos Ruiz	9
2	Josh Wolff	9
4	Chris Albright	8
4	Ronald Cerritos	8
4	Brian McBride	8
7	Abdul Thompson Conteh	7
7	Herculez Gomez	7
7	Jason Kreis	7
7	Alejandro Moreno	7
7	Taylor Twellman	7
7	Dante Washington	7

Twellman is the only newcomer to the top ten; he scored once last season to jump into a tie for 7th.

Most Goals - Single Season

1	Herculez Gomez	6	LA	2005
1	Welton	6	MIA	2000
1	Josh Wolff	6	CHI	2000
4	A.T. Conteh	5	DC	2001
5	Jeff Cunningham	4	CLB	2003
5	Amado Guevara	4	NY	2000
5	Andy Herron	4	CHI	2006
5	Jaime Moreno	4	DC	2000
5	Diego Serna	4	MIA	2000
5	Taylor Twellman	4	NE	2007

Top MLS scorer by year:

(bold = also won or tied for the overall golden boot)

1996	3 goals	Jaime Moreno (DC)
1997	2 goals	Shaun Bartlett (NY), Ronald Cerritos (SJ), Damian (DAL), Ted Eck (DAL), Lawrence Lozzano (SJ)
1998	3 goals	Brian McBride (CLB)
1999	3 goals	Jorge Dely Valdes (COL), Bobby Rhine (DAL)
2000	6 goals	Welton (MIA), Josh Wolff (CHI)
2001	5 goals	Abdul Thompson Conteh (DC)
2002	3 goals	Carlos Ruiz (LA)
2003	4 goals	Amado Guevara (NY)
2004	3 goals	Davy Arnaud (KC)
2005	6 goals	Herculez Gomez (LA)
2006	4 goals	Andy Herron (CHI)
2007	4 goals	Taylor Twellman (NE)
2008	3 goals	Luciano Emilio (DC)

Nobody has scored more than 6 goals in a single cup since the "professional era" started in 1995. Three minor league players have also scored 6: Marquis White in 1997, Mugurel Dmitru in 1999, and Melvin Tarley in 2005.

Most Games Played

1	Jesse Marsch	27
2	C.J. Brown	24
3	Zach Thornton	23
3	Peter Vagenas	23
3	Andy Williams	23
6	Chris Armas	22
6	Cobi Jones	22
8	Chris Albright	21
8	Jaime Moreno	21
10	Diego Gutierrez	20
10	Steve Jolley	20
10	Carey Talley	20

Jim Curtin (19) and Steve Ralston (18) are next in line among active players.

Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in the Open Cup

1	Pete Marino	100
2	Dave van den Bergh	83
3	Adrian Paz	80
4	Jim Brennan	70
5	Dane Richards	67
5	Carl Robinson	67
7	Robbie Findley	66
8	Juan Pablo Angel	64
8	Guillermo Barros Schelotto	64
10	Danny Dichio	55

Only Schelotto has a chance to get off this list in 2009.

Best Strike Rate

(goals per game, min 10 games played)

1	Taylor Twellman	0.700
2	Carlos Ruiz	0.643
3	Ronald Cerritos	0.615
3	Brian McBride	0.615
5	Alejandro Moreno	0.583
6	Clint Mathis	0.545
7	Dante Washington	0.538
8	Josh Wolff	0.529
9	Jaime Moreno	0.524
10	Abe Thompson	0.500

Finally eligible, Twellman takes the top spot from Ruiz. Thompson's brace last season pushes Landon Donovan and Ante Razov out of the top ten.

Hat Tricks

4-Welton, MIA vs New Jersey (2000)
4-Josh Wolff, CHI vs Dallas (2000)
3-Bobby Rhine, DAL vs Jacksonville (1999)
3-Raul Diaz Arce, DC @ Charlston (2000)
3-Abdul Thompson Conteh, DC vs New Jersey (2001)
3-Carlos Ruiz, LA @ Seattle (2003)
3-Jason Kreis, RSL @ Minnesota (2005)
3-Kenny Cooper, DAL @ Charleston (2006)

Top Coaches by PPG

(minimum 10 games)

1	Dave Sarachan	2.500
2	Tom Fitzgerald	2.200
3	Greg Andrulis	2.100
4	Sigi Schmid	2.048
5	Bob Bradley	2.043
6	Bob Gansler	2.000
6	Dave Dir	2.000
6	Ray Hudson	2.000
9	Colin Clarke	1.700
10	Fernando Clavijo	1.636

Only a total of 15 coaches have 10+ games in the tournament. Of those 15, the only one with a losing record is Tim Hankinson (4-7-1).

Biggest Margin Of Victory

8:0-DC vs New Jersey (2001)
7:1-NE vs Mid-Michigan (2001)
6:0-SJ @ Central Coast (2001)
6:1-MIA vs New Jersey (2000)
6:1-KC vs Des Moines (2006)
5:0-SJ @ Stanislaus Utd (2000)
5:0-LA vs Nashville (2001)

Longest Unbeaten Streaks

8	Chicago	2000-01
8	Los Angeles	2001-02
7	Chicago	2003-04
7	DC United	1996-97
7	Los Angeles	2005-06
6	Dallas	1997-98
6	New England	2007-08
5	Columbus	2000-01
5	Kansas City	2004-05

Chicago's streaks both consisted of nothing but wins, as does the second LA streak.

Longest Winless Streak

New England

2003-06

At least they advanced once after a draw. Can be matched by Chivas tonight.

Wins By Lower League Teams Over MLS

(shootouts are counted as draws)

USL-1/A-League (29)

7-Rochester Raging Rhinos (1996-TB, COL; 1999-CHI, DAL, *CLB, *COL; 2005-NY)
5-Charleston Battery (1999-DC; 2000-NY; 2004-NY, 2007-HOU, 2008-DAL)
4-Minnesota Thunder (2004-LA, 2005-RSL, COL, KC)
4-Seattle Sounders (2003-SJ, 2007-CHV, COL, 2008-CHV)
2-Richmond Kickers (2000-COL; 2004-DC)
1-Carolina Railhawks (2007-CHI)
1-Connecticut Wolves (2001-TB)
1-Long Island Rough Riders (1997-NE)
1-Milwaukee Rampage (2002-CHI)
1-Nashville Metros (1998-KC)
1-Pittsburgh Riverhounds (2001-COL)
1-Staten Island Vipers (1999-NY)

USL-2/PSL/D-3 (7)

2-San Francisco Bay Seals (1997-KC, SJ)
1-Chicago Stingers (1997-COL)
1-Crystal Palace Baltimore (2008-NY)
1-Harrisburg City Islanders (2007-DC)
1-Richmond Kickers (2007-LA)
1-Wilmington Hammerhaeads (2003-DAL)

PDL (2)

1-Mid-Michigan Bucks (2000-NE)
1-Seattle Sounders Select (2001-DAL)

Bold signifies an MLS home game. * signifies a neutral venue. Overall, MLS teams are 98-38-15 against lower league competition. That is 2.05 points per game, or the equivalent of 61 points in a 30 game season.

Near-Record Number of MLS Rookies Contributing

2009-06-29T05:52:00.001-05:00

I guess it's to be expected as the league gets bigger and bigger, but this year's rookie class is on pace to equal or break a record. What is it? The most rookies who started at least half of the regular season games. The record is 10, and already 9 rookies this season are virtually certain to hit that mark (15 starts):

Darrius Barnes (NE)
Matt Besler (KC)
Sam Cronin (TOR)
Stefan Frei (TOR)
Omar Gonzalez (LA)
Jeremy Hall (LA)
Chris Pontius (DC)
Rodney Wallace (DC)
Steve Zakuani (SEA)

Breaking the record is going to be hard, as some less hyped players will have to lock down a starting role. It's probably up to the foursome of Kevin Alston (NE), A.J. DeLaGarza (LA), George John (DAL), and Nick Zimmerman (NY) to grab and keep starting roles. Alston is a good bet; the others less so.

But even if the number stays at 9, that's still the third highest total in league history:

Rookies who started 50% or more regular season games

1996	7
1997	1
1998	10
1999	5
2000	8
2001	6
2002	4
2003	7
2004	8
2005	8
2006	10
2007	5
2008	1

Total	80

It's especially noticeable this year after the lack of impact rookies a year ago. Average is 6.2 per season.

1996

Gutierrez, Diego

1996

Joseph, Miles

1996

Keegan, Paul

1996

Peay, Clint

1996

Pope, Eddie

1996

Ralston, Steve

1996

Vanney, Greg

1997

Duhaney, Mike

1998

Barrett, Wade

1998

MIA

Cullen, Leo

1998

Houser, Chris

1998

CHI

Kotschau, Ritchie

1998

MIA

Mastroeni, Pablo

1998

Olsen, Ben

1998

Petke, Mike

1998

Talley, Carey

1998

Torres, Johnny

1998

Vermillion, Scott

1999

Brown, Chris (2)

1999

Clark, Jamie

1999

Elliot, Simon

1999

MIA

Heaps, Jay

1999

Mulrooney, Richard

2000

CHI

Bocanegra, Carlos

2000

Califf, Danny

2000

Convey, Bobby

2000

Garcia, Nick

2000

COL

Key, Lance

2000

Pierce, Rusty

2000

MIA

Rimando, Nick

2000

Victorine, Sasha

2001

COL

Herdsman, Stephen

2001

Lisi, Mark

2001

Namoff, Bryan

2001

Nelsen, Ryan

2001

DAL

Suarez, Ryan

2001

Ziadie, Craig

2002

CHI

Gray, Kelly

2002

CLB

Martino, Kyle

2002

Moore, Jeff

2002

COL

Stewart, Jeff

2003

COL

Borchers, Nat

2003

Clark, Ricardo

2003

Dunivant, Todd

2003

Magee, Mike

2003

Noonan, Pat

2003

CHI

Pause, Logan

2003

CHI

Ralph, Damani

2004

COL

Cila, Jordan

2004

Cochrane, Ryan

2004

Dempsey, Clint

2004

Gros, Josh

2004

CLB

Marshall, Chad

2004

Parke, Jeff

2004

Perkins, Troy

2004

CLB

Wingert, Chris

2005

Boswell, Bobby

2005

RSL

Cutler, Kenny

2005

CHV

Guzan, Brad

2005

Ihemelu, Ugo

2005

Parkhurst, Michael

2005

CHI

Rolfe, Chris

2005

Sealy, Scott

2005

CHI

Segares, Gonzalo

2006

RSL

Ballouchy, Mehdi

2006

CHV

Bornstein, Jonathan

2006

RSL

Forko, Willis

2006

CLB

Garey, Jason

2006

Groenwald, Matt

2006

CHV

Kljestan, Sacha

2006

CLB

Moss, Brandon

2006

COL

Peterson, Jacob

2006

CHI

Robinson, Dasan

2006

Wynne, Marvell

2007

TOR

Boyens, Andrew

2007

TOR

Edu, Maurico

2007

Harden, Ty

2007

Harrington, Michael

2007

Richards, Dane

2008

Franklin, Sean

Jay Heaps' Long Nightmare is Over

2009-06-26T03:09:00.000-05:00

No one could've seen his call up to the Gold Cup coming. At the age of 32, he likely will be capped for the first time for the USMNT. He's the oldest member of the squad, and also a current record holder. He owns the title of most MLS games played by an American without being capped. Is there really any shot of seeing him in 2010 (at LB?), or does Bob Bradley just want a veteran to help win this tournament (and also possibly to make sure the callups are distributed evenly among teams)?

