How Trades With Draft Picks End Up: 2006 Superdraft Edition

It's always fun to go back and look to see how trades for draft picks work out. Let's take a look at some of those: 2006 Superdraft pick trades A-January 14, 2005: Columbus Crew acquired Colorado's natural 2006 1st Round SuperDraft pick for forward Jeff Cunningham. Ended up being: Kei Kamara for Jeff Cunningham. C-December 30, 2004: Chicago Fire acquires Real Salt Lake's natural 2006 2nd Round SuperDraft pick (14th overall) and RSL's natural 2005 3rd Round SuperDraft pick (25th overall) for forward Dipsy Selolwane and defender Evan Whitfield. Chicago then traded the 2005 25th overall pick to D.C. United - see F below. January 13, 2005: Chicago Fire acquired D.C. United's natural 2006 2nd Round SuperDraft pick (19th overall) for the Fire's first pick in the 3rd Round of the 2005 SuperDraft (25th overall - originally RSL's). January 11, 2006: Kansas City acquires Chicago's 7th pick in the 2nd Round of the 2006 SuperDraft (19th overall) and forward Will John in exchange for M Diego Gutierrez. United surrendered the 2005 25th overall pick to the MetroStars to complete a conditional trade from March 1, 2004, in which United acquired the rights to forward Jaime Moreno from the MetroStars for a United pick in the 2005 SuperDraft which had to be among the top 30 overall. The MetroStars selected midfielder Chris Corcoran with the 2005 25th overall pick. Ended up being: Jeff Curtin & Diego Gutierrez for Dipsy Selolwane, Evan Whitfield, & Will John. This is from the Fire's perspective. KC selected Tyson Wahl with their pick. D-April 26, 2005: FC Dallas acquired Columbus' natural 2006 2nd Round SuperDraft pick (15th overall) for forward Cornell Glen. Ended up being: Justin Moore for Cornell Glen. E- January 14, 2005: Real Salt Lake acquired the MetroStars' natural 2006 2nd Round SuperDraft pick (17th overall) for a Youth International Slot. The slot returns to Real Salt Lake following the 2006 season. February 1, 2005: The MetroStars acquired Real Salt Lake's highest 2006 2nd Round SuperDraft pick and an allocation for defender Eddie Pope. January 19, 2006: MetroStars acquire the 5th pick of the second round in the 2006 SuperDraft (17th overall) from Real Salt Lake. It was the highest pick RSL owned 24 hours from the start of the SuperDraft (see Feb 1 above). Ended up being: Eddie Pope for Josmer Altidore, an allocation, & a youth international slot (for 2006). The Metrostars just got their pick back, actually. Part of the allocation was used in the Razov trade, part for Daniel Garipe. G-June 14, 2005: Chicago Fire acquired San Jose's natural 2006 2nd Round pick (20th overall) for defender Kelly Gray. Ended up being: Brian Plotkin for Kelly Gray. H-March 11, 2005: Los Angeles Galaxy acquired Chivas USA's natural 2006 3rd Round SuperDraft pick (25th overall) for defender Ryan Suarez. Ended up being: Kyle Veris for Ryan Suarez. I-November 22, 2005: Kansas City acquired the MetroStars' natural 2006 3rd Round pick (29th overall) for the rights to defender Taylor Graham. Ended up being: Stephen Shirley for Taylor Graham. J-November 15, 2004: FC Dallas acquired Real Salt Lake's natural 2006 4th Round SuperDraft pick (38th overall) and future considerations for forward Jason Kreis. January 20, 2006: The 2007 SuperDraft natural third round pick was traded from Columbus to FC Dallas for the FC Dallas 2006 first overall fourth round pick (#38). Ended up being: Scott Jones and future considerations (???) for Jason Kreis. Columbus selected Duke Hashimoto, and then traded him and a 2007 first-round supplemental draft pick to RSL for Noah Palmer. RSL then traded that pick to Chivas, who selected Desmond Brooks. Can't find what RSL got for it. K-January 24, 2004: D.C. United acquired Columbus' natural 2006 4th Round SuperDraft pick (39th overall) for forward Devin Barclay. Ended up being: Jeff Carroll for Devin Barclay. L-July 23, 2004: FC Dallas acquired D.C. United's natural 2006 4th Round SuperDraft pick (43rd overall) and 2005 2nd Round Supplemental Draft pick for forward Jason Thompson. FCD selected defender Drew Cavanaugh with the 2005 2nd Round Supplemental pick. Ended up being: Mike Ambersley & Drew Cavanaugh for Jason Thompson. M-January 20, 2005: D.C. United acquired New England's natural 2006 4th Round SuperDraft pick (47th overall) for goalkeeper Doug Warren. Ended up being: Kenny Bertz for Doug Warren. N-December 6, 2005: Houston acquired the MetroStars' natural 2006 4th Round SuperDraft pick (41st overall) for goalkeeper Jon Conway. January 20, 2006: The MetroStars reacquired the 41st overall selection in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft from Houston in exchange for goalkeeper Zach Wells. Ended up being: Jon Conway & Blake Camp for Zach Wells.

