Pro/Rel Part of Original MLS Plans?

This may not be an entirely accurate headline, since it's from before the actual formation of MLS (December 1993). However it is a remarkable statement, when you think about it. It's from the 1990 World Cup media guide, put out by the USSF. The 1994 World Cup had been awarded to the USA, and a commitment to starting a new league was part of the deal. In the section called "Soccer in the USA" and under the title "The Future of Pro Soccer," here's what it says: The U.S. Soccer Federation has developed a plan for the reorganization of professional soccer in the United States. The plan calls for a First, Second and Third Division professional structure, with a system of promotion and relegation that will be unique to American professional sports. Under the new system, any community in America, provided it meets the proper standards, could field a team in the new professional league. Although there is no specific timetable to the beginning of this new league, the U.S. Soccer Federation is in the process of establishing rigorous membership standards, after which various teams around the United States will have the opportunity to apply for acceptance. That's unbelievable. Who knows how long this idea lasted, but we can say with 100% certainty that pro/rel was part of the original plan. Also, this will be especially useful in any arguments made on Bigsoccer in the future :). FIFA helped Alan Rothenberg defeat USSF president Werner Fricker later that year, so that could've squashed any thought of it. If Fricker had remained president, would things have turned out differently?

MLS: Fouls Per Game

In my previous post about fouls in MLS, I noticed that the numbers really didn't add up when it came to fouls committed (FC) and fouls suffered (FS). Here's proof, throughout the years: FC FS Diff Min 1996 4432 4386 46 14400 1997 4583 4579 4 14400 1998 5402 5132 270 17280 1999 5551 5285 266 17280 2000 6489 6236 253 17280 2001 5211 4966 245 14551.5 2002 4559 4364 195 12897 2003 4836 4584 252 13982 2004 4573 4348 225 13500 2005 5670 5432 238 17280 2006 5573 5297 276 17280 This is taken from the "league stats" pages on MLSnet. Every year, there are more FC than FS. Are some things like handballs considered fouls, or it is just poor stat keeping? I'd really like to know the answer. At least it's been reasonably consistent on the difference. What's also funny is that if you go to the team stats pages, the totals are sometimes slightly different there. I believe that's due to recent years not including the goalkeeper stats on the team stats pages. Minutes is the total number of minutes played in the season (aka all team totals divided by 2). Blame MLS for having an uneven number in 2001. Let's take a look at the averages per 90 minutes: FC FS 1996 27.7 27.4 1997 28.6 28.6 1998 28.1 26.7 1999 28.9 27.5 2000 33.8 32.5 2001 32.2 30.7 2002 31.8 30.5 2003 31.1 29.5 2004 30.5 29.0 2005 29.5 28.3 2006 29.0 27.6 This is per 90 minutes rather than per game due to the overtime games from 2000-3. Why was there an increase in 2000? No clue. There was a big increase in scoring that year, and it was also Don Garber's first season in charge. I wonder if they changed things in 1998, due to the differences between FC and FS? That's about the same time the number of assists increased greatly as well, although the big jump there was from 1996 to 1997.

Fouls In MLS