Carey Talley is next in line, and I'm sure he can't be happy about this development. He was called up before by his former DC coach Bruce Arena, and came ever so close in 2000:

"Was seconds away from his first full cap, waiting to come as a substitute against Chile, when the match ended."

OTFATT 2009: Update #3

2009-06-25T04:01:00.001-05:00

Previous Updates

#1	4/12	68 players remaining
#2	5/25	37 players remaining

OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In these updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). That feat has been accomplished 35 times in 13 season by 28 different players. Click here for that list.

14 players have been eliminated since the last update, while two more teams have been wiped out completely. The CONCACAF Gold Cup should knock a few players off. Stuart Holden, Will Johnson, and Sharlie Joseph are supposed to be called up.

Nick Garcia deserves special mention. He's listed under Toronto below, but in reality Adrian Serioux is their last player to play every minute for the club. Garcia was traded from San Jose to Toronto and has played every minute he's been available for both teams. He could follow in the footsteps of Scott Garlick (TB/COL) in 2000 and Chris Klein (RSL/LA) in 2007 by making it the whole year despite being traded. However, unlike Klein, he won't play more than the actual number of games in the regular season. Garcia could play only 29 in total, whereas Klein played 32 in a 30 game season.

Garcia's actually a pretty good bet to last the year. I would put him and Jimmy Conrad as favorites among field players, with Jordan Harvey as a longshot pick. Among goalkeepers, you need to look for the guys with no-name backups. So Jon Busch, Joe Cannon, and Kevin Hartman stand out.

EDIT: USA Gold Cup roster has been announced. Busch/Conrad/Heaps/Clark/Holden will all miss games.

As always, keep an eye on the discipline situation, which will become a big factor as the season goes on. It hasn't been an issue yet though, but it will. There's no way that somebody like Bobby Boswell will get through the year without a couple more yellows and a suspension.

Remaining Candidates (23)

2	CHI	Busch, McBride
2	CHV	Talley, Thornton
2	COL	Clark, Harvey
2	DAL	Ferreira, Moor
1	DC	Namoff
4	HOU	Boswell, Cameron, Holden, Onstad
2	KC	Conrad, Hartman
1	LA	Gonzalez
3	NE	Barnes, Heaps, Joseph
1	RSL	Johnson
1	SJ	Cannon
2	TOR	Serioux, Garcia

Order of teams being totally wiped out, with last surviving player:

1. NY-Dane Richards (4/18)
2. CLB-Brian Carroll (5/27)
2. SEA-Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (6/14)

MLS: College Alumni Lineups

2009-06-23T05:55:00.005-05:00

Which college soccer program has the best lineup when looking only at the MLS players it has produced (so no Euro players allowed)? Read on and judge for yourself.

If a player played for two colleges, I'm only counting the latter. Players are included who have played for an MLS team in any official competition (not just the regular season). Only the 14 colleges that can field a full starting lineup are listed:

California

Stefan Frei, Tyson Wahl, Steve Purdy, Troy Roberts, Eric Ebert, Nick Hatzke, Mike Munoz, Luke Sassano, Chris Roner, Calen Carr, Peter Woodring

Not a good lineup, but at least they can field a team!

Clemson

Matt Jordan, Nathan Sturgis, Chris Martinez, Ricky Lewis, Eric Quill, Imad Baba, Stuart Holden, Mark Lisi, Miles Joseph, Dane Richards, Wolde Harris

Some decent players here, without any real star power. This is a 3-5-2 with Richards up top, in order to get him and Joseph in the lineup. I bumped Eric Eichmann to get both of them in there. He's a little before my time so I can't say if that's justified or not.

Duke

Mark Dodd, Jay Heaps, Darrius Barnes, Robbie Russell, Evan Whitfield, Brian Kelly, Mike Videira, Jordan Cila, John Kerr, Ali Curtis, Jason Kreis

Some pretty solid cornerstones here. Seems like many of the players have suited up for Dallas or New England (plus Germanese, Helton, Loftus).

Indiana

Juergen Sommer, Danny O'Rourke, Mike Clark, Nick Garcia, Drew Moor, Chad Deering, Brian Maisonneuve, Ned Grabavoy, Dema Kovalenko, Chris Klein, Pat Noonan

Serious quality here. O'Rourke is not an ideal LB, but I think they'll be fine.

Maryland

Chris Seitz, Marc Burch, Danny Califf, Clarence Goodson, Leo Cullen, Robbie Rogers, Seth Stammler, Maurice Edu, Stephen King, Taylor Twellman, Abe Thompson

Nice, but not quite as impressive as Indiana I don't think.

Portland

Curtis Spiteri, Michael Gavin, Wade Webber, Kelly Gray, Scott Benedetti, Andrew Gregor, Darren Sawatzky, Chris Brown, Yari Allnut, Nate Jaqua, Conor Casey

I have no idea how this team will line up, but at least they're in the league. Casey-Jaqua up top is a nice combo.

Rutgers

Jon Conway, Alexi Lalas, Peter Vermes, Jeff Zaun, Josh Gros, Nick LaBrocca, Billy Walsh, Brian Piesner, Hamisi Amani-Dove, Rob Johnson, Steve Rammel

Strong defensively, with no attack. Really scrapping the bottom of the barrel to put together a full lineup.

Santa Clara

Joe Cannon, Amaechi Igwe, Ryan Cochrane, Adam Eyre, Jeff Stewart, Eric Denton, Peter Lowry, Mehdi Ballouchy, Jamil Walker, Jeff Baicher, Paul Bravo

Cannon's gonna have to come up big as usual. Midfield is a weakness.

Southern Methodist

Tom Presthus, Paul Broome, Ugo Ihemelu, Daniel Hernandez, Carl Bussey, Bruno Guarda, Colin Clark, Diego Walsh, Ramon Nunez, Alan Prampin, Luchi Gonzalez

I expected a bit better from college that ranked 7th for most MLS players through 2008.

Southern Connecticut State

Bo Oshoniyi, Mike Petke, Chris Houser, Brian Bliss, Jordan Russolillo, Kevin Anderson, John DeBrito, John Ball, Cristian da Silva, Cordt Weinstein, Carlos Rocha

Presenting your USL all-stars... Actually, it's really impressive to see a division two school get enough players into the league to make this list.

UCLA

Brad Friedel, Greg Vanney, Carlos Bocanegra, Jimmy Conrad, Frankie Hejduk, Eddie Lewis, Paul Caligiuri, Pete Vagenas, Cobi Jones, Joe-Max Moore, Ante Razov

The undisputed kings of MLS talent. Several players deep at every position beyond this lineup, as guys like Jonathan Bornstein and Chris Henderson are left out. And then there's the goalkeepers (Hartman, Reis, Rimando).

Virginia

Tony Meola, Jeff Agoos, Bakary Soumare, Chris Albright, John Harkes, Richie Williams, John Maessner, Ben Olsen, Claudio Reyna, Alecko Eskandarian, A.J. Wood

Bruce Arena's boys. Adam Cristman could take a spot pretty soon.

Wake Forest

Will Hesmer, James Riley, Michael Parkhurst, Pat Phelan, Stephen Keel, Sergi Daniv, Brian Carroll, Sam Cronin, Michael Lahoud, Wells Thompson, Scott Sealy

Missing a bit on the attack (thanks a lot Marcus).

Washington

Dusty Hudock, Mike Chabala, Chad McCarty, Ty Harden, Craig Waibel, Brandon Prideaux, Wes Hart, Joe Franchino, Ian Russell, Jason Boyce, Zach Kingsley

Attack of the defenders. I guess Kingsley is going to play up top by himself.

Almost There

Teams that could've fielded an 11 player lineup, but either were missing a goalkeeper or had too many keepers and not enough field players.

Connecticut, Creighton, CS Fullerton, Florida International, North Carolina, Saint John's, Saint Louis, UC Santa Barbara

MLS Week 14 Notes

2009-06-21T04:22:00.000-05:00

1) The Colorado Rapids defeated DC United by a score 3:0. This means that next year it will be at least a decade that the Rapids have gone undefeated against DC at home:

2001-07-04 3-1 W
2002-04-03 2-0 W
2003-04-26 1-1 D
2003-06-11 0-0 D
2004-05-22 2-1 W
2005-09-03 1-0 W
2006-05-06 2-1 W
2007-04-07 2-1 W
2008-05-04 2-0 W
2009-06-20 3-0 W

10 matches over 9 years. That's not even the longest streak in the league, however. CHI-SJ, NY-KC, COL-LA, and NE-NY are all current 12 game streaks. And in terms of time, San Jose has never won at Chicago...ever. That does include one shootout win, though. I posted last September which teams couldn't win where, which needs to be updated.

2) Speaking of Colorado, they're looking really good so far. They have the third best PPG in the league, though the standings currently place them fourth in the west. They've also played two fewer games at home than away. One stat that I always remember about the Rapids is the fact that they have never finished above third in their division/conference. Over the past 13 years, their placement has been as follows:

5-4-3-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-4-4-4

Total mediocrity. They've also never finished above 4th on the overall table. Is this their year? Can Pat Noonan make it to yet another MLS Cup?

3) Nick Garcia has switched teams, but he's still played every minute of every regular season match he's been available for. Unfortunately, unlike Chris Klein in 2007 (who played 32 matches in a 30 game season), if he lasts for the entire year he won't play more matches than the length of the season. He'd actually play only 29. More on this in the next OTFATT update.