MLS Related Political Contributions, Part 2

Found through opensecrets.org. ILLIG, CLIFF LEAWOOD,KS 66211 CERNER/VICE CHAIRMAN Thoughts: Donated money to various Missouri Republicans including Kit Bond, Jim Talent, and John Ashcroft. Also made one donation to Missouri Democratic congressman Ike Skelton. MADAY, GREG SHAWNEE MISSION,KS 66208 PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTOR/EXECUTIVE Thoughts: Made two donations to Jim Talent and one to 2004 Kansas Congressional candidate Kris Kobach, also a member of the GOP. HEINEMAN, ROBB SIOUX FALLS,SD 57101 INVESTMENT BANKER 9/1/1998 $377 Schmidt, Ronald Gene Thoughts: Only donation listed for him. Schmidt was a losing Republican candidate in 1998 against Tom Daschle in South Dakota. CHANG, WILLIAM H ATHERTON,CA 94027 WESTLAKE DEVELOPMENT LLC/CEO Thoughts: He's made a lot of donations to Democrats, including a $2,000 check to DC's Eleanor Holmes Norton like MacFarlene. If you're going to do business in DC, that makes sense. Also given to a few times to Dianne Feinstein, and to Dick Gephardt during his presidential run. WOLFF, LEWIS LOS ANGELES,CA 90025 WOLFF & DINAPOLI/CEO Thoughts: Interestingly, Wolff and Alan Rothenberg were both on the board of directors at 1st Century Bank. Wolff has given more to Democrats, including $8,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign in 2000. However he's given to people on both sides of the aisle. He gave to Bob Dole, Lamar Alexander, and Arlen Spector in the 1990s, and also to both Al Gore and George W. Bush during that campaign. Gave to John Edwards in 2004, and to Chris Dodd recently. KRAFT, ROBERT FOXBORO,MA 02035 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS/OWNER Thoughts: He's given out a lot of money, and apparently does it without taking into account ideology. He gave $20,000 to the Massachusetts GOP a couple years ago, and $100,000 to the DNC in 2000. Recently gave big money to Lieberman. Probably giving out money to local politicians to have an "in" with them. This article say that he belongs to "one of the wealthiest and most influential Conservative synagogues in New England." Jonathan Kraft, meanwhile, recently gave the max to Mitt Romney. Summary In summary, it appears that you can clearly place the owners of several MLS teams on either side of the political spectrum: Anschutz, Kroenke, C.Hunt, and Ongoal on the Republican side, while Andrew Hauptman and DC's ownership group are on the Democratic side. I would say from this info that Lew Wolff, Dave Checketts, and Robert Kraft aren't fully on either side, as their donations have more to do with their location and business dealings it seems. Although I would certainly peg them as leaning one way or another. The owners of Chivas, New York, and Toronto aren't Americans.