Let's talk about fouls. Generally in soccer, getting fouled is a good thing while fouling someone is a bad thing. Most of the time, that is. Last year I was toying around with the idea of creating an "offensive productivity" formula, to determine which players help their teams the most in the creation of goals. However, even if a team was held scoreless, surely certain players should get credit for their contributions on offense, right? One way to do that would be to take fouls into account. I never did end up doing an offensive formula, as I only had done the most basic work and I'm not good at the high level math (I got a C in stats class, surprisingly enough). But one thing I did learn from someone on Bigsoccer is that according to him, looking at data from one of the Premiership seasons, neither fouls committed or fouls earned in relation to goals scored had any kind of significance. Looking at the overall team data for MLS, that's not too shocking. Real Salt Lake has commited 85 fouls vs receiving 107. Meanwhile, New York has committed 110 fouls against 96 earned. It possibly could tell you about the team's style or aggression, but not much about the overall record or goal scoring prowess. Having said that, I still feel that individually, it could be an important statistic. The Actim index is always fascinating to look at for the English leagues. It attempts to measure everything a player does on the field and gives them a total score. Unfortunately, they don't give specifics on how they weight the different actions. I know a guy on Bigsoccer tried to do something similar for recent USMNT games. I might have to give that a go myself this summer. I think the first step would be to make a detailed record of every single action that happens in the game, including passes and winning headers, and hopefully also stuff that couldn't easily be measured (like good runs that create space). If there can be an Actim index, then certainly I or others could create something nifty as well. Anyway, it might be easier to have separate formulas for offense and defense. It's hard to measure defense, hence my thoughts on a formula for offense. If there was an offensive formula, certainly the players would get credit for earning fouls. But what about taking away points for committing them? That was my initial thought, but I don't know. Nonetheless, it would certainly be interesting to take a look at who in MLS fares the best when you compare fouls earned vs committed. Yup, that's what the data is this post concerns. Anyone can see the basic numbers for fouls on MLSnet, but what about comparing them and showing them on a per 90 minutes basis? I should note that MLS' stats on fouls don't seem to even out; the totals for fouls committed and fouls earned are unequal. Maybe that's due to things like handballs? I don't know. I originally had done this for the 2006 season, and was going to post it last Friday. But of course, I decided if I did one year then I had to do them all. Beyond the last couple years, it was a pain to get the data into excel, and I had to type the numbers in manually. So there could be slight errors. One final thing to note: I only considered players who played 20% of the minutes in each season. The stats below and to the right of the bold number are as follows: minutes fouls committed fouls earned fouls committed per 90 minutes fouls earned per 90 minutes. Most Fouls Earned vs Committed (per 90 minutes) Explanation: For example, this category shows that in 1996 Giuseppe Galderisi had 1.47 fouls committed vs 4.08 fouls suffered. So he earned an average of 2.62 fouls per game. This shows the most creative players, right? That's certainly part of it. However, there's no way Jose Cancela has been the most creative guy for four years running. Could part of this category be guys who just suck defensively? What about shying away from contact? That can't be it, due to Brian McBride's inclusion year