4) New York may have gone 20 away games winless in the regular season, but that's not a record thanks to the shootout messing things up as usual. I consider the record to be 21 games, jointly held by KC and NY who each were pitiful in 1998-99. Also as usual, I hope this streak can continue for two more games so any confusion is gone.

5) Toronto FC has now had two players change the names that they go by this season since last year: Abdus Ibrahim is now Fuad Ibrahim, while Nana Attakota-Gyan is now just Nana Attakora. Chad Barrett may have to become the third if he doesn't start finishing...

208 to 1: World Cup 2010 Eliminations Timeline

2009-06-18T03:56:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Down to 88. No more eliminations for a few months.

Yes, we'll all know pretty soon who ends up qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. At that time and many years into the future, it will be easy to look at the qualifying standings to see how things turned out. However, one thing that can't easily be determined from a simple glance at the standings is exactly when each team fell out of contention. It's fairly obvious if you look at the schedule for a minute or two, but that takes some effort. So what I set out to do is to make a list of exactly when each team was officially eliminated, and here it is.

You'll see the overall order of each team to the left of their name, counting down from 208 (the number of FIFA members, hence this post's title). The number to the right of the team is their order of elimination within their region.

Order of Elimination

March 30, 2007

206 (tie). Brunei Darussalam (AFC-44th, tie)
206 (tie). Laos (AFC-44th, tie)
206 (tie). Philippines (AFC-44th, tie)

The only three FIFA members not to enter qualifying.

May 25, 2007

204. Papau New Guinea (OFC-11th)

Were listed as participating in qualifying but apparently "failed to meet the official accreditation" (Wikipedia) before qualifying started.

August 7, 2007

205. Guam (AFC-43rd)

Withdrew immediately after the AFC preliminary draw.

August 29, 2007

203. American Samoa (OFC-10th)

First team out during South Pacific Games.

August 31, 2007

201 (tie). Central African Republic (CAF-52nd, tie)
201 (tie). São Tomé and Príncipe (CAF-52nd, tie)

These two CAF members withdrew before the preliminary round.

September 1, 2007

199 (tie). Cook Islands (OFC-8th, tie)
199 (tie). Tahiti (OFC-8th, tie)

September 3, 2007

198. Samoa (OFC-7th)
197. Tonga (OFC-6th)

September 7, 2007

196. Solomon Islands (OFC-5th)

Only four teams remained after the first round of OFC qualifying (aka the South Pacific Games). The first tiebreaker during qualifying is goal differential, and I have Samoa being eliminated before Tonga because of it. Allow me to explain: With one match in the round robin remaining and the second spot to advance still undecided, Vanuatu has 6 points, Samoa 6, and Tonga 3. Samoa has completed all their games with a +1 goal differential; Vanuatu (+17) and Tonga (-1) face each other in the final match. A Tonga win would mean a three way tie, but it is impossible for Samoa's goal differential to be tops in that scenario.

September 13, 2007

195. Bhutan (AFC-42nd)

Also withdrew from qualifying.

October 15, 2007

194. Macau (AFC-41st)

October 26, 2007

193. Afghanistan (AFC-40th)

October 28, 2007

191 (tie). Mongolia (AFC-38th, tie)
191 (tie). Timor-Leste (AFC-38th, tie)
190. Myanmar (AFC-37th)
189. Nepal (AFC-36th)
187 (tie). Bangladesh (AFC-34th, tie)
187 (tie). Palestine (AFC-34th, tie)
186. Chinese Taipei (AFC-33rd)
184 (tie). Maldives (AFC-31st, tie)
184 (tie). Pakistan (AFC-31st, tie)
183. Malaysia (AFC-30th)
182. Cambodia (AFC-29th)
181. Vietnam (AFC-28th)
180. Sri Lanka (AFC-27th)
179. Kyrgyzstan (AFC-26th)

October 30, 2007

178. India (AFC-25th)

First round of Asian qualifying. I'm basing the order on the starting times of the matches as well as the time zones of the host countries. Extra time is taken into account too. There are not really any ties here, but I have no way of knowing which games ended first. I would also be unaware if any games were delayed or anything like that, so keep that in mind.

November 16, 2007

177. Somalia (CAF-51st)

November 17, 2007

176. Comoros (CAF-50th)
175. Guinea-Bissau (CAF-49th)

These three lost in the preliminary round of African qualifying.

November 18th, 2007

174. Tajikistan (AFC-24th)
173. Yemen (AFC-23rd)
172. Indonesia (AFC-22nd)
171. Hong Kong (AFC-21st)

Four teams gone in the small second round of Asian qualifying.

March 25, 2008

170. Eritrea (CAF-48th)

Withdrew after the group stage was drawn.

March 26, 2008

168 (tie). Turks and Caicos Islands (CONCACAF-34th, tie)
168 (tie). U.S. Virgin Islands (CONCACAF-34th, tie)
167. Dominica (CONCACAF-33rd)
166. Aruba (CONCACAF-32nd)
165. Montserrat (CONCACAF-31st)
164. Saint Kitts and Nevis (CONCACAF-30th)
162 (tie). Anguilla (CONCACAF-28th, tie)
162 (tie). Nicaragua (CONCACAF-28th, tie)
161. Dominican Republic (CONCACAF-27th)

March 30, 2008

160. British Virgin Islands (CONCACAF-26th)
159. Cayman Islands (CONCACAF-25th)

First round of North American qualifying done.

June 7, 2008

158. Turkmenistan (AFC-20th)
157. Lebanon (AFC-19th)

June 14, 2008

156. Jordan (AFC-18th)
155. Thailand (AFC-17th)
154. Singapore (AFC-16th)
153. China (AFC-15th)
152. Oman (AFC-14th)
151. Kuwait (AFC-13th)
150. Puerto Rico (CONCACAF-24th)

June 18, 2008

149. Bahamas (CONCACAF-23rd)

June 20, 2008

148. St. Vincent and the Grenandines (CONCACAF-22nd)

June 21, 2008

146 (tie). Fiji (OFC-3rd, tie)
146 (tie). Vanuatu (OFC-3rd, tie)
145. Seychelles (CAF-47th)
142 (tie). Belize (CONCACAF-19th, tie)
142 (tie). Grenada (CONCACAF-19th, tie)
142 (tie). St. Lucia (CONCACAF-19th, tie)

June 22, 2008

140 (tie). Iraq (AFC-11th, tie)
140 (tie). Syria (AFC-11th, tie)
139. Mauritania (CAF-46th)
138. Djibouti (CAF-45th)
137. Niger (CAF-44th)
135 (tie). Mauritius (CAF-42nd, tie)
135 (tie). Tanzania (CAF-42nd, tie)
134. Barbados (CONCACAF-18th)
133. Guyana (CONCACAF-17th)
132. Antigua and Barbuda (CONCACAF-16th)
131. Bermuda (CONCACAF-15th)
130. Netherlands Antillles (CONCACAF-14th)
129. Panama (CONCACAF-13th)

AFC and CONCACAF are now getting into the heart of their qualification methods. Iraq is the first of the reigning confederation champions to be eliminated. I wonder how many such teams have failed to qualify throughout the history of WCQ? Can't be too many.

June 28, 2008

128. Lesotho (CAF-41st)

September 6, 2008

127. New Caledonia (OFC-2nd)
126. Namibia (CAF-40th)
124 (tie). Equatorial Guinea (CAF-38th, tie)
124 (tie). Liberia (CAF-38th, tie)
123. Burundi (CAF-37th)

September 7, 2008

122. Botswana (CAF-36th)

New Zealand became the champion of Oceania and also advanced to the Confederations Cup. They'll now wait a year to play their next qualifiers. Also, South Africa was eliminated from the qualifying competition on this date. Of course, they're still guaranteed a spot in the World Cup.

September 12, 2008

121. Ethiopia (CAF-35th)

Kicked out of the competition by FIFA, in one of the rare instances where they actually followed through on their threats.

October 11, 2008

120. Congo DR (CAF-34th)
119. Zimbabwe (CAF-33rd)
115 (tie). Angola (CAF-29th, tie)
115 (tie). Cape Verde (CAF-29th, tie)
115 (tie). Libya (CAF-29th, tie)
115 (tie). Madagascar (CAF-29th, tie)
114. Sierra Leone (CAF-28th)
113. Swaziland (CAF-27th)
112. Senegal (CAF-26th)
110 (tie). Chad (CAF-24th, tie)
110 (tie). Congo (CAF-24th, tie)
109. Canada (CONCACAF-12th)

Angola and Cape Verde were hard to figure out because of the second placed teams advancing. I believe they were officially eliminated at the same time, when groups 5 & 7 were settled. Angola becomes the first team from the 2006 World Cup to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Canada surprisingly is the first CONCACAF team out in the semifinal round. Who would've thought that a year after their great 2007 Gold Cup?

October 12, 2008

108. Uganda (CAF-23rd)
107. Gambia (CAF-22nd)

We're now done with the second round of African qualifying. First of all, I'm really glad that both Angola and South Africa failed to advance. It makes things a whole lot simpler (due to these qualifiers also counting for the 2010 Nations Cup). Of the final 20 teams, in the previous round 10 were #1 seeds. The only two to miss out were Angola and Senegal. 5 were #2 seeds (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Zambia), 4 were #3 seeds (Gabon, Malawi, Rwanda, and Sudan), and 1 was a #4 seed (Kenya).

I have to say I'm disappointed to see The Gambia out. They were my surprise pick for a first time qualifier, due to their youth successes recently. Then, seeing some of their players move to MLS only made me more interested in their fate. They played really well, finishing second ahead of Senegal, so they have nothing to be ashamed of. If they're disappointed, they certainly aren't showing it; the president of the country has declared today a public holiday due to the away draw against Senegal.

October 15, 2008

106. Cuba (CONCACAF-11th)
104 (tie). Haiti (CONCACAF-9th, tie)
104 (tie). Suriname (CONCACAF-9th, tie)

October 19, 2008

103. Jamaica (CONCACAF-8th)
102. Guatemala (CONCACAF-7th)

Semifinal round of North American qualifying ends. The hex is set.

April 1, 2009

101. United Arab Emirates (AFC-10th)
100. Malta (UEFA-53rd)
99. San Marino (UEFA-52nd)

After a near-six month break (by far the longest in the process) we finally can eliminate a couple more teams. The first European casualties are here, and now the number of teams remaining is reduced to double digits.