MLS Related Political Contributions

We all know about Philip Anschutz' far-right social conservatism, but what about US soccer's other important men? I was bored and searching for various soccer players and personalities on opensecrets.org, and I found the following campaign donations. If you find any more, post 'em here. #1 GARBER, DON P UPPER MONTCLAIR,NJ 07043 BUSINESSMAN/MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER 9/2/2002 $250 Carden, Timothy L Thoughts: Carden was a Democratic candidate for Congress, who lost easily in New Jersey's 7th district. GARBER, DONALD P UPPER MONTCLAIR,NJ 07043 MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER/COMMISSIONER 6/7/2004 $2,000 New Millennium PAC Thoughts: This PAC appears to have been run by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. This was before he was appointed to the Senate; he was still in the House at the time. He represented the 13th district, which includes Harrison, NJ. That explains the donation, then. Garber does live in New Jersey though. The 7th district, mentioned above, does border the 13th for a small section (map). #2, #3 QUINN, DOUGLAS NEW YORK,NY 10017 SOCCER UNITED MARKETING/PRESIDENT 5/17/2006 $500 Zanzi, Italo Andres RAZOV, ANTE LOS ANGELES,CA 90066 PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER 9/25/2006 $750 Zanzi, Italo Andres Thoughts: Razov was the only current player I found (although I didn't search very many, just the older guys). Zanzi was a Republican candidate for Congress who lost easily in New York's 1st district, which represents the Eastern parts of Long Island. Zanzi works for MLB's Hispanic marketing department and also plays for the USA handball team. #4 KLOPAS, FRANK CHICAGO,IL 60647 SOCCER COACH 2/17/2004 $500 Pappas, Maria Thoughts: Pappas was a Democrat who lost the senate primary in 2004. She got 6% and finished fourth to Barack Obama. It appears that she was actually Klopas' lawyer as of 1988, according to this article. They're also both Greek. #5 LOGAN, DOUGLAS G NEW YORK,NY 10024 7/11/2002 $250 The 537 Group Thoughts: This organization is a PAC to help elect Democrats in the Sarasota, Florida area. Im' sure this is the guy because his middle initial is G, and it appears he has business in Sarasota. He made two identical donations. #6 ROTHENBERG, ALAN LOS ANGELES,CA 90071 LATHAM & WATKINS, 1ST CENTURY BANK/EXECUTIVE Thoughts: Rothenberg has too many to list. He's given thousands to Democrats like John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama, and Ron Wyden. He's also given money to Republicans Arlen Specter and Bob Dole. It's important to note that his middle initial is I, because there's also an Alan E. Rothenberg in the search results, who is a different person (although they seem to be close ideologically). #7 CHECKETTS, DAVE NEW CANAAN,CT 06840 NEW YORK KNICKS, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, SPORTS CAPITAL PARTNERS/CHAIRMAN Thoughts: Dave's wrote out 10 checks, the biggest of which is a huge $20,000 one to the DNC (Democratic National Committee). He's also given money to fellow LDS members Mitt Romney (both in 1994 in 2007) and Harry Reid, as well as Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman, Bill Brady, and Charles Schumer. There's also a few for Grethe Peterson, for whom a little research says that she ran for the Senate in Utah in 1994, as a Democrat. #8 HAUPTMAN, ANDREW LOS ANGELES,CA 90024 ANDELL/CHAIRMAN & CEO Thoughts: The Fire's new owner has given the maximum to all three Democratic front runners for the 2008 Presidential Election: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama. He also gave a thousand to Joe Biden. He donated to several Democratic Senate campaigns last year, as well as John Kerry in 2004. #9 HUNT, CLARK DALLAS,TX 75201 HW PARTNERS, SHORELINE MANAGEMENT GROUP L.L.L.P. Thoughts: Also listed as occupation is "UNITED HUNT RESOURCES." I don't know what that is but it appears to be the same guy. He donated money to George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, as well as a couple other Republicans like George Allen and Kit Bond. The big one was a $25,000 check to the RNC (Republican National Committee). #10 LEIWEKE, TIMOTHY LOS ANGELES,CA 90015 AEG/PRESIDENT & CEO, DENVER NUGGETS, STAPLE CENTER/PRESIDENT AND CEO Thoughts: Like Hauptman, he's given the max to several presidential contenders: Clinton, Obama, and John McCain. He's given to a few others, mostly Democrats, but also recently (last year) sent $5,000 to the 21st Century Freedom PAC. That's former GOP New York Governor George Pataki's. #10 KROENKE, STAN COLUMBIA,MO 65203 THE REALTY INC 10/19/2000 $220,000 RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte Thoughts: A handful other checks but this is the big one, wow. He reportedly was convinced by Anschutz to buy into MLS, so him being a Republican is not surprising. #11 MACFARLANE, VICTOR B SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94111 MACFARLANE PARTNERS 11/3/2000 $25,000 DCCC/Non-Federal Account 5 Thoughts: Other than that one, lots of money to the Democratic party as well as H.Clinton, Lieberman, Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC's congressional representative), Barbara Lee (California congresswoman), and something called the Real Estate Roundtable. More tomorrow or later this week?

