Monday, August 13, 2007

USA Rosters, Dead MLSers, Teams With Low Scoring Matches

1) Breakdown of USA World Cup rosters. How many players on each one played in college?

Year College None
1990 22 0
1994 17 5
1998 18 4
2002 17 6
2006 17 6

The trend here is a good one, despite the same number in 2002 and 2006. Previously, most of the players were guys that were foreign born. If you take those out, the 2002 number is cut to three and the 1998 number is zero, whereas the 2006 players are all American born (Beasley, Convey, Donovan, Howard, Johnson, O'Brien). Should be even higher in 2010 with Adu, Altidore, etc.


2) How many of the over 1,000 players who have played in MLS are dead? I believe that the answer is two:

The first would be Mickey Trotman, who played for Dallas and Miami during 1998-9. He died in a car accident in Trinidad.

The second would be Jefferson Gottardi, who played for Tampa Bay in 1999. He had Lou Gehrig's disease.

If there are any others, let me know.

3) The record for the team with the highest scoring games is the 1998 Colordado Rapids, whose games averaged 4.09 goals. Certainly that's in no danger of being broken, with the goals per game average in 2007 at 2.56 per match. KC leads the league in this category with their games averaging 3.16 goals.

But there is a chance of the opposite record being broken: the team with the lowest scoring games. I don't think it will shock anyone when I reveal that the Colorado Rapids also hold this record with their 2004 team. That would be the year Joe Cannon had an amazing season (MVP in my book) and kept them in many games they didn't deserve to be in. They averaged 2.03 goals per game, way better than second place by a 0.22 margin.

Who can break the record? Why of course the Colorado Rapids could do it again, currently averaging 2.10 goals in their matches. However, the best shot goes to the Houston Dynamo who are at 2.05; one goal fewer and they would be on pace to break it. If fewer than 18 goals are scored in their 9 remaining matches, they'll have it to themselves.

The Dynamo are in contention because of their defensive record; they're also on pace to have the best MLS defense ever. If they allow 12 goals or fewer in their last 9 games they'll have that (more impressive) record.

Comments on "USA Rosters, Dead MLSers, Teams With Low Scoring Matches"

 

Blogger Allen said ... (10:39 AM, August 13, 2007) : 

Is 4 shots in a home game an all time MLS record for least shots in a game?

 

Blogger scaryice said ... (6:03 AM, August 22, 2007) : 

The lowest for a home team is 7/4/1996, DAL vs DC. Dallas had 3 shots in that game.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070515165923/http://web.mlsnet.com/history/archive_game.jsp?year=96&content=0704dcdal

 

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