June 6, 2009

98. Georgia (UEFA - 51st)
97. Andorra (UEFA - 50th)
96. Albania (UEFA - 49th)

June 10, 2009

95. Qatar (AFC - 9th)
94. Iceland (UEFA - 48th)
93. Kazakhstan (UEFA - 47th)
92. Liechtenstein (UEFA - 46th)
91. Peru (CONMEBOL - 10th)

June 17, 2009

90. Uzbekistan (AFC - 8th)
89. Iran (AFC - 7th)

Four teams have qualified from Asia, along with the Europe's first, the Netherlands. Iran becomes the second 2006 World Cup team to be eliminated. That's certainly a more shocking elimination than Angola.

There are currently 88 teams remaining, broken down by confederation below. Six teams have qualified, leaving 82 teams for 26 spots.

6-AFC
21-CAF
6-CONCACAF
9-CONMEBOL
1-OFC
45-UEFA

2010 MLS Superdraft Order & Picks

2009-06-16T03:45:00.002-05:00

Never too early for this. Here's a list of picks that have been traded already. Unfortunately, many of them are conditional and the conditions have not been made public, which makes it hard to follow.

We do know that the 16 teams will draft 64 players over 4 rounds, and that Philadelphia will have the first pick of the draft. The draft itself will take place in Philadelphia, as that's where the NSCAA convention is being held from January 13-17 (if you want to know where the next decade of Superdrafts will take place, click here).

Since the 2009 season is almost half over, I feel it's time to now look at the potential order. I used points per game, and assumed that the highest seeded teams would win in the playoffs. Remember, the playoff teams are ranked based on the round they are eliminated, followed by regular season performance.

Current Draft Order Before Trades

(through games on June 14, 2009)

1	PHI
2	NY
3	SJ
4	DAL
5	LA
6	RSL
7	NE
8	KC
9	TOR
10	CLB
11	SEA
12	COL
13	CHI
14	CHV
15	DC
16	HOU

Current 2010 MLS Superdraft Order

(several conditional picks not included, see below for details)

Round One

1	Philadelphia Union
2	New York Red Bulls
3	San Jose Earthquakes
4	FC Dallas
5	Los Angeles Galaxy
6	Real Salt Lake
7	New England Revolution
8	Kansas City Wizards
9	FC Dallas (from TOR)
10	Columbus Crew
11	Seattle Sounders FC
12	Columbus Crew (from COL)
13	Chicago Fire
14	CD Chivas USA
15	DC United
16	New York Red Bulls (from HOU)

Round Two

17	Philadelphia Union
18	New York Red Bulls
19	San Jose Earthquakes
20	FC Dallas
21	New York Red Bulls (from LA)
22	Real Salt Lake
23	New England Revolution
24	Kansas City Wizards
25	FC Dallas (from TOR)
26	Real Salt Lake (from CLB, DAL)
27	Seattle Sounders FC
28	Toronto FC (from COL)
29	Chicago Fire
30	CD Chivas USA
31	Colorado Rapids (from DC)
32	Houston Dynamo

Round Three

33	Philadelphia Union
34	New York Red Bulls
35	San Jose Earthquakes
36	FC Dallas
37	Los Angeles Galaxy
38	Real Salt Lake
39	New England Revolution
40	Kansas City Wizards
41	San Jose Earthquakes (from TOR)
42	FC Dallas (from CLB)
43	Houston Dynamo (from SEA)
44	Colorado Rapids
45	Chicago Fire
46	CD Chivas USA
47	DC United
48	Houston Dynamo

Round Four

49	Philadelphia Union
50	New York Red Bulls
51	San Jose Earthquakes
52	FC Dallas
53	Columbus Crew (from LA)
54	Los Angeles Galaxy (from RSL)
55	New England Revolution
56	Kansas City Wizards
57	Toronto FC
58	Columbus Crew
59	Seattle Sounders FC
60	Colorado Rapids
61	Columbus Crew (from CHI)
62	CD Chivas USA
63	DC United
64	Houston Dynamo

Trade/Pick Movement List

Round 1

CLB has COL's pick (Noonan)
DAL has TOR's pick (Serioux)
NY has HOU's pick (Oduro)

Round 2

COL has DC's pick (Gomez)
DAL has CLB's pick (2008 picks)
DAL has TOR's pick (Ibrahim, conditional)
NY has LA's pick (Magee)
RSL has DAL's pick (Davies)
TOR has COL's pick (Richardson)

Ibrahim pick is a 1st rounder if he plays 10 games in 2009. I don't know how that would work, since Dallas already has Toronto's first rounder. The Davies pick is for the lowest of DAL's three second rounders.

Round 3

DAL has CLB's pick (2008 picks)
HOU has SEA's pick (Ianni, conditional)
SJ has TOR's pick (Garcia)

If Ianni plays in 20 games, then it becomes a second rounder.

Round 4

CLB has CHI's pick (Herron)
CLB has LA's pick (Miglioranzi, conditional)
LA has RSL's pick (Mathis, conditional)

Conditional Picks

CHI has CHV's pick (Curtin)
CHV has TOR's pick (Guevara)
LA has DC's pick (Wicks)
NE has DC's pick (John)
NY has RSL's pick (Kovalenko)
RSL has CHV's pick (Talley)
SJ has HOU's pick (Weaver)

Soccer America says word is that Chivas is guaranteed a first rounder out of the Guevara deal. Since they got a second rounder in this year's draft, that means they should probably get TFC's 2010 first rounder. Although, they can't give that pick to both Dallas and Toronto. Since the Dallas trade specifically mentions it, it's probably going there.

The Talley pick is a second rounder in either 2010 or 2011. The John pick is also in one of those two years, though a round isn't mentioned.

~~Supplemental Draft~~ Wasted Trades

CHI has SJ's 4th round pick (R.Johnson)
HOU has DC's 4th round pick (C.Thompson)
SJ has LA's pick (Kirovski, conditional)

Top Seniors?

Here are some names worth remembering. Mostly taken from the following links (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Who do you think belongs on this list?

Obviously, it's likely that half of the first round will be made up of Generation Adidas players (underclassmen or high schoolers). Every #1 overall pick since 2003 has been a GA player. Right now, most people think Wake Forest defender Ike Opara is the favorite to be taken first overall, if he signs with MLS.

G	Joseph Bendik	Clemson
G	Jovan Bubonja	UIC
G	Akira Fitzgerald	Wake Forest
G	Brooks Haggerty	North Carolina
G	Brian Perk	UCLA
G	Misha Rosenthal	Northwestern

D	Mark Blades	Northwestern
D	Nick Cardenas	San Diego State
D	Ben Clack	Saint John's
D	Eric Conklin	Wisconsin
D	Joel Gustafsson	Saint John's
D	David Lozano	UC Riverside
D	Zach Loyd	North Carolina
D	Tennant McVea	Loyola (Md.)
D	David Newton	Clemson
D	David Reed	Saint John's
D	Barry Rice	Kentucky
D	Ofori Sarkodie	Indiana
D	Chris Schuler	Creighton
D	Jamel Wallace	San Diego State
D	Taylor Waspi	Wisconsin

M	Eric Alexander	Indiana
M	Nelson Becerra	Saint John's
M	Austin da Luz	Wake Forest
M	Mauro Fuzetti	Michigan
M	Sunghyun Kim	CS Northridge
M	Stephen McCarthy	Santa Clara
M	Kyle Nakazawa	UCLA
M	J.T. Noone	Temple
M	Conor O'Brien	Bucknell
M	Mike Pezza	Connecticut
M	Doug Rodkey	Maryland
M	Alan Sanchez	NC State
M	Zach Schilawski	Wake Forest
M	Seth Sinovic	Creighton
M	Toni Stahl	Connecticut
M	Michael Stephens	UCLA
M	Michael Strickland	Stanford
M	Michael Thomas	Notre Dame
M	Evan Toft	San Diego State
M	Alex Torda	Dayton
M	Jonathan Villanueva	Virginia
M	Collen Warner	Portland
M	Hanson Woodruff	Syracuse
M	Drew Yates	Maryland

F	Eddie Ababio	North Carolina
F	Andre Akpan	Harvard
F	Cody Arnoux	Wake Forest
F	Ronnie Bouemboue	NC State
F	Devan Carroll	UNC Wilmington
F	Conor Chinn	San Diego
F	Byron Dacy	Creighton
F	Kyle Evans	Lehigh
F	Michael Ferguson	Loyola-Chicago
F	Irving Garcia	UC Irvine
F	Scott Lorenz	Wisconsin
F	Samson Malijani	Fairleigh Dickinson
F	Andrew McGill	Ohio State
F	Ryan Soroka	Saint John's
F	Sl. Ubiparipovic	Cleveland State
F	Steffen Vroom	Depaul
F	Justin Wyatt	Elon
F	Kareem Yearwood	Charleston

Total picks

(conditional picks not included)

CHI	3 picks	13, 29, 45
CHV	4 picks	14, 30, 46, 62
CLB	5 picks	10, 12, 53, 58, 61
COL	3 picks	31, 44, 60
DAL	7 picks	4, 9, 20, 25, 36, 42, 52
DC	3 picks	15, 47, 63
HOU	4 picks	32, 43, 48, 64
KC	4 picks	8, 24, 40, 56
LA	3 picks	5, 37, 54
NE	4 picks	7, 23, 39, 55
NY	6 picks	2, 16, 18, 21, 34, 50
PHI	4 picks	1, 17, 33, 49
RSL	4 picks	6, 22, 26, 38
SEA	5 picks	3, 19, 35, 41, 51
SJ	3 picks	11, 27, 59
TOR	2 picks	28, 57

UEFA WCQ Playoffs Outlook

2009-06-15T05:55:00.001-05:00

Standings

UEFA is the most important confederation to keep an eye on from an American perspective, as those teams will be the toughest come 2010. If any of the top teams fail to qualify, then it helps us immensely. That's because if all the strongest teams make it, then you're looking at the Netherlands and Portugal in that second pot, which means a 25% chance of drawing one of those two plus a seeded team.

So it's definitely in our best interests to have the worst teams qualify that possibly can. Many of the teams are virtual locks (Denmark, England, Spain) to finish first, so I'm going to look at who's likely to finish second.

Group 1

Sweden blew their chance to take a grip on second by losing at home with Denmark. I actually like Portugal's chance to finish second now, as long as they don't lose away to Denmark. That's unfortunate from our point of view. Both teams are now equal in the standings and because Portugal's a better team, you have to put them as favorites for the runner up spot. The best option would be to have Hungary pull off a few draws and hold them off, but that's unlikely.