Estimated 2008 MLS Superdraft Order

EDITED 9/27 - To reflect DC's picks received for Quaranta and Adu. I was looking at the trades that have been made involving next year's draft (this site has a nice list of transactions) and I've come up with a list of picks that have changed hands. Using that and the current standings, we can come up with an order for next year's draft. Things to keep in mind: 1) The final order of the eight playoff teams will be determined by where they are eliminated. For example, last year Houston drafted #13 and runner up New England drafted #12. The two semifinalists were next followed by the four quarterfinalists. DC drafted below Colorado due to regular season performance which is the tiebreaker, same thing for the quarterfinalists. For this ranking, I'm just using the current playoff matchups and assuming the better teams advance. 2) Six picks on this list are conditional. What's interesting is that for a couple of them, they mention a specific round. I'm guessing that means that it's going to be at least that good? I did a little guessing for that part, usually assuming the worst pick would be traded. 3) If a trade is missing from this list, or there are any errors, please post in the comments. Thanks. Estimated 2008 Superdraft Order Round One 1 San Jose Earthquakes 2 Los Angeles Galaxy 3 Real Salt Lake 4 FC Dallas 5 Columbus Crew 6 Colorado Rapids 7 Chicago Fire 8 Kansas City Wizards 9 Red Bull New York 10 FC Dallas 11 Toronto FC 12 New England Revolution 13 Real Salt Lake 14 Toronto FC Round Two 15 San Jose Earthquakes 16 Kansas City Wizards 17 Real Salt Lake 18 Red Bull New York 19 Columbus Crew 20 FC Dallas 21 Chicago Fire 22 Los Angeles Galaxy 23 Los Angeles Galaxy 24 FC Dallas 25 Los Angeles Galaxy 26 DC United 27 Kansas City Wizards 28 DC United Round Three 29 San Jose Earthquakes 30 Los Angeles Galaxy 31 DC United 32 Toronto FC 33 Los Angeles Galaxy 34 DC United 35 Chicago Fire 36 Kansas City Wizards 37 Colorado Rapids 38 Toronto FC 39 Houston Dynamo 40 New England Revolution 41 CD Chivas USA 42 DC United Round Four 43 San Jose Earthquakes 44 Los Angeles Galaxy 45 FC Dallas 46 Red Bull New York 47 Columbus Crew 48 Colorado Rapids 49 Chicago Fire 50 Kansas City Wizards 51 Los Angeles Galaxy 52 FC Dallas 53 Houston Dynamo 54 New England Revolution 55 CD Chivas USA 56 Chicago Fire DAL, RSL, and TOR all have two first-rounders, while CHV, DC, and HOU have none. The Galaxy have 7 of the first 33 picks and should be in a good position to improve their team. Meanwhile, Chivas and Houston both only have two picks, each having only third and fourth rounders. You can't really argue with their decisions though, as they both got quality players for their first and second rounders. Chivas got Paulo Nagamura and Alex Zotinca, while Houston got Richard Mulrooney and Nate Jaqua. It almost seems like teams should ask for more and better draft picks for their players, although a lot of the trades are due to roster and salary cap limits. Total picks & Positions LA 8 picks 2, 22, 23, 25, 30, 33, 44, 51 DAL 6 picks 4, 10, 20, 24, 45, 52 CHI 5 picks 7, 21, 35, 49, 56 DC 5 picks 26, 28, 31, 34, 42 KC 5 picks 8, 16, 27, 36, 50 RSL 3 picks 3, 13, 17 SJ 4 picks 1, 15, 29, 43 TOR 4 picks 11, 14, 32, 38 CLB 3 picks 5, 19, 47 COL 3 picks 6, 37, 48 NE 3 picks 12, 40, 54 NY 3 picks 9, 18, 46 CHV 2 picks 41, 55 HOU 2 picks 39, 53 Trade/Pick Movement List Round 1 DAL has TOR's pick (Mulrooney trade) TOR has HOU's pick (Mulrooney trade) TOR has CHV's pick (Nagamura trade) RSL has 2nd highest of TOR's 3 picks (Cunningham trade) TOR has DC's pick (Dyachenko trade) Round 2 NY has TOR's pick (Wynne trade) LA has HOU's pick (Jaqua trade) KC has LA's pick (Thomas trade, conditional) DAL has COL's pick (Vanney trade) LA has KC's pick (Hartman trade) LA has NY's pick (Wolyniec trade) LA has NE's pick (allocation/1st rounder trade) Round 3 DC has COL's natural pick (Prideaux trade) TOR has COL's pick, presumably one of the two listed next (Casey trade) COL has NY's pick (Freeman trade) COL has DAL's pick (Vanney trade) LA has CLB's pick (Miglioranzi trade, conditional) DC has RSL's pick (Adu trade, see Goff's comment here) Round 4 LA has NY's pick (Quaranta trade, conditional) DAL has RSL's pick (4th rounder trade) NY has TOR's pick (Ibrahim trade) Other CHI has DC's pick (Monteiro trade, conditional) KC has CHV's pick (Zotinca trade, conditional: 2nd or 3rd round) DC has LA's pick (Quaranta trade, conditional: 1st or 2nd round) Supplemental Trades COL has RSL's 1st round pick (Wingert trade) NE has DAL's 1st round pick (salary cap considerations trade) CHI has CLB's 4th round pick (Griffin trade)