after year. Maybe for some guys, it's just a lack of defensive responsibilities. Being on these lists doesn't mean that you're good. For the most recent year, I checked to see how the top ten list of just the most fouled guys would compare, and six were the same names. The other four were Dempsey, Harris, Palencia, and Ruiz. They just committed too many fouls to make it. I would include the top and bottom lists of just fouls committed and earned for each season, but there's enough data here already. DaMarcus Beasley was ranked first in 2000, but despite being fouled more in 2002-3 his score was lower. He was committing more fouls as well. I don't know how meaningful this all is but I find it fascinating to look at. 1996 1 Giuseppe Galderisi -2.62 1961 32 89 1.47 4.08 2 Paul Wright -2.22 690 6 23 0.78 3.00 3 Tab Ramos -1.96 2158 28 75 1.17 3.13 4 Cobi Jones -1.89 2375 26 76 0.99 2.88 5 Imad Baba -1.71 736 9 23 1.10 2.81 6 Roberto Donadoni -1.59 1530 10 37 0.59 2.18 7 Billy Thompson -1.56 2074 8 44 0.35 1.91 8 Welton -1.51 1909 30 62 1.41 2.92 9 Marcelo Carrera -1.41 1339 15 36 1.01 2.42 10 Carlos Valderrama -1.31 2059 10 40 0.44 1.75 1997 1 Damian -2.56 1479 19 61 1.16 3.71 2 Roberto Donadoni -2.27 2699 26 94 0.87 3.13 3 Giuseppe Galderisi -2.09 1726 30 70 1.56 3.65 4 Cobi Jones -1.90 2228 27 74 1.09 2.99 5 Marco Etcheverry -1.81 1695 20 54 1.06 2.87 6 Brian McBride -1.77 1069 8 29 0.67 2.44 7 Nelson Vargas -1.58 967 16 33 1.49 3.07 8 Braeden Cloutier -1.46 922 11 26 1.07 2.54 9 Carlos Valderrama -1.40 1740 6 33 0.31 1.71 10 Mark Chung -1.35 2871 26 69 0.82 2.16 1998 1 Gilmar -2.57 909 7 33 0.69 3.27 2 Damian -2.45 954 9 35 0.85 3.30 3 Andy Williams -2.40 976 16 42 1.48 3.87 4 Roman Kosecki -2.16 1999 39 87 1.76 3.92 5 Peter Nowak -1.83 1921 22 61 1.03 2.86 6 Tab Ramos -1.79 1455 14 43 0.87 2.66 7 Brian McBride -1.79 2117 26 68 1.11 2.89 8 Adrian Paz -1.75 2313 37 82 1.44 3.19 9 Mark Chung -1.66 2551 19 66 0.67 2.33 10 Paul Young -1.64 768 5 19 0.59 2.23 1999 1 Jason Moore -2.70 999 15 45 1.35 4.05 2 Preki -1.85 2572 24 77 0.84 2.69 3 Alex Bunbury -1.77 1579 22 53 1.25 3.02 4 Cobi Jones -1.66 2488 34 80 1.23 2.89 5 Mark Chung -1.62 1995 20 56 0.90 2.53 6 Marco Etcheverry -1.52 1890 22 54 1.05 2.57 7 Brian McBride -1.47 2209 19 55 0.77 2.24 8 Paul Bravo -1.42 1966 26 57 1.19 2.61 9 Daniel Hernandez -1.30 901 12 25 1.20 2.50 10 Carlos Valderrama -1.17 2762 24 60 0.78 1.96 2000 1 DaMarcus Beasley -3.07 1085 10 47 0.83 3.90 2 Khodadad Azizi -2.62 1548 19 64 1.10 3.72 3 Jeff Cunningham -2.21 1755 23 66 1.18 3.38 4 Andy Williams -2.15 1297 23 54 1.60 3.75 5 Brian McBride -2.13 1523 12 48 0.71 2.84 6 Jaime Moreno -1.87 2213 35 81 1.42 3.29 7 Nelson Vargas -1.71 893 11 28 1.11 2.82 8 Manny Lagos -1.56 1500 15 41 0.90 2.46 9 Hristo Stoitchkov -1.55 987 14 31 1.28 2.83 10 Anders Limpar -1.53 1116 21 40 1.69 3.23 2001 1 Onandi Lowe -3.13 1034 24 60 2.09 5.22 2 Tab Ramos -2.71 1459 16 60 0.99 3.70 3 Jaime Moreno -2.67 1888 31 87 1.48 4.15 4 Jason Moore -2.30 1798 31 77 1.55 3.85 5 Andy Williams -2.09 1465 29 63 1.78 3.87 6 Peter Nowak -1.90 1560 15 48 0.87 2.77 7 Marco Etcheverry -1.87 2024 21 63 0.93 2.80 8 DaMarcus Beasley -1.84 2156 38 82 1.59 3.42 9 Dante Washington -1.72 1203 13 36 0.97 2.69 10 Cobi Jones -1.71 1890 22 58 1.05 2.76 2002 1 Brian McBride -2.76 1239 12 50 0.87 3.63 2 DaMarcus Beasley -2.57 1719 34 83 1.78 4.35 3 Andy Williams -2.23 1814 41 86 2.03 4.27 4 Jaime Moreno -2.18 1157 16 44 1.24 3.42 5 Peter Nowak -1.90 1377 14 43 0.92 2.81 6 Igor Simutenkov -1.70 1480 21 49 1.28 2.98 7 Cobi Jones -1.59 1638 14 43 0.77 2.36 8 Mamadou Diallo -1.39 1623 37 62 2.05 3.44 9 Marco Etcheverry -1.34 2146 22 54 0.92 2.26 10 Richard