Group 2

Two important games here: Switzerland is at home against Greece (9/5) and Israel (10/14). If they beat Greece then they should end up qualifying automatically. I expect that to happen, but maybe we would be better off if it didn't. Switzerland is one of those teams that always plays top teams tough, even if they don't win most of the team. I think they would be a much harder playoff matchup for say, Germany or France than Greece would be. Israel is pretty much done for.

Group 3

The biggest mess of them all. As I wrote above, Slovakia seems likely to take first. There's a very good chance the second place team here will miss out on the playoffs, along with group 9's. I feel the Czech Republic is still the most likely team to get second. Further analysis here. I would feel much more confident about meeting Poland in 2010 given our history with them.

Group 4

If Russia beats Germany at home on 10/10, then they will likely qualify automatically and leave second place for the Germans. A draw would probably send Russia to the playoffs instead. Can you bet against Gus Hiddink?

Group 5

Bosnia is very close to being a lock. Turkey must beat Bosnia away on 9/9. Bosnia and Milan target Dzeko are likely to be fodder in the playoffs.

Group 6

Ukraine has the upper hand here on Croatia. Remaining schedules:

Croatia: @ Belarus, Belarus, @ England, @ Kazakhstan
Ukraine: Andorra, @ Belarus, vs England, @ Andorra

Not only do they play Andorra twice, but they also get England at home instead of away. Ukraine really should take second here.

Group 7

France will probably get second unless they win at Serbia on 9/9. Getting Germany and France in the playoffs is huge, especially if it's possible that they could meet each other. No one knows if the playoffs will be seeded into top four and bottom four based on FIFA rank like they did four years ago. With Platini, I would say there's a decent chance they don't do that. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them continue to protect the top teams, unfortunately.

Group 8

Ireland should have second place pretty much locked up, unless Bulgaria beats Italy away on 9/9. Ireland could even get first if they could beat Italy at home on 10/10. Now that would be something.

Group 9

The key matchup here is Norway vs Scotland in August. If Norway wins, they should get second. Scotland will likely get 2nd with only a draw, but even then may not make the playoffs. They really need to beat the Netherlands on the final matchday, when they have nothing to play for.

Likely Playoff Teams

(with possible pots for the draw)

Czech Republic
France
Russia
Portugal

Bosnia
Greece
Ireland
Ukraine

You can see how much not seeding it would help in terms of bigger teams missing out. None of the bottom four would be a favorite against any of the top four.

MLS: Top Ten American Goalscorers by Year

2009-06-12T06:38:00.000-05:00

Somebody posted a comment to the Age of MLS Golden Boot Winners post which inspired this post.

Man, 2001 was really pathetic wasn't it? Moreso if you look at the full leaderboard. Wynalda was the only American in the top ten.

Jeff Cunningham was counted from 2002 on, as he received his citizenship after the 2001 season.

In 13 seasons, only 56 different players have made one of these top tens.

How many of those guys have never played for the USMNT? A total of ten: Burciaga, Carrieri, Elliott, Magee, Marino, Paule, Rammel, Rhine, Rooney, Wood.

2008

1	Landon Donovan	20
2	Kenny Cooper	18
3	Edson Buddle	15
4	Brian Ching	13
5	Conor Casey	11
6	Chad Barrett	9
6	Chris Rolfe	9
8	Jeff Cunningham	8
8	Steve Ralston	8
8	Taylor Twellman	8

2007

1	Taylor Twellman	16
2	Eddie Johnson	15
3	Ante Razov	11
4	Jozy Altidore	9
5	Landon Donovan	8
5	Robbie Findley	8
7	Chad Barrett	7
7	Brian Ching	7
7	Nate Jaqua	7
7	Pat Noonan	7
7	Ben Olsen	7

2006

1	Jeff Cunningham	16
2	Ante Razov	14
3	Landon Donovan	12
4	Brian Ching	11
4	Kenny Cooper	11
4	Taylor Twellman	11
7	Jose Burciaga	8
7	Clint Dempsey	8
7	Nate Jaqua	8
7	Jason Kreis	8

2005

1	Taylor Twellman	17
2	Jeff Cunningham	12
2	Landon Donovan	12
4	Herculez Gomez	11
5	Clint Dempsey	10
5	Josh Wolff	10
7	Edson Buddle	9
7	Jason Kreis	9
9	Eddie Gaven	8
9	Pat Noonan	8
9	Chris Rolfe	8

2004

1	Brian Ching	12
2	Eddie Johnson	12
3	Edson Buddle	11
4	Pat Noonan	11
5	Alecko Eskandarian	10
6	Josh Wolff	10
7	John Wolyniec	10
8	Davy Arnaud	9
9	Jeff Cunningham	9
10	Taylor Twellman	9

2003

1	Taylor Twellman	15
2	Ante Razov	14
3	Landon Donovan	12
3	Brian McBride	12
3	Preki	12
6	Mark Chung	11
7	Edson Buddle	10
7	Pat Noonan	10
9	Clint Mathis	9
10	DaMarcus Beasley	7
10	Jason Kreis	7
10	Mike Magee	7

2002

1	Taylor Twellman	23
2	Jeff Cunningham	16
3	Ante Razov	14
4	Jason Kreis	13
5	Chris Carrieri	11
5	Mark Chung	11
5	Chris Henderson	11
8	Edson Buddle	9
9	Landon Donovan	7
9	Chris Klein	7
9	Preki	7
9	Bobby Rhine	7

2001

1	Eric Wynalda	10
2	Preki	8
2	Brian Maisonneuve	8
2	Manny Lagos	8
5	Clint Mathis	7
5	Dante Washington	7
5	Landon Donovan	7
5	Roy Lassiter	7
5	Sasha Victorine	7
5	Steve Ralston	7
5	Jason Kreis	7

2000

1	Ante Razov	18
2	Clint Mathis	16
3	Dante Washington	15
4	Jason Kreis	11
5	Imad Baba	9
5	Chris Henderson	9
7	Roy Lassiter	8
7	Manny Lagos	8
9	Paul Bravo	7
9	Cobi Jones	7
9	Josh Wolff	7

1999

1	Jason Kreis	18
1	Roy Lassiter	18
3	Joe-Max Moore	15
4	Ante Razov	14
5	Josh Wolff	10
6	Cobi Jones	8
6	A.J. Wood	8
8	Paul Bravo	7
8	Clint Mathis	7
8	Preki	7

1998

1	Cobi Jones	19
2	Roy Lassiter	18
3	Paul Bravo	11
4	Brian McBride	10
4	Ross Paule	10
4	Preki	10
4	Ante Razov	10
8	Jason Kreis	9
9	Jim Rooney	8
9	Josh Wolff	8

1997

1	Preki	12
2	Dante Washington	12
3	Jeff Baicher	10
3	Mark Chung	10
3	Roy Lassiter	10
3	Lawrence Lozzano	10
7	Paul Bravo	8
7	Jason Kreis	8
7	Pete Marino	8
10	Imad Baba	7
10	Gerell Elliott	7
10	Chris Henderson	7
10	Cobi Jones	7
10	Alan Prampin	7

1996

1	Roy Lassiter	27
2	Preki	18
3	Brian McBride	17
4	Steve Rammel	14
5	Paul Bravo	13
5	Jason Kreis	13
7	Jean Harbor	11
7	Pete Marino	11
7	Joe-Max Moore	11
10	Eric Wynalda	10

WCQ Notes

2009-06-08T05:50:00.000-05:00

1) First of all, Voros has posted his latest qualifying odds which are always extremely fascinating. Anyone who enjoys this blog would enjoy that post. According to him, the teams on course to qualify are:

(italics = already qualified)

AFC	Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, North Korea
CAF	South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia, Gabon, Algeria
CONCACAF	USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras
CONMEBOL	Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile
UEFA	Netherlands, Spain, England, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Russia, Czech Republic

2) As those odds show (and most people still believe), Mexico really doesn't have too much to worry about. Nobody expects them to miss out on the top three, and even if they do they would certainly be the favorite in the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL playoff. The key thing to remember about Mexico is that they've only played one home game versus three away. They can pretty much count on at least 10 points from the remaining four home matches, which would get them to 13 in total and on the brink of qualification (see next item, #3). El Salvador has the opposite problem having already played 3/4 at home.

3) How many points does it take to qualify out of the hex? In the previous three cycles, no team with more than 14 points has missed out on the top three. Honduras finished fourth in 2002 with 14, which was also the total of the worst third place finisher, Jamaica in 1998. So 15 points appears to be the magic number. That means Costa Rica is basically one win away from qualification.

4) Speaking of Costa Rica, guess what? Saturday's games saw them leapfrog Mexico for second place on the all time hex table (1998-present)! Costa Rica now has 63 points from 35 games, while Mexico has a game in hand with 60 from 34. Mexico has a better goal differential, so they would jump back to second with a win versus Trinidad & Tobago on Wednesday. The USA is in first with 66 points, taking over the lead after trailing Mexico by a point going into this cycle. It's amazing how close the three teams are in the table:

		GP	W	L	D	Pts	GF	GA	GD
1	United States	35	19	7	9	66	54	29	25
2	Costa Rica	35	19	10	6	63	54	38	16
3	Mexico	34	17	8	9	60	65	32	33

5) Every World Cup since 1982 has seen at least three teams qualify for the first time. That seemed like a long shot this time around, but there are plenty of good candidates emerging. Here's a list of the best bets for 2010: Bahrain, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Slovakia, Venezuela, Zambia. As usual, Africa is the best bet.

6) I'm sure you're all wondering the same thing I am: Why is Gabon playing so well? They've started the final round of African qualifying by beating Morocco 2-1 away and Togo 3-0 home. FIFA.com describes them as "composed largely of footballers from small clubs around Europe," similar to Angola and Togo last cycle.

Their captain and most well known player is Daniel Cousin (Hull, England), but he was injured for the latest match. Roguy Meye (Ankaraspor, Turkey) has scored in the last two matches. Many of their players are based in France, though most are in Ligue 2. Much of their success may be due to their coach (FIFA interview), who is a member of one of the greatest midfields ever. That helps just a bit.