2010 Seeding Formula: September 2007 update

The new FIFA rankings are out for September, so it's once again time to look ahead to the next World Cup. This will start to get really exciting with the December edition, after the qualifying draws are done in late November. That's also the first month of the three that get locked into place for the rankings half of the formula. Top 7 teams seeded (South Africa automatically seeded as hosts) Total WC FIFA Change 1 Brazil 59.3 29.3 30 -2.0 1 Germany 59.3 30.3 29 1.0 1 Italy 59.3 27.3 32 2.0 4 Argentina 52.0 21.0 31 0.0 5 Spain 51.3 25.3 26 1.0 6 England 50.3 26.3 24 3.0 6 France 50.3 23.3 27 -2.0 8 Portugal 47.3 22.3 25 2.0 9 Netherlands 42.7 14.7 28 2.0 10 Mexico 39.3 19.3 20 -2.0 11 Croatia 32.0 9.0 23 -4.0 12 USA 29.7 13.7 16 0.0 13 Czech 28.0 6.0 22 -2.0 14 Poland 25.7 8.7 17 N/A 15 Japan 21.3 13.3 8 1.0 16 Romania 21.0 0.0 21 1.0 17 Paraguay 20.7 11.7 9 -1.5 18 South Korea 19.7 15.7 4 0.0 19 Scotland 19.0 0.0 19 N/A 20 Greece 18.0 0.0 18 -1.0 21 Uruguay 17.7 2.7 15 1.0 22 Cote d'Ivoire 17.0 6.0 11 -1.0 23 Nigeria 16.7 2.7 14 1.0 24 Australia 16.3 11.3 5 0.0 25 Tunisia 15.7 8.7 7 -1.0 26 Cameroon 15.0 3.0 12 -5.0 27 Colombia 13.0 0.0 13 2.5 28 Iran 11.3 5.3 6 0.0 29 Saudi Arabia 11.0 8.0 3 0.0 30 Guinea 10.0 0.0 10 N/A 31 South Africa 4.0 3.0 1 0.0 32 Canada 2.0 0.0 2 N/A Canada, Guinea, Poland, and Scotland are in the formula this month in place of Costa Rica, Morocco, Serbia, and Ukraine. For the first time I've added the column showing the change in total points from the previous month. Portugal edges back up a bit this month. For an FAQ on these rankings and links to previous editions, see this link. Probably the biggest thing that can affect this rankings is the UEFA pots for the November draw. For instance, Spain right now would be in the second pot which means that they could easily draw Italy, England, France, or Germany. UEFA qualifying involves lots of good teams and not a lot of games. For more on the pots as they stand now, click here. Mock Draw Pot 1: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain Pot 2: Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland Pot 3: Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Nigeria, Paraguay, Tunisia, Uruguay Pot 4: Australia, Canada, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, USA Group A: South Africa, Portugal, Paraguay, Iran Group B: England, Scotland, Colombia, Mexico Group C: Argentina, Croatia, Cameroon, Korea Republic Group D: Brazil, Romania, Nigeria, USA Group E: Spain, Poland, Guinea, Saudi Arabia Group F: Italy, Czech Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Japan Group G: Germany, Netherlands, Uruguay, Canada Group H: France, Greece, Tunisia, Australia

Two Year Turnover: 2005 to 2007

Three new expansion teams and multiple coaching changes have led to a period of increased transactions in MLS. It seems like some teams have changed almost completely in only a year or two. I thought I would take a look to see how many of the players are still playing for the same team two years later. First, let's take a look at the coaching changes. Only three teams have had the same coach for the past three seasons (including this one): Colorado, Houston, and New England. For the purposes of this post I'm counting San Jose's 2005 season as part of Houston, even though they're different franchises. Aside from the performance related firings, the change of the guard for the USMNT played a role, taking