Mulrooney -1.32 2312 39 73 1.52 2.84 2003 1 Jose Cancela -4.02 1142 13 64 1.02 5.04 2 Brian McBride -2.39 2183 20 78 0.82 3.22 3 DaMarcus Beasley -2.19 1969 48 96 2.19 4.39 4 Kyle Martino -2.19 1765 36 79 1.84 4.03 5 Cobi Jones -1.54 2574 21 65 0.73 2.27 6 Gavin Glinton -1.47 672 8 19 1.07 2.54 7 Alejandro Moreno -1.45 1117 22 40 1.77 3.22 8 Antonio Martinez -1.39 776 7 19 0.81 2.20 9 Ali Curtis -1.37 1509 24 47 1.43 2.80 10 Justin Mapp -1.37 1384 17 38 1.11 2.47 2004 1 Jose Cancela -2.90 1957 10 73 0.46 3.36 2 Davy Arnaud -2.02 2626 52 111 1.78 3.80 3 Justin Mapp -1.94 1627 19 54 1.05 2.99 4 Kyle Martino -1.88 2301 36 84 1.41 3.29 5 Richard Mulrooney -1.80 2700 35 89 1.17 2.97 6 Andy Williams -1.78 2023 43 83 1.91 3.69 7 Pablo Brenes -1.65 709 10 23 1.27 2.92 8 Cornell Glen -1.58 966 21 38 1.96 3.54 9 Jeff Cunningham -1.55 1856 25 57 1.21 2.76 10 Damani Ralph -1.40 2250 23 58 0.92 2.32 2005 1 Jose Cancela -2.85 1643 7 59 0.38 3.23 2 Alejandro Moreno -2.62 2167 39 102 1.62 4.24 3 Freddy Adu -2.06 1487 22 56 1.33 3.39 4 Jamie Watson -1.98 818 19 37 2.09 4.07 5 Jeff Cunningham -1.83 1670 18 52 0.97 2.80 6 Kyle Martino -1.80 2248 32 77 1.28 3.08 7 Brian Mullan -1.67 1996 42 79 1.89 3.56 8 Andy Williams -1.63 2102 41 79 1.76 3.38 9 Luchi Gonzalez -1.55 1449 21 46 1.30 2.86 10 Eddie Gaven -1.44 2257 31 67 1.24 2.67 2006 1 Jose Cancela -3.31 1387 16 67 1.04 4.35 2 Alejandro Moreno -2.16 2620 49 112 1.68 3.85 3 Kyle Martino -1.88 955 12 32 1.13 3.02 4 Justin Mapp -1.78 1866 16 53 0.77 2.56 5 Jacob Thomas -1.59 1074 14 33 1.17 2.77 6 Pat Noonan -1.48 851 11 25 1.16 2.64 7 Eddie Gaven -1.37 2560 23 62 0.81 2.18 8 Davy Arnaud -1.26 2785 37 76 1.20 2.46 9 Youri Djorkaeff -1.23 1824 32 57 1.58 2.81 10 Ben Olsen -1.23 1535 34 55 1.99 3.22 Overall Top Seasons 1 Jose Cancela -4.02 2003 2 Jose Cancela -3.31 2006 3 Onandi Lowe -3.13 2001 4 DaMarcus Beasley -3.07 2000 5 Jose Cancela -2.90 2004 6 Jose Cancela -2.85 2005 7 Brian McBride -2.76 2002 8 Tab Ramos -2.71 2001 9 Jason Moore -2.70 1999 10 Jaime Moreno -2.67 2001 Most Fouls Committed vs Earned (per 90 minutes) Explanation: For example, this category shows that in 1996 Curt Onalfo had 3.01 fouls committed vs 0.78 fouls suffered. So he committed an average of 2.22 more fouls per game. These lists are the opposite of the previous, and they're full of defenders and defensive midfielders. No shock there. Occasionally you'll see a forward like Alan Gordon or Toni Nhleko. Knowing when to commit fouls is the mark of good defense. Guys like Michael Parkhurst barely foul at all. But it doesn't make you a bad defender to be on this list. A guy like Carlos Llamosa might be here because of his lack of offensive skill/responsibility. So lack of creativity, talent, offensive responsibility, or lots of aggression/physicality might explain these names. 1996 1 Curt Onalfo 2.22 688 23 6 3.01 0.78 2 Brad Wilson 1.86 969 27 7 2.51 0.65 3 Cle Kooiman 1.69 2394 61 16 2.29 0.60 4 Goran Hunjak 1.66 1412 40 14 2.55 0.89 5 Tony Sanneh 1.54 2047 55 20 2.42 0.88 6 Jose Vasquez 1.44 876 34 20 3.49 2.05 7 Antony De Avila 1.38 650 19 9 2.63 1.25 8 Manny Motajo 1.33 1486 35 13 2.12 0.79 9 Geoff Aunger 1.20 2397 66 34 2.48 1.28 10 Rob Smith 1.18 765 15 5 1.76 0.59 1997 1 Cle Kooiman 1.92 2296 68 19 2.67 0.74 2 John DeBrito 1.74 621 15 3 2.17 0.43 3 Eric Dade 1.58 1306 31 8 2.14 0.55 4 Matt McKeon 1.55 2737 75 28 2.47 0.92 5 Leonardo Squadrone 1.44 1881 39 9 1.87 0.43 6 Ben Iroha 1.29 1391 34 14 2.20 0.91 7 Roy Wegerle 1.21 1931 47 21 2.19 0.98 8 Joey Martinez 1.14 1503 24 5 1.44 0.30 9 Tahj Jakins 1.03 1132 25 12 1.99 0.95 10 John Kerr 1.03 1136 24 11 1.90 0.87 1998 1 Cle Kooiman 1.93 1260 38 11 2.71 0.79 2 Manny Motajo 1.87 