On the 2006 Champion Dynamo...

They will go down as having the 9th best regular season record among the 11 MLS Cup champions. The best champ was the 1999 DC United team, while the last three winners are the worst three teams. I should point out that despite their low seed, the 2005 Galaxy were actually a better team than the 2004 DC United team. They had a PPG of 1.41 vs 1.40 for DC. Although that may have been inflated by the expansion teams, it still goes down in the record books as better. 1 1999 DC United 1.88 2 1997 DC United 1.84 3 2002 Los Angeles 1.82 4 2000 Kansas City 1.78 5 1998 Chicago 1.78 6 2001 San Jose 1.73 7 2003 San Jose 1.70 8 1996 DC United 1.53 9 2006 Houston 1.44 10 2005 Los Angeles 1.41 11 2004 DC United 1.40 The average PPG over all the history of MLS is about 1.39. KC ranks above Chicago by virtue of a better goal differential. New England may have deserved a title more due to their past anguish, but Houston's win was the better result for the league as a whole. Back in April I listed my rankings on which teams most needed to be successful in 2006. Dynamo were 3rd and the Revs were 9th. Nothing like starting a franchise with a great season to create some long time fans, and it should help them in their stadium search as well. The Dynamo had four foreigners in their MLS Cup starting lineup, versus three by the Revolution (Dorman, John, and Joseph). That seems like a lot, but it's not a record. The 2002 Los Angeles Galaxy used a lineup where domestic players were a minority, the only champions to do so. I'm counting a player's nationality as the country he plays for in international soccer. 1996 DC United 4 Diaz Arce, Etcheverry, Gori, Moreno 1997 DC United 4 Diaz Arce, Etcheverry, Gori, Moreno 1998 Chicago 4 Kubik, Nowak, Okaroh, Podbrozny 1999 DC United 2 Etcheverry, Moreno 2000 Kansas City 2 Johnston, Molnar 2001 San Jose 2 Cerritos, Ekelund 2002 Los Angeles 6 Cienfuegos, Elliot, Hendrickson, Marshall, Moreno, Ruiz 2003 San Jose 2 Ekelund, Onstad 2004 DC United 3 Gomez, Moreno, Nelsen 2005 Los Angeles 2 Marshall, Nagamura 2006 Houston 4 Daglish, De Rosario, Onstad, Serioux