Bob Bradley and Peter Nowak from MLS. Players Left (players who played for that team in 2005, who are still on the current roster) NE 15 DAL 12 CHI 11 HOU 11 DC 10 KC 10 LA 7 NY 6 RSL 6 COL 5 CHV 4 CLB 2 Percentages (1st number is players left on current roster, 2nd number is players used in 2005) CHI 11 27 40.7% CHV 4 26 15.4% CLB 2 29 6.9% COL 5 30 16.7% DAL 12 26 46.2% DC 10 27 37.0% HOU 11 25 44.0% KC 10 25 40.0% LA 7 26 26.9% NE 15 25 60.0% NY 6 24 25.0% RSL 6 32 18.8% Overall, that would be 99/302 or 30.7%. This and the other percentages are not a great statistics for several reasons. First of all, for the 2005 numbers I considered any player who played a game for that team in that year (in all competitions). Some teams used more than the roster limit of 28 players due to cutting guys during the year, or through trades (so a few players were used by more than one team). I compared the 2005 players used to the current 2007 roster. It would be better to use the year end rosters from 2005, but I wouldn't know them without doing some research, and it wouldn't be worth the time to do that. Also, In addition, a couple players left their team then came back (Leitch, Thorrington, Wolyniec). I counted those players. Duncan Oughton of the Crew did not play in 2005 due to injury, so he's not counted. Unaware if there any others in that same situation. So the percentages aren't perfect, but the players left stat speaks for itself. It's certainly interesting to see guys like Clavijo and Schmid completely change their teams with little success, while CHI, DAL, and KC apparently need another year or so for their new coaches to really change things up. Or maybe they just don't need to. It's no shock to see NE at the top of the list. Steve Nicol has something good going there, although they've yet to a win a title to show for it. Two years later, only 4 players from the first starting lineups of CHV and RSL remain. That would be Guzan and Perez for Chivas, Pope and Williams for Real. Mendoza also came off the bench on that day. Those two teams had to change things up after 2005, for better or worse...you know which is which. Here's a list of the players remaining two years later for each team: Note: Everyone knows that Cobi Jones is the only guy still with the same team since 1996. But he's one of only 5 of these 99 players who have played for the same team since the 1990's (with no break). They are Chris Armas (1998), C.J. Brown (1998), Cobi Jones (1996), Ben Olsen (1998), and Bobby Rhine (1999). Olsen played for Nottingham Forest, but he was on loan. CHI 11 Armas, Barrett, Brown, Ji.Curtin, Guerrero, Mapp, Pause, Pickens, Rolfe, Segares, Thorrington CHV 4 Guzan, R.Lopez, Mendoza, Perez CLB 2 Gaudette, Hejduk COL 5 Cooke, Gargan, Kirovski, Mastroeni, Petke DAL 12 Alvarez, Gbandi, Goodson, Mina, Moor, Pitchkolan, Rhine, Ruiz, Sala, Thompson, Wagenfuhr, Yi DC 10 Boswell, B.Carroll, Gomez, Gros, Moreno, Namoff, Olsen, Perkins, Simms, Walker HOU 11 Barrett, Ching, Clark, Cochrane, Davis, De Rosario, Mullan, Onstad, Robinson, Waibel, Wondolowski KC 10 Arnaud, Burciaga, Conrad, Garcia, Jewsbury, Pore, Raybould, Sealy, Victorine, Zavagnin LA 7 Albright, Cronin, Donovan, Gordon, Jones, Roberts, Vagenas NE 15 Dorman, Franchino, Heaps, John, Joseph, Larentowicz, Leonard, Noonan, Parkhurst, Ralston, Reis, Riley, Smith, Twellman, Warren NY 6 Leitch, Magee, Mendes, Parke, Stammler, Wolyniec RSL 6 Besagno, C.Brown, Cutler, Pope, Watson, Williams