1012 24 3 2.13 0.27 3 Josh Keller 1.85 827 19 2 2.07 0.22 4 Richardo Iribarren 1.62 1779 42 10 2.12 0.51 5 Richard Goulooze 1.60 2529 52 7 1.85 0.25 6 Kerry Zavagnin 1.55 754 24 11 2.86 1.31 7 Ezra Hendrickson 1.43 1946 38 7 1.76 0.32 8 Scott Uderitz 1.36 1660 42 17 2.28 0.92 9 Tahj Jakins 1.33 1147 30 13 2.35 1.02 10 Carlos Llamosa 1.31 1444 29 8 1.81 0.50 1999 1 Geoff Aunger 2.41 2132 75 18 3.17 0.76 2 Arley Palacios 2.17 1370 46 13 3.02 0.85 3 Paulo Dos Santos 2.07 652 28 13 3.87 1.79 4 Matt McKeon 1.83 2415 80 31 2.98 1.16 5 Lawrence Lozzano 1.70 1164 32 10 2.47 0.77 6 Braeden Cloutier 1.66 1576 41 12 2.34 0.69 7 Carlos Parra 1.64 1095 25 5 2.05 0.41 8 Richie Williams 1.53 1996 56 22 2.53 0.99 9 Jeff Bilyk 1.40 901 24 10 2.40 1.00 10 Ezra Hendrickson 1.37 1708 36 10 1.90 0.53 2000 1 Ricardo Iribarren 2.10 1675 53 14 2.85 0.75 2 Steve Shak 2.07 1393 41 9 2.65 0.58 3 Chris Martinez 1.83 2662 70 16 2.37 0.54 4 Geoff Aunger 1.82 2081 67 25 2.90 1.08 5 Travis Mulraine 1.74 622 22 10 3.18 1.45 6 Kevin Anderson 1.72 891 23 6 2.32 0.61 7 Keyeno Thomas 1.52 592 17 7 2.58 1.06 8 Tom Dooley 1.43 1318 30 9 2.05 0.61 9 Billy Walsh 1.38 1756 37 10 1.90 0.51 10 Carey Talley 1.28 2458 76 41 2.78 1.50 2001 1 Brian Namoff 2.42 1152 39 8 3.05 0.63 2 Scott Vermillion 2.21 1546 50 12 2.91 0.70 3 Steve Trittschuh 1.86 1600 43 10 2.42 0.56 4 Matt McKeon 1.82 2372 76 28 2.88 1.06 5 Steve Shak 1.79 806 23 7 2.57 0.78 6 Billy Walsh 1.67 756 17 3 2.02 0.36 7 Chris Dawes 1.64 1478 36 9 2.19 0.55 8 Justin Evans 1.59 622 17 6 2.46 0.87 9 Alex Comas 1.56 748 21 8 2.53 0.96 10 Matt Okoh 1.53 885 39 24 3.97 2.44 2002 1 Raul Palacios 3.01 836 34 6 3.66 0.65 2 Zak Ibsen 1.50 1077 20 2 1.67 0.17 3 Jorge Rodriguez 1.49 1693 39 11 2.07 0.58 4 Braeden Cloutier 1.48 608 16 6 2.37 0.89 5 Craig Waibel 1.47 860 19 5 1.99 0.52 6 Alexi Lalas 1.45 2364 56 18 2.13 0.69 7 Carlos Llamosa 1.36 1056 28 12 2.39 1.02 8 Danny Califf 1.36 2118 47 15 2.00 0.64 9 Daouda Kante 1.36 729 15 4 1.85 0.49 10 Rick Titus 1.31 2202 48 16 1.96 0.65 2003 1 Diego Walsh 2.21 612 19 4 2.79 0.59 2 Shavar Thomas 2.01 1252 34 6 2.44 0.43 3 Craig Waibel 1.72 1991 47 9 2.12 0.41 4 Jeff Stewart 1.63 608 16 5 2.37 0.74 5 Brian Maisonneuve 1.56 1730 55 25 2.86 1.30 6 Daouda Kante 1.50 1319 25 3 1.71 0.20 7 Ryan Suarez 1.46 1356 36 14 2.39 0.93 8 Chad Deering 1.40 2187 57 23 2.35 0.95 9 Toni Nhleko 1.25 792 23 12 2.61 1.36 10 Tyrone Marshall 1.24 1882 47 21 2.25 1.00 2004 1 Simo Valakari 1.96 2297 73 23 2.86 0.90 2 Jesse Marsch 1.85 681 28 14 3.70 1.85 3 Daryl Powell 1.69 1013 31 12 2.75 1.07 4 Shavar Thomas 1.58 1880 44 11 2.11 0.53 5 Jean Philippe Peguero 1.36 1389 49 28 3.17 1.81 6 Evan Whitfield 1.30 1665 40 16 2.16 0.86 7 Bryan Namoff 1.28 2384 62 28 2.34 1.06 8 Ryan Nelsen 1.27 1417 24 4 1.52 0.25 9 Tyrone Marshall 1.18 1449 31 12 1.93 0.75 10 Scott Buete 1.15 702 18 9 2.31 1.15 2005 1 Esteban Arias 2.60 1141 42 9 3.31 0.71 2 Simo Valakari 1.82 2471 78 28 2.84 1.02 3 Roberto Mina 1.70 1270 47 23 3.33 1.63 4 Guy Melamed 1.68 911 29 12 2.86 1.19 5 Danny O'Rourke 1.63 1050 35 16 3.00 1.37 6 Chris Wingert 1.61 1896 50 16 2.37 0.76 7 Alfonso Loera 1.54 877 22 7 2.26 0.72 8 Bryan Namoff 1.47 1348 31 9 2.07 0.60 9 Arturo Alvarez 1.40 1285 33 13 2.31 0.91 10 Chad Barrett 1.36 597 16 7 2.41 1.06 2006 1 Marcelo Saragosa 2.02 1113 48 23 3.88 1.86 2 Simo Valakari 2.00 2608 81 23 2.80 0.79 3 Tyrone Marshall 1.55 2149 53 16 2.22 0.67 4 Alan Gordon 1.50 1021 33 16 2.91 1.41 5 Alex Yi 1.48 667 14 3 1.89 0.40 6 Seth Stammler 1.40 2374 56 19 2.12 0.72 7 Lawson Vaughn 1.29 1046 23 8 1.98 0.69 8 Jack Stewart 1.28 1126 19 3 1.52 0.24 9 Marcos Gonzalez 1.25 1660 44 21 2.39 1.14 10 Arturo Alvarez 1.25 578 14 6 2.18 0.93 