7) It's become increasingly clear that the key moment in Asian qualifying this cycle didn't come on the field. It came on June 27, 2008, when the draw for the final round was made. The ten teams were separated into five spots of two teams each. Australia and South Korea were top seeds, followed by Iran in the second pot. For some reason, Japan and Saudi Arabia were tied for the 4th and 5th positions in the ranking, and therefore also tied for the last spot in the second pot. Japan won a coin flip, and were then placed into the second pot with Iran. Saudi Arabia was placed with Bahrain in pot three.

So that one coin flip meant that the loser would face an extremely tough group no matter what, with two other 2006 World Cup teams in it. Had the Saudis won it, they probably would've qualified automatically a few days ago instead of Japan. Instead, they could be facing at least a playoff.

But that's not all. The other major part of this was when the actual draw took place. That third pot consisting of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia meant that one group would be incredibly tougher than the other. Indeed, Australia/Japan got lucky while South Korea/Iran didn't. South Korea has done well, but Iran has struggled. Drawing the hard team from that pot may have cost Iran a place in the 2010 World Cup.

8) This isn't a piece of analysis or anything, but as someone obsessed with stats and that sort of thing I need to mention this: Sporcle.com is an amazing web site. They have quizzes for every topic, including plenty on soccer. For example, can you name the top overall World Cup goalscorers (link)? How about all the teams who have played in the Premier League since its inception (link)? I waste so much time there.

Home Field Advantage in the Hex

2009-06-04T02:52:00.000-05:00

There's no shame in losing to Costa Rica. A draw would've been nice, but a win? It's really difficult to come by away from home. Just to show you how hard it is, here's how home teams have performed over the past four hexes (W-L-D):

1998: 15-2-13
2002: 14-10-6
2006: 20-6-4
2010: 7-0-3 (so far)

Total: 56-18-26

There have only been 18 away wins in 100 games. The top three teams (USA, Mexico, Costa Rica) each have only one home loss in that total.

Home Field Advantage

(measured by PPG)

1998	1.30
2002	0.40
2006	1.40
2010	2.10 (so far)

Total	1.14

The average home team has gotten 1.94 PPG vs 0.80 for away teams, for a home field advantage of 1.14 PPG. For perspective, the all time home field advantage in MLS is around 0.67 PPG.

List of away wins

(sorted by cycle)

El Salvador 0:1 Mexico
Canada 0:3 USA

Honduras 1:2 USA
Mexico 1:2 Costa Rica
Trinidad 2:4 Honduras
Trinidad 1:2 Jamaica
Honduras 2:3 Costa Rica
USA 2:3 Honduras
Trinidad 0:2 Costa Rica
Jamaica 1:2 Mexico
Honduras 0:1 Trinidad
Jamaica 0:1 Costa Rica

Costa Rica 1:2 Mexico
Trinidad 1:2 USA
Guatemala 0:2 Mexico
Panama 0:3 USA
Panama 1:3 Costa Rica
Panama 0:1 Trinidad

(none yet in 2010)

MLS Week 11 Notes

2009-06-01T04:19:00.003-05:00

1) Jeff Cunningham is seven games away from history. At that point, he'll tie Jason Kreis for the dubious record of having played the most MLS regular season games without playing in an MLS Cup. See the top 25 post-2008 here. Kreis has held the record for three years now, but Cunningham should have it all to his own shortly.

2) The Colorado Rapids are second in the league for offense with 1.60 goals per game. If you have a gut feeling that it's unusual to see them scoring so frequently, then you're right. They've never finished higher than 4th in that category, and they've only been in the top half in two of thirteen years. I suppose looking back, they were on the right track last year, finishing 5th and breaking a nine year streak of lower half finishes.

3) New England's offense, on the other hand, has been pathetic. Maybe that'll change now that Taylor Twellman is back, but currently they're averaging a goal per game which is tied for worst in the league. They're also on pace to set two new records: Fewest shots per game (8.0) and fewest corner kicks per game (3.4). The current records are held by 2007 Toronto (9.2) and 2006 Dallas (3.5) respectively.

4) Chicago was the league's last undefeated team. How have those teams done in previous years? Usually pretty well, although the last two years (NY and Dallas) are exceptions. Before the past two years, every year a team in that category finished in the top three of the league (a couple years featured multiple teams tying for the last undefeated status).

Columbus was the league's last winless team, and the omens aren't good for them. Only once has such a team advanced past the first round of the playoffs (2002 NE).

I counted shootouts as draws in both these categories, and also I went by the number of games into the year rather than by the calendar.

5) Even though there have been plenty of draws (did you hear?), this year's home field advantage (0.68) is right in line with the all time average (around 0.67 PPG). So it's not like away teams are having a harder time getting points than in previous years.

YA Premiership Appearances (1992/93 - 2008/09)

2009-05-27T02:54:00.000-05:00

Updated to include this past season's numbers. Thanks to Numerista on Bigsoccer for originally compiling the list through 2005/6, to which I've been updating it since (so if anything's wrong, take it up with him :P).

This does not include data for any seasons before the formation of the Premiership. I've also decided to leave out the non-USMNT Americans like Giuseppe Rossi.

2008/09 was a pretty steady year for the top Premiership YA's, as the name of the game was quality over quantity. We may have not had the numbers of Americans that we had there in previous years, but Dempsey, Friedel, and Howard all had really good seasons as starters. Spector got a few matches when he wasn't hurt, and Guzan became the 27th name on this list.

Dempsey is now the second highest goalscorer, passing Wegerle. Only 23 more to catch McBride.

		Games	Goals	Clubs
1	Brad Friedel	324	1	Liverpool, Blackburn, Aston Villa
2	Kasey Keller	201	0	Leicester, Tottenham, Southampton, Fulham
3	Tim Howard	155	0	Manchester Utd, Everton
4	Brian McBride	148	37	Everton, Fulham
5	Carlos Bocanegra	116	8	Fulham
6	Claudio Reyna	104	7	Sunderland, Man City
7	Jonathan Spector	83	0	Manchester Utd, Charlton, West Ham
8	Clint Dempsey	81	14	Fulham
9	Marcus Hahnemann	76	0	Reading
10	Roy Wegerle	75	13	Blackburn, Coventry
11	Joe-Max Moore	52	8	Everton
12	Preki	46	4	Everton
13	John Harkes	43	2	Sheff Wed, West Ham, Forest
14	Jay DeMerit	33	2	Watford
14	Juergen Sommer	33	0	QPR
16	Bobby Convey	29	0	Reading
17	Eddie Lewis	25	0	Fulham, Derby
18	Jovan Kirovski	23	2	Birmingham
19	Cobi Jones	21	2	Coventry
20	DaMarcus Beasley	18	3	Manchester City
21	Oguchi Onyewu	12	0	Newcastle
22	Benny Feilhaber	10	0	Derby
23	Eddie Johnson	6	0	Fulham
24	Ian Feuer	5	0	West Ham, Derby
24	Jemal Johnson	5	0	Blackburn
26	Brad Guzan	1	0	Aston Villa
26	Johann Smith	1	0	Bolton

MLS Week 10 Notes: Popsicles, Draws, & Streaks

2009-05-26T02:29:00.001-05:00

1) Kasey Keller likes popsicles. At least he did as of 1990, since it was in that year's USA World Cup media guide. I wrote a post about some of the interesting facts from that guide it three years ago. So why am I bringing this up again? Well, Goal.com (which has become a really good site for MLS coverage, BTW) had an article where they encouraged fans to post questions for Keller. I wanted to know if he still enjoys popsicles 19 years later, and they picked that question to ask:

See 1:55...

The really funny thing to me is on Goal.com where they posted this video, somebody left the following comment:

"Well, we know he still enjoys popsicles, but we don't know what he considers his greatest achievement..... Splendid choice of questions.........."

Awesome.

2) Did you know that New England's Steve Ralston has started 15+ games in every single MLS season? He's the only player to do that. Several other players have long current streaks in that category: 10 years for Jay Heaps, Chris Klein, Tyrone Marshall, 9 years for Nick Garcia and Sasha Victorine, 8 years for Landon Donovan, and 7 for Kevin Hartman.

3) The Chicago Fire's unbeaten streak is now at 10 games to start the season (4-0-6). If you count shootouts as draws, the longest streak is 1997 DC at 14 games (9-0-5). If you don't want to count that, then the record is 12 games by 2000 KC (10-0-2). Two other shootout era teams went 12 games without a real loss: 1996 LA (10-0-2) and 1999 DAL (6-0-6).

4) Also, the Los Angeles Galaxy as you can probably guess are the quickest team to reach 8 draws in a season (10 games, 1-1-8). The record was previously held by 2006 NY, who got it in their 13th game (2-3-8). Only 5 draws away from tying the record high in a season (13, by several teams).

5) Speaking of draws, I know a lot of people are commenting on the high percentage of them this season. But if you're going to compare this year to 2000-02 like Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America, then you really should use for those three years the number of games that were drawn after 90 minutes because it's not a fair comparison otherwise. You can mention the actual number of draws, but it's important to mention the "after 90 minutes" numbers too. 2003 had the highest percentage of tied games after 90 minutes with around 35%, so to me that's the high mark we should be looking to this year if we're talking about all time highs.

6) Update on the home/away games dipsarity. Teams that have played 2+ fewer home games than away games, and therefore should be a bit better than their record indicates: CHI (-2) and NE (-3). The only team to have played 2+ more home games is TOR (+3), so they might looking a little better now than they really are. I had them pegged as the 9th best team in the league entering the year, and it seems likely they will be in that 7-9 range at year's end, either barely in or out of the playoffs.

7) Much has been made of the poor away form of New York and Real Salt Lake, who both sport 0-4-1 records with zero goals scored. Hardcore MLS fans can probably remember the two teams to have gone winless away from home (2003 LA, 2005 RSL), but I bet you couldn't tell me who holds the record for the fewest away goals scored in a season. The answer? 2002 DC, who scored only 6 goals in 14 games for an average of 0.429 per game (both records).