Penalties Earned/Conceded 2007

Which players have earned or given away the most penalty kicks for their team during the 2007 season? Unfortunately, MLS doesn't list that on their season stats page any more. They still have the pk list, but without that info like they used to do. So it just took a little research reading the match reports, and here are the two lists: Penalties Earned Adam Cristman 2 Luciano Emilio 2 Kyle Martino 2 Dominic Oduro 2 Carey Talley 2 Davy Arnaud 1 Chad Barrett 1 Kyle Beckerman 1 Colin Clark 1 Kasali Yinka Casal 1 Conor Casey 1 Kenny Cooper 1 Alecko Eskandarian 1 Eddie Gaven 1 Alan Gordon 1 Josh Gros 1 Ivan Guerrero 1 Herculez Gomez 1 Atiba Harris 1 Frankie Hejduk 1 Andy Herron 1 Jaime Moreno 1 Justin Mapp 1 Carlos Marinelli 1 Laurent Merlin 1 Brian Mullan 1 Dean Richards 1 Collin Samuel 1 Abe Thompson 1 John Wolyniec 1 Abel Xavier 1 Handball 7 Last season's leaders drew 2 as well. They were Bornstein, Eskandarian, Harris, Henderson, Pore, and Wolff. Penalties Conceded Jose Burciaga 2 Dwayne De Rosario 2 Nick Garcia 2 Ty Harden 2 Jay Heaps 2 Jean-Marshall Kipre 2 Tyrone Marshall 2 Jeff Parke 2 Chris Armas 1 Jonathan Bornstein 1 Andrew Boyens 1 Jim Brennan 1 Jimmy Conrad 1 Hunter Freeman 1 Chris Gbandi 1 Marcos Gonzalez 1 Josh Gros 1 Ivan Guerrero 1 Diego Gutierrez 1 Jack Jewsbury 1 Ritchie Kotschau 1 Devon McTavish 1 Joey Melo 1 Troy Perkins 1 Matt Pickens 1 James Riley 1 Eddie Robinson 1 Seth Stammler 1 Carey Talley 1 Greg Vanney 1 Lawson Vaughn 1 Kyle Veris 1 Marvell Wynne 1 Alex Yi 1 Alex Zotinca 1 Last year, the leader conceded 3 penalties (Erpen). 5 more players gave up also gave up 2 in 2006 (Denton, T.Marshall, O'Rourke, Perkins, and Wilson).