Overall Top Seasons 1 Raul Palacios 3.01 2002 2 Esteban Arias 2.60 2005 3 Brian Namoff 2.42 2001 4 Geoff Aunger 2.41 1999 5 Curt Onalfo 2.22 1996 6 Scott Vermillion 2.21 2001 7 Diego Walsh 2.21 2003 8 Arley Palacios 2.17 1999 9 Ricardo Iribarren 2.10 2000 10 Paulo Dos Santos 2.07 1999 Most "Physical" Players (fouls earned + committed, per 90 minutes) That's not that best word, for sure, but I don't know how to describe it other than physical. Most battle tested? Anyway, like it says, these are the players who were involved in the most fouls, for and against. Below you're find the opposite lists of the least physical guys. It's certainly easy to guess that guys like Ben Olsen, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley made the lists. They never back away from a challenge. Diego Serna and Carlos Ruiz are perfect fits here too. Some names seem weird, like Seth Trembly who makes it twice. Really, Seth Trembly? I really don't remember enough about Onandi Lowe's short stay with the Wizards, but he's listed as having the top season ever in this category. 1996 1 Alberto Naveda 5.76 1734 51 60 2.65 3.11 2 Evans Wise 5.60 1512 53 41 3.15 2.44 3 Giuseppe Galderisi 5.55 1961 32 89 1.47 4.08 4 Jose Vasquez 5.55 876 34 20 3.49 2.05 5 Adrian Paz 4.50 1802 36 54 1.80 2.70 6 Robert Warzycha 4.48 1747 34 53 1.75 2.73 7 Welton 4.34 1909 30 62 1.41 2.92 8 Tab Ramos 4.30 2158 28 75 1.17 3.13 9 Ted Eck 4.09 1564 34 37 1.96 2.13 10 Jeff Baicher 4.05 2180 48 50 1.98 2.06 1997 1 Paul Keegan 7.18 652 26 26 3.59 3.59 2 Evans Wise 6.07 979 33 33 3.03 3.03 3 Alberto Naveda 5.30 2394 66 75 2.48 2.82 4 Giuseppe Galderisi 5.21 1726 30 70 1.56 3.65 5 Gilmar 4.97 1213 26 41 1.93 3.04 6 Daniel Peinado 4.96 1870 57 46 2.74 2.21 7 Damian 4.87 1479 19 61 1.16 3.71 8 Giovanni Savarese 4.61 2069 53 53 2.31 2.31 9 Welton 4.56 1321 28 39 1.91 2.66 10 Nelson Vargas 4.56 967 16 33 1.49 3.07 1998 1 Evans Wise 6.71 764 26 31 3.06 3.65 2 Diego Serna 6.56 1988 56 89 2.54 4.03 3 Lawrence Lozzano 5.96 680 23 22 3.04 2.91 4 Wellington Sanchez 5.80 698 21 24 2.71 3.09 5 Paul Keegan 5.75 892 33 24 3.33 2.42 6 Roman Kosecki 5.67 1999 39 87 1.76 3.92 7 Jeff Baicher 5.65 1099 33 36 2.70 2.95 8 Andy Williams 5.35 976 16 42 1.48 3.87 9 Stern John 5.10 2170 55 68 2.28 2.82 10 Musa Shannon 5.03 823 22 24 2.41 2.62 1999 1 Paulo Dos Santos 5.66 652 28 13 3.87 1.79 2 Diego Serna 5.66 1862 52 65 2.51 3.14 3 Jaime Moreno 5.49 2114 55 74 2.34 3.15 4 Roman Kosecki 5.42 1825 44 66 2.17 3.25 5 Jason Moore 5.41 999 15 45 1.35 4.05 6 Ben Olsen 4.87 2292 65 59 2.55 2.32 7 Roy Myers 4.80 1970 50 55 2.28 2.51 8 Andy Williams 4.77 1227 31 34 2.27 2.49 9 Jeff Baicher 4.58 2397 56 66 2.10 2.48 10 Anders Limpar 4.57 1358 35 34 2.32 2.25 2000 1 Diego Serna 6.44 2236 83 77 3.34 3.10 2 Matt Okoh 6.41 1039 40 34 3.46 2.95 3 Mamadou Diallo 5.46 2405 74 72 2.77 2.69 4 Andy Williams 5.34 1297 23 54 1.60 3.75 5 Jamar Beasley 5.22 880 19 32 1.94 3.27 6 Oscar Pareja 5.16 2354 58 77 2.22 2.94 7 Roy Myers 5.15 1712 52 46 2.73 2.42 8 Jason Moore 5.13 2385 53 83 2.00 3.13 9 William Sunsing 5.13 1263 32 40 2.28 2.85 10 Ariel Graziani 5.05 2138 58 62 2.44 2.61 2001 1 Onandi Lowe 7.31 1034 24 60 2.09 5.22 2 Diego Serna 6.60 1978 73 72 3.32 3.28 3 Matt Okoh 6.41 885 39 24 3.97 2.44 4 Santino Quaranta 5.69 949 21 39 1.99 3.70 5 Andy Williams 5.65 1465 29 63 1.78 3.87 6 Jaime Moreno 5.63 1888 31 87 1.48 4.15 7 Jeff Bilyk 5.55 535 18 15 3.03 2.52 8 Jason Moore 5.41 1798 31 77 1.55 3.85 9 Luis Hernandez 5.30 1189 27 43 2.04 3.25 10 Jamar Beasley 5.19 746 20 23 2.41 2.77 2002 1 Alejandro Moreno 6.42 561 18 22 2.89 3.53 2 Andy Williams 6.30 1814 41 86 2.03 4.27 3 DaMarcus Beasley 6.13 1719 34 83 1.78 4.35 4 Ben