OTFATT 2009: Update #2

2009-05-25T01:30:00.000-05:00

Previous Updates

4/12

68 players remaining

4	CHI	Busch, McBride, Pause, Ward
4	CHV	Bornstein, Marsch, Talley, Thornton
2	CLB	Carroll, O'Rourke
2	COL	Clark, Harvey
2	DAL	Ferreira, Moor
1	DC	Namoff
5	HOU	Boswell, Cameron, Clark, Holden, Onstad
2	KC	Conrad, Hartman
2	LA	Donovan, Gonzalez
4	NE	Barnes, Heaps, Joseph
2	RSL	Beckerman, Johnson
2	SEA	Hurtado, Marshall
3	SJ	Cannon, Garcia
2	TOR	Brennan, Serioux

Order of teams being totally wiped out, with last surviving player:

1. NY-Dane Richards (4/18)

Age of MLS Golden Boot Winners

2009-05-21T06:18:00.001-05:00

Seven years later, the starters up top for the USA vs Mexico 2002 World Cup game are still going strong. Brian McBride & Josh Wolff are currently tied for the MLS golden boot lead with 6 goals each. A lot of people seem to be surprised at Wolff playing so well, but he's always been a top MLS player. Maybe all the injuries and playing in Kansas City have caused people to underrate him. Or maybe it's just the lack of goalscoring with the national team, as few would say he's underrated there. I don't think he should be called back up; he's had many chances and he's not going to get better, but it's nice to see him and McBride still playing well.

Can they keep it up? If either player ends up leading the league in goals, they'll set a new record for the oldest MLS Golden Boot winner. Only one player has captured the honor in his 30s; that would be Honduran import Alex Pineda Chacon in 2001.

One note: the actual golden boot award has only existed since 2005. I'm going back and retroactively figuring out who it would've been (assists are the first tiebreaker).

Age of MLS Golden Boot Winners

(age as of July 1 that season)

1996	Lassiter, Roy	TB	27.31
1997	Moreno, Jaime	DC	23.45
1998	John, Stern	CLB	21.67
1999	Kreis, Jason	DAL	26.50
2000	Diallo, Mamadou	TB	28.86
2001	Pineda Chacon, Alex	MIA	31.53
2002	Ruiz, Carlos	LA	22.79
2003	Ruiz, Carlos	LA	23.79
2004	Ching, Brian	SJ	26.11
2005	Twellman, Taylor	NE	25.34
2006	Cunningham, Jeff	RSL	29.86
2007	Emilio, Luciano	DC	28.55
2008	Donovan, Landon	LA	26.33

Which ages have scored the most goals in MLS? Through 2008, 23 year olds lead the list by almost 2% over their nearest competitor. The years 22-28 are very productive and then it starts to dip a bit. The average age of every goal scored in league history (1996-2008) is 25.93. If you're interested in the top single season goalscorers for each age, click here.

How the 7,000th MLS Regular Season Goal was Scored

2009-05-18T05:40:00.000-05:00

The number was 6,994 entering the weekend. The early game saw Chicago defeat Toronto by the score of 2-0, so with the later games starting to kick off and four goals to go it was anyone's guess as to who would hit the milestone.

(all times Eastern)

7:35 pm - NE vs COL kicks off.
7:37 pm - NY vs HOU kicks off.
7:38 pm - Goal #6,997: Conor Casey scores in the third minute as the Rapids take a 1-0 lead on the road.
7:52 pm - Goal # 6,998: Steve Ralston equalizes for the Revs from a penalty.
8:37 pm - DAL vs SEA kicks off.
8:55 pm - Goal #6,999: Jhon Kennedy Hurtado gives the Sounders a lead in Dallas. One more...
9:06 pm - RSL vs KC kicks off. At this point, any player on the eight teams in action could get it.
9:12 pm - Brad Evans hits the post for Seattle! No goal.
9:14 pm - Goal #7,000: Chris Wondolowski gets the Dynamo on the board, and the milestone off the cross from Corey Ashe. Video here.

10 minutes later: Wolyniec, Rocha, and Wolff (I believe in that order) all score at about the same time.

I'm glad to see MLSnet has published an article about this accomplishment, even featuring a quote from Wondo about hearing the news. Check it out.

MLS Milestone Goals

1,000	Thomas Dooley	9/14/1997	CLB vs KC
2,000	Alex Bunbury	7/3/1999	KC @ TB
3,000	Sasha Victorine	5/9/2001	LA @ TB
4,000	Mark Chung	6/25/2003	COL vs LA
5,000	Andy Williams	8/6/2005	RSL vs CHV
6,000	Brian Ching	7/22/2007	HOU @ NE
7,000	Chris Wondolowski	5/16/2009	HOU @ NY

MLS: All Competitions PPG Ranking

2009-05-14T06:10:00.000-05:00

The list of the best & worst single season performances has been linked on the left side of this blog for a long time now. It's a list of the regular season records from all 149 MLS team seasons. When people talk about the the best records ever, that's usually what they mean: regular season only. But what if you looked at every game the team played, and ranked them by PPG using that?

I counted all shootouts (1996-99) as draws. The column on the far right labled "OVR Diff" tells you how a team's all competitions PPG compares to its regular season PPG. For example, the minus sign indicates that 1998 LA's all competitions PPG is worse than the regular season only PPG.

All Competitions Single Season Ranking

			GP	W	L	D	Pts	PPG	OVR Diff
1	1998	Los Angeles	36	24	7	5	77	2.139	-0.049
2	2002	Los Angeles	38	24	11	3	75	1.974	0.152
3	2003	Chicago	38	22	8	8	74	1.947	0.181
4	2008	Columbus	36	21	8	7	70	1.944	0.044
5	1998	DC United	43	24	8	11	83	1.930	0.024
6	2001	Miami	34	20	9	5	65	1.912	-0.127
7	2000	Chicago	44	26	12	6	84	1.909	0.128
7	1997	DC United	44	24	8	12	84	1.909	0.065
9	1998	Chicago	41	24	11	6	78	1.902	0.121
10	2001	Chicago	37	21	9	7	70	1.892	-0.071
11	2005	San Jose	36	19	6	11	68	1.889	-0.111
12	2001	San Jose	35	19	8	8	65	1.857	0.126
13	2001	Los Angeles	41	22	9	10	76	1.854	0.046
14	1999	DC United	42	22	9	11	77	1.833	-0.042
15	1999	Los Angeles	41	22	10	9	75	1.829	0.017
16	2007	New England	38	20	9	9	69	1.816	0.149
17	1996	DC United	41	23	13	5	74	1.805	0.274
18	2000	Kansas City	40	20	8	12	72	1.800	0.019
19	2004	Kansas City	38	20	11	7	67	1.763	0.130
19	1996	Tampa Bay	38	21	13	4	67	1.763	-0.143
21	2005	New England	37	19	10	8	65	1.757	-0.087
22	2007	Houston	43	22	12	9	75	1.744	0.011
23	2006	DC United	38	18	9	11	65	1.711	-0.008
24	2000	New York	41	22	15	4	70	1.707	0.020
25	2003	San Jose	37	18	10	9	63	1.703	0.003
26	2000	Los Angeles	41	20	12	9	69	1.683	0.120
27	1999	Dallas	40	19	11	10	67	1.675	-0.106
27	2005	Los Angeles	40	20	13	7	67	1.675	0.269
29	1996	Los Angeles	38	18	11	9	63	1.658	0.002
30	2007	Chivas USA	33	15	9	9	54	1.636	-0.130
31	2006	Chicago	38	18	12	8	62	1.632	0.163
32	2007	DC United	43	20	13	10	70	1.628	-0.205
33	1998	Columbus	41	20	15	6	66	1.610	0.047
34	2008	Houston	48	19	9	20	77	1.604	-0.096
35	1999	Columbus	40	18	12	10	64	1.600	0.069
36	2005	DC United	42	19	13	10	67	1.595	-0.092
37	2002	San Jose	36	18	15	3	57	1.583	-0.024
38	2001	Columbus	33	15	11	7	52	1.576	-0.155
39	2002	Columbus	37	17	13	7	58	1.568	0.210
40	1999	Chicago	39	17	12	10	61	1.564	-0.092
41	2004	Columbus	34	13	7	14	53	1.559	-0.075
41	2002	Dallas	34	15	11	8	53	1.559	0.023
43	2008	Chicago	36	16	12	8	56	1.556	0.022
43	2006	Dallas	36	17	14	5	56	1.556	-0.069
45	1999	Colorado	37	16	12	9	57	1.541	-0.053
46	2005	Chicago	39	18	15	6	60	1.538	0.007
46	2005	Dallas	39	16	11	12	60	1.538	0.038
48	2001	New York	36	17	15	4	55	1.528	-0.088
48	2000	Tampa Bay	36	17	15	4	55	1.528	-0.097
50	1997	Los Angeles	38	17	14	7	58	1.526	0.026
51	2006	Houston	39	15	10	14	59	1.513	0.075
52	2003	New England	37	15	12	10	55	1.486	-0.014
52	2003	New York	37	15	12	10	55	1.486	0.086
54	2004	DC United	35	14	11	10	52	1.486	0.086
55	1997	Kansas City	35	14	12	9	51	1.457	-0.137
56	1997	Dallas	40	17	16	7	58	1.450	0.075
57	2007	Dallas	39	16	15	8	56	1.436	-0.031
58	2002	Colorado	35	15	15	5	50	1.429	-0.107
58	2005	New York	35	13	11	11	50	1.429	-0.040
60	2006	New England	40	14	11	15	57	1.425	-0.075
61	2000	Dallas	37	16	17	4	52	1.405	-0.032
62	2008	New England	42	16	15	11	59	1.405	-0.029
63	2002	New England	35	15	16	4	49	1.400	0.043
64	1997	Colorado	38	16	17	5	53	1.395	0.113
65	1998	Colorado	36	15	16	5	50	1.389	-0.049
65	1997	Tampa Bay	36	15	16	5	50	1.389	-0.080
67	1996	Dallas	37	14	14	9	51	1.378	0.003
67	2000	Miami	37	15	16	6	51	1.378	0.097
69	2002	Kansas City	40	15	15	10	55	1.375	0.089
70	2008	Kansas City	35	12	11	12	48	1.371	-0.029
70	1996	San Jose	35	13	13	9	48	1.371	-0.035
72	2002	Chicago	36	15	17	4	49	1.361	0.040
72	1997	Columbus	36	14	15	7	49	1.361	0.017
72	2005	Kansas City	36	12	11	13	49	1.361	-0.045
75	2003	Kansas City	34	12	12	10	46	1.353	-0.047
75	2004	Los Angeles	34	12	12	10	46	1.353	-0.080
77	2006	Chivas USA	35	11	10	14	47	1.343	-0.001
77	2008	Real Salt Lake	35	12	12	11	47	1.343	0.010
79	2004	Colorado	33	11	11	11	44	1.333	-0.033
79	2003	DC United	36	13	14	9	48	1.333	0.033
79	2000	New England	36	14	16	6	48	1.333	-0.073
79	2007	New York	33	12	13	8	44	1.333	-0.100
83	2007	Los Angeles	38	14	16	8	50	1.316	0.182
84	2008	New York	35	12	13	10	46	1.314	0.014
85	2008	Colorado	32	12	14	6	42	1.313	0.046
86	2005	Colorado	36	13	15	8	47	1.306	-0.101
87	2001	DC United	37	15	19	3	48	1.297	0.297
87	2004	San Jose	37	12	13	12	48	1.297	0.031
89	2007	Chicago	34	11	12	11	44	1.294	-0.039
89	2003	Colorado	34	12	14	8	44	1.294	-0.039
89	2007	Kansas City	34	12	14	8	44	1.294	-0.039
92	2008	Chivas USA	38	13	15	10	49	1.289	-0.144
92	2006	Los Angeles	38	14	17	7	49	1.289	0.071
94	1996	Columbus	35	12	14	9	45	1.286	-0.027
94	2000	Columbus	35	13	16	6	45	1.286	0.098
96	2004	Dallas	33	12	15	6	42	1.273	0.073
97	2006	Colorado	37	13	16	8	47	1.270	-0.011
98	2002	New York	30	12	16	2	38	1.267	0.017
99	2004	Chicago	38	13	16	9	48	1.263	0.163
99	1996	Kansas City	38	13	16	9	48	1.263	-0.081
101	2003	Columbus	35	12	15	8	44	1.257	-0.010
102	2003	Los Angeles	39	13	16	10	49	1.256	0.056
103	1999	San Jose	32	9	10	13	40	1.250	0.000
104	1998	New York	37	14	19	4	46	1.243	0.024
105	2007	Colorado	33	11	14	8	41	1.242	0.076
106	2006	Real Salt Lake	34	11	14	9	42	1.235	0.017
106	1998	San Jose	34	11	14	9	42	1.235	0.048
108	1997	New York	35	13	18	4	43	1.229	0.072
109	2000	Colorado	36	13	18	5	44	1.222	-0.122
110	2008	Dallas	32	9	11	12	39	1.219	0.019
110	2001	New England	32	11	15	6	39	1.219	0.219
112	2008	DC United	47	17	24	6	57	1.213	-0.021
113	2004	New York	33	11	15	7	40	1.212	-0.121
114	2001	Kansas City	38	14	20	4	46	1.211	-0.123
115	2006	Kansas City	34	11	15	8	41	1.206	0.018
116	2001	Dallas	30	10	14	6	36	1.200	-0.146
116	1997	New England	35	11	15	9	42	1.200	-0.081
116	1996	New York	35	12	17	6	42	1.200	-0.081
116	1999	Tampa Bay	35	10	13	12	42	1.200	-0.019
120	2006	New York	36	10	13	13	43	1.194	-0.024
121	2007	Columbus	31	9	12	10	37	1.194	-0.040
122	1998	Tampa Bay	34	11	16	7	40	1.176	-0.042
122	2008	Toronto	34	10	14	10	40	1.176	0.010
124	2002	DC United	30	10	15	5	35	1.167	0.024
125	1998	Dallas	39	13	20	6	45	1.154	-0.065
126	2005	Columbus	33	11	17	5	38	1.152	-0.036
127	2004	New England	34	9	13	12	39	1.147	0.047
127	1997	San Jose	34	10	15	9	39	1.147	0.022
129	1996	New England	32	9	15	8	35	1.094	0.000
130	1998	Kansas City	33	10	17	6	36	1.091	-0.034
131	1998	Miami	36	11	19	6	39	1.083	-0.010
132	2008	Los Angeles	31	8	14	9	33	1.065	-0.035
132	2008	San Jose	31	8	14	9	33	1.065	-0.035
134	1996	Colorado	34	10	18	6	36	1.059	0.028
134	2006	Columbus	34	9	16	9	36	1.059	0.028
136	1998	New England	32	9	17	6	33	1.031	0.000
136	1999	New England	32	7	13	12	33	1.031	0.000
138	2000	DC United	35	10	19	6	36	1.029	0.091
139	1999	Miami	34	8	16	10	34	1.000	-0.031
139	2000	San Jose	35	9	18	8	35	1.000	0.094
141	2007	Real Salt Lake	32	7	16	9	30	0.938	0.038
142	2001	Colorado	27	5	14	8	23	0.852	-0.033
143	2007	Toronto	30	6	17	7	25	0.833	0.000
144	1999	Kansas City	32	6	18	8	26	0.813	0.000
145	2003	Dallas	31	6	20	5	23	0.742	-0.025
146	2005	Chivas USA	34	5	23	6	21	0.618	0.055
147	1999	New York	33	4	21	8	20	0.606	-0.019
147	2005	Real Salt Lake	33	5	23	5	20	0.606	-0.019
149	2001	Tampa Bay	28	4	22	2	14	0.500	-0.019