Olsen 5.89 718 19 28 2.38 3.51 5 Oscar Pareja 5.49 2000 64 58 2.88 2.61 6 Mamadou Diallo 5.49 1623 37 62 2.05 3.44 7 Carlos Ruiz 5.38 2376 71 71 2.69 2.69 8 Taylor Twellman 5.29 2418 55 87 2.05 3.24 9 Diego Serna 4.96 944 23 29 2.19 2.76 10 Jaime Moreno 4.67 1157 16 44 1.24 3.42 2003 1 DaMarcus Beasley 6.58 1969 48 96 2.19 4.39 2 Carlos Ruiz 6.29 2331 76 87 2.93 3.36 3 Jose Cancela 6.07 1142 13 64 1.02 5.04 4 Kyle Martino 5.86 1765 36 79 1.84 4.03 5 Brian Ching 5.47 1235 31 44 2.26 3.21 6 Andy Williams 5.10 1360 32 45 2.12 2.98 7 Dema Kovalenko 5.06 2401 67 68 2.51 2.55 8 Alejandro Moreno 5.00 1117 22 40 1.77 3.22 9 Ben Olsen 4.89 2339 47 80 1.81 3.08 10 Seth Trembly 4.86 1112 34 26 2.75 2.10 2004 1 Andy Williams 5.61 2023 43 83 1.91 3.69 2 Davy Arnaud 5.59 2626 52 111 1.78 3.80 3 Jesse Marsch 5.55 681 28 14 3.70 1.85 4 Brian Ching 5.53 1954 47 73 2.16 3.36 5 Cornell Glen 5.50 966 21 38 1.96 3.54 6 Clint Dempsey 5.25 2024 50 68 2.22 3.02 7 Marcelo Saragosa 5.17 2123 62 60 2.63 2.54 8 Brian Mullan 5.12 2408 68 69 2.54 2.58 9 Milton Reyes 5.11 828 18 29 1.96 3.15 10 Ben Olsen 5.10 2046 58 58 2.55 2.55 2005 1 Brian Ching 6.64 990 37 36 3.36 3.27 2 Jamie Watson 6.16 818 19 37 2.09 4.07 3 Alejandro Moreno 5.86 2167 39 102 1.62 4.24 4 Brian Mullan 5.46 1996 42 79 1.89 3.56 5 Seth Trembly 5.28 1176 38 31 2.91 2.37 6 Ben Olsen 5.23 1874 58 51 2.79 2.45 7 Andy Williams 5.14 2102 41 79 1.76 3.38 8 Roberto Mina 4.96 1270 47 23 3.33 1.63 9 Carlos Ruiz 4.94 1549 38 47 2.21 2.73 10 Joseph Ngwenya 4.94 620 13 21 1.89 3.05 2006 1 Atiba Harris 6.52 1146 47 36 3.69 2.83 2 Marcelo Saragosa 5.74 1113 48 23 3.88 1.86 3 Alejandro Moreno 5.53 2620 49 112 1.68 3.85 4 Jose Cancela 5.39 1387 16 67 1.04 4.35 5 Carlos Ruiz 5.37 2113 54 72 2.30 3.07 6 Thiago Martins 5.26 1404 44 38 2.82 2.44 7 Juan Francisco Palencia 5.22 1914 50 61 2.35 2.87 8 Ben Olsen 5.22 1535 34 55 1.99 3.22 9 Clint Dempsey 4.97 1865 41 62 1.98 2.99 10 Jean Philippe Peguero 4.76 1248 28 38 2.02 2.74 Overall Top Seasons 1 Onandi Lowe 7.31 2001 2 Paul Keegan 7.18 1997 3 Evans Wise 6.71 1998 4 Brian Ching 6.64 2005 5 Diego Serna 6.60 2001 6 DaMarcus Beasley 6.58 2003 7 Diego Serna 6.56 1998 8 Atiba Harris 6.52 2006 9 Diego Serna 6.44 2000 10 Alejandro Moreno 6.42 2002 Least "Physical" Players (fouls earned + committed, per 90 minutes) As mentioned earlier, this is the home to guys like Michael Parkhurst. Leo Cullen appears to be the undisputed champ of this category, while Chris Klein (2006 fair play award winner) is there almost every year as well. Clyde Simms in 2005 was the top season ever in this category, just 3 fouls committed and 6 earned in 1,263 minutes. 1996 1 Frank Yallop 0.86 2513 15 9 0.54 0.32 2 Iain Fraser 0.91 2070 10 11 0.43 0.48 3 Richiard Weiszmann 0.99 817 7 2 0.77 0.22 4 David Vaudreuil 1.26 1147 12 4 0.94 0.31 5 Eric Imler 1.39 1355 17 4 1.13 0.27 6 John Maessner 1.51 713 3 9 0.38 1.14 7 Matt Kmosko 1.52 2788 24 23 0.77 0.74 8 Ted Gillen 1.54 819 4 10 0.44 1.10 9 Eddie Pope 1.54 1575 14 13 0.80 0.74 10 Uche Okafor 1.60 2593 34 12 1.18 0.42 1997 1 David Patino 0.88 1741 6 11 0.31 0.57 2 Brian Johnson 1.14 951 4 8 0.38 0.76 3 Andrew Lewis 1.14 1421 9 9 0.57 0.57 4 Frank Yallop 1.26 2430 24 10 0.89 0.37 5 Mike Duhaney 1.43 2205 21 14 0.86 0.57 6 Eddie Pope 1.47 2513 17 24 0.61 0.86 7 John Maessner 1.48 2008 11 22 0.49 0.99 8 Paul Caligiuri 1.54 1406 17 7 1.09 0.45 9 Robin Fraser 1.60 2021 22 14 0.98 0.62 10 Steve Pittman 1.61 2068 26 11 1.13 0.48 1998 1 Leo Cullen 0.74 2680 11 11 0.37 0.37 2 Kris Kelderman 0.99 1187 11 2 0.83 0.15 3 Diego Sonora 1.08 2572 16 15 0.56 0.52 4 Eric Dade 1.16 1393 11 7 0.71 0.45 5 Chris Martinez 1.26 2358 20 13 0.76 0.50 6 Roy Wegerle 1.35 1265 9 10 0.64 0.71 7 Chris Klein 1.38 782 7 5 0.81 0.58 8 Mauricio Ramos 1.44 1932 9 22 0.42 1.02 9 Frank Yallop 1.47 2703 26 18 0.87 0.60 10 Tom Dooley 1.48 2008 20 13 0.90 0.58 1999 1 Leo Cullen 1.00 2619 18 11 0.62 0.38 2 Richard Farrer 1.04 2608 14 16 0.48 0.55 3 Diego Sonora 1.06 2201 11 15 0.45 0.61 4 Scott Bower 1.11 649 4 4 0.55 0.55 5 John Maessner 1.18 1605 9 12 0.50 0.67 6 Kevin Knight 1.23 732 3 7 0.37 0.86 7 Chris Klein 1.35 2198 13 20 0.53 0.82 8 Robin Fraser 1.42 2096 23 10 0.99 0.43 9 Mohammed Khakpour 1.50 1260 10 11 0.71 0.79 10 Marcelo Balboa 1.52 2430 26 15 0.96 0.56 2000 1 Eric Denton 1.37 1114 7 10 0.57 0.81 2 Leo Cullen 1.44 1944 17 14 0.79 0.65 3 Chris Klein 1.51 2205 21 16 0.86 0.65 4 Brian Johnson 1.54 586 9 1 1.38 0.15 5 Richard Farrer 1.55 2095 17 19 0.73 0.82 6 Andrew Lewis 1.59 1589 17 11 0.96 0.62 7 Jorge Rodriguez 1.66 2066 22 16 0.96 0.70 8 Joe Addo 1.66 2934 19 35 0.58 1.07 9 Adam Eyre 1.70 742 11 3 1.33 0.36 10 Mike Burns 1.70 2011 22 16 0.98 0.72 2001 1 Leo Cullen 0.79 793 4 3 0.45 0.34 2 Robin Fraser 0.95 1714 8 10 0.42 0.53 3 Jim Curtin 1.21 1194 8 8 0.60 0.60 4 Tenywa Bonseu 1.21 2160 21 8 0.88 0.33 5 Andrew Lewis 1.25 502 4 3 0.72 0.54 6 Brian Dunseth 1.52 1066 13 5 1.10 0.42 7 Alan Woods 1.59 1475 12 14 0.73 0.85 8 Lubos Kubik 1.62 998 12 6 1.08 0.54 9 Troy Dayak 1.65 2236 25 16 1.01 0.64 10 Wade Barrett 1.65 2125 22 17 0.93 0.72 2002 1 Richard Farrer 0.89 508 2 3 0.35 0.53 2 Chris Klein 1.04 2171 11 14 0.46 0.58 3 Wade Barrett 1.20 2555 24 10 0.85 0.35 4 Nick Downing 1.21 667 5 4 0.67 0.54 5 Troy Dayak 1.31 1235 10 8 0.73 0.58 6 Leo Cullen 1.36 2444 24 13 0.88 0.48 7 Mike Burns 1.60 1966 21 14 0.96 0.64 8 Orlando Perez 1.61 1174 18 3 1.38 0.23 9 Brian Dunseth 1.63 2436 31 13 1.15 0.48 10 Steve Morrow 1.64 2199 26 14 1.06 0.57 2003 1 Chris Brown 1.02 1327 8 7 0.54 0.47 2 Todd Dunivant 1.13 2778 17 18 0.55 0.58 3 Leo Cullen 1.38 1564 12 12 0.69 0.69 4 Ezra Hendrickson 1.48 2305 25 13 0.98 0.51 5 Alex Pineda Chacon 1.54 703 4 8 0.51 1.02 6 Chris Leitch 1.54 993 9 8 0.82 0.73 7 Joe Addo 1.54 700 7 5 0.90 0.64 8 Chris Klein 1.57 2527 19 25 0.68 0.89 9 Earnie Stewart 1.59 1923 22 12 1.03 0.56 10 Jeff Agoos 1.60 2593 21 25 0.73 0.87 2004 1 Kelly Gray 0.89 2112 8 13 0.34 0.55 2 Sergio Galvan Rey 1.14 871 4 7 0.41 0.72 3 Chris Klein 1.17 1694 11 11 0.58 0.58 4 Philip Salyer 1.22 1407 11 8 0.70 0.51 5 Steve Jolley 1.26 2428 20 14 0.74 0.52 6 Jeff Agoos 1.34 2152 10 22 0.42 0.92 7 Orlando Perez 1.34 1075 11 5 0.92 0.42 8 Eddie Pope 1.40 1928 17 13 0.79 0.61 9 Hong Myung-Bo 1.47 858 12 2 1.26 0.21 10 Tenywa Bonseu 1.47 1164 13 6 1.01 0.46 2005 1 Clyde Simms 0.64 1263 3 6 0.21 0.43 2 Michael Parkhurst 0.78 2880 6 19 0.19 0.59 3 Leo Cullen 0.84 750 4 3 0.48 0.36 4 Drew Moor 1.06 936 6 5 0.58 0.48 5 Kelly Gray 1.07 2281 18 9 0.71 0.36 6 Chris Brown 1.23 2125 13 16 0.55 0.68 7 Ryan Cochrane 1.28 776 9 2 1.04 0.23 8 Pablo Chinchilla 1.29 1400 11 9 0.71 0.58 9 Kenny Cutler 1.32 1699 21 4 1.11 0.21 10 Robin Fraser 1.35 2607 31 8 1.07 0.28 2006 1 Terry Cooke 0.95 1997 3 18 0.14 0.81 2 Claudio Suarez 1.01 1778 14 6 0.71 0.30 3 Greg Vanney 1.15 2510 23 9 0.82 0.32 4 Michael Parkhurst 1.17 2700 12 23 0.40 0.77 5 Clyde Simms 1.20 1351 11 7 0.73 0.47 6 Jason Hernandez 1.20 2243 20 10 0.80 0.40 7 Tyson Wahl 1.33 607 5 4 0.74 0.59 8 Kelly Gray 1.35 868 11 2 1.14 0.21 9 Chris Klein 1.36 2842 18 25 0.57 0.79 10 Dave van den Bergh 1.36 991 8 7 0.73 0.64 Overall Top Seasons 1 Clyde Simms 0.64 2005 2 Leo Cullen 0.74 1998 3 Michael Parkhurst 0.78 2005 4 Leo Cullen 0.79 2001 5 Leo Cullen 0.84 2005 6 Frank Yallop 0.86 1996 7 David Patino 0.88 1997 8 Richard Farrer 0.89 2002 9 Kelly Gray 0.89 2004 10 Iain Fraser 0.91 1996