Biggest Changes?

Which teams look better as a result of this? The 2002 Galaxy won the MLS Cup and advanced to the Open Cup final going 8-2-0 combined in both tournaments, and they rocket up to second overall. Still, their PPG improvement is only the 10th best on the list. The top three includes two underdog MLS champions: 1996 DC (2nd) and 2005 LA (3rd). Outside of regular season play they were 8-0-1 and 7-0-1 respectively. But the biggest PPG improvement comes from a pretty middling team: 2001 DC. That was the team that made it to the final of the Giants Cup (don't ask), as well as the semifinals of the Champions Cup and Open Cup. They went 8-16-2 in MLS, and 7-3-1 outside of it.

The teams that came out looking worst by comparison? 3rd place goes to the 2001 Dallas Burn. One point from four games in the playoffs and Open Cup. Bonus shame goes to them for being one of only two MLS teams to lose to a PDL team. 2nd place goes to another team from the same year, 2001 CLB. It's not surprising to see several 2001 teams listed because it was the shortest season in league history (originally 28 games, made even shorter by cancellations due to 9/11). Anyway, the Crew also competed in the Giants Cup, as well as the playoffs and Open Cup. They went 2-4-1 in those competitions compared to 13-7-6 in the league. The top decrease is also held by a DC team: 2007 DC. The Supporters' Shield winners went 16-7-7 in the regular season, but ended up playing 13 additional games in five different competitions (Champions Cup, Open Cup, Superliga, Copa Sudamericana, and playoffs), going 4-6-3.

MLS: Pace After 10 Games

2009-05-12T02:54:00.000-05:00

I looked at this before a couple games into the season, but now that several teams will hit the one-third mark this coming weekend I think it's time to revisit it. Historically, how have teams done for the year after starting the season a certain way?. I've taken a look at all 149 previous MLS seasons to produce these tables (of course, MLS hasn't always played a 30 game season so this isn't the 1/3rd mark for many teams):

Points	Times	Year End PPG
28	1	1.66
26	1	1.78
25	2	2.11
22	2	1.88
21	3	1.61
20	6	1.54
19	8	1.64
18	8	1.70
17	11	1.57
16	8	1.49
15	14	1.32
14	12	1.33
13	11	1.43
12	10	1.46
11	16	1.24
10	14	1.21
9	7	1.02
8	4	1.18
7	7	1.11
6	3	0.99
4	1	0.56

Year end PPG is an average of all the teams with that many points through 10 games. Now let's break it down into categories:

Broken Down

Points	Times	Year End PPG
19-28	23	1.68
16-18	27	1.59
13-15	37	1.36
10-12	40	1.28
4-9	22	1.05

An average PPG is considered about 1.38. That's my rational for the point categories in the second table. 13-15 should be about average (close to within 0.1), while 10 and 18 are both about 0.2-0.4 away from it. So how many teams in each category finished above or below average?

Finished Above or Below Average?

Points	Above	Below
19-28	22	1
16-18	23	4
13-15	13	24
10-12	11	29
4-9	2	20

Eight fewer teams have finished above average compared to below (71-79). There's not a huge difference between the third and fourth categories. Now how about making the playoffs? Admittedly a pretty easy thing to do in many years.

Made Playoffs?

Points	Yes	No
19-28	23	0
16-18	24	3
13-15	25	12
10-12	26	14
4-9	6	16

It should be a little harder this year to feel safe.

Notes

Shootouts (1996-99) are counted as draws, both in the tables and in any sentence below.

The only one team with 18+ points through 10 games finished below average was KC 2007.

The only two teams with 10 or fewer points to finish above average were COL 1998 & COL 2005.

No team has ever had more than 17 points through 10 games and missed the playoffs. Last year's Toronto FC team had exactly 17 and missed out, the highest total to do so.

Even if they beat DC on Saturday, Chivas USA will not be able to have the best 10 game start ever. The best they could do is tied for 3rd. The top two are 1996 LA (9-0-1, 28 pts) and 2000 KC (8-0-2, 26 pts).

Chivas already holds the record for the worst 10 game start in 2005 (1-8-1, 4 pts). FC Dallas can match it with two more losses.

The record for most draws in the opening 10 games is held by Mo Johnston's 2006 New York Red Bulls (1-2-7, 10 pts). Chicago and Los Angeles could both match or break this record.

Several teams could still set or match their 10 game highs or lows. Chivas has already set a high (previously 17 - 2007), and could be joined by Colorado (19 - 1999, 2002), Houston (16 - 2007), and Real Salt Lake (11 - 2005, 2006, 2008).

Teams that could set or match 10 game lows are Columbus (8 - 2007), Dallas (9 - 2003), Houston (11 - 2008), New England (9 - 2001, 2004), New York (8 - 1996), and San Jose (6 -1999).

After 10 games, no Supporters' Shield winner had fewer than 13 points. No MLS Cup winner had fewer than 11 points. 7/13 Shield winners had the best first 10 game record in the league or were tied for it. Only one shield winner wasn't in the top four in the league (2005 SJ).

1	PHI
2	NY
3	SJ
4	DAL
5	LA
6	RSL
7	NE
8	KC
9	TOR
10	CLB
11	SEA
12	COL
13	CHI
14	CHV
15	DC
16	HOU

1	PHI
2	NY
3	SJ
4	DAL
5	LA
6	RSL
7	NE
8	KC
9	TOR
10	CLB
11	SEA
12	COL
13	CHI
14	CHV
15	DC
16	HOU

1	PHI
2	NY
3	SJ
4	DAL
5	LA
6	RSL
7	NE
8	KC
9	TOR
10	CLB
11	SEA
12	COL
13	CHI
14	CHV
15	DC
16	HOU