SI/YI Lists

Updated to reflect changes in the past month. Click here for my explanation of MLS international player rules. All teams as a basic rule have 4 SI slots and 3 YI slots. See the above link for why some teams have more, and my best guess as to the exact number certain teams have. It's not easy to find that stuff out, as well as the status of certain players. (players listed with green cards below may be citizens as well/instead, but the main point is that they count as Americans for the roster) EDITED 9/15: The trade deadline is over, so these should be set in stone for the rest of the season. Movsisyan goes from KC to RSL, and a YI slot is traded in the process through 2009. RSL may or may not have one YI slot open still. The answer may be no, but I'm unaware of where it's gone then. NE also signed another Gambian YI. EDITED 9/24: Movsisyan will no longer count as a YI. RSL apparently only now has 2 YI slots in total, including the one they just traded for, and I'm at a loss to describe where the other one went. EDITED 9/28: I've confirmed that the RSL Jeff Stewart trade that I've previously mentioned was for the a permanent YI slot. So Chivas should have that one, and 4 in total. CHICAGO SI: Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Wilman Conde, Gonzalo Segares, Paulo Wanchope YI: Bruno Menezes, Osei Telesford Green Card: Ivan Guerrero Changes: Thiago waived to make room for Conde, who played for Osorio in Colombia. Willian Oliveira was waived opening up a YI slot. Open Slots: 1 YI CHIVAS USA SI: Claudio Suarez, Shavar Thomas YI: John Cunliffe, Laurent Merlin, Francisco Mendoza, Paulo Nagamura Green Card: Maykel Galindo, Ramon Nunez, Alex Zotinca Changes: N/A. Open Slots: 2 SI COLORADO SI: Terry Cooke, Omar Cummings, Nicolas Hernandez, Daniel Osorno YI: Mehdi Ballouchy, Facundo Erpen, Kosuke Kimura Green Card: Jose Cancela, Bouna Coundoul Changes: N/A Open Slots: N/A COLUMBUS SI: Marcos Gonzalez, Andy Herron, Guillermo Barros Schelotto YI: Ben Hunter, Andrei Pacheco, Ricardo Virtuoso Green Card: Ezra Hendrickson, Kei Kamara, Stefani Miglioranzi, Alejandro Moreno, Duncan Oughton Changes: Signed Pacheco, who is a Trinidad international. Details on the deal here. Open Slots: 1 SI DALLAS SI: Denilson, Pablo Richetti, Carlos Ruiz, Adrian Serioux (Marcelo Saragosa) YI: Dominic Oduro, Ricardinho, Juan Toja (Roberto Mina) Green Card: Sandi Gbandi, Shaka Hislop, Dario Sala Changes: DP and World Cup winner Denilson signed. FCD is taking advantage of the rule allowing teams to replace players who are out for the year, which is why Mina and Saragosa are still officially on the roster. Open Slots: N/A DC UNITED SI: Luciano Emilio, Fred, Christian Gomez YI: Guy-Roland Kpene Green Card: Nicholas Addlery, Stephen deRoux, Rod Dyachenko, Jerson Moneiro, Jaime Moreno Changes: N/A Open Slots: 1 SI, 2 YI HOUSTON SI: Paul Dalglish, Dwayne De Rosario YI: Mpho Moloi Green Card: Joseph Ngwenya, Pat Onstad Changes: N/A Open Slots: 2 SI, 2 YI KANSAS CITY SI: Carlos Marinelli, Scott Sealy YI: Eloy Colombano Green Card: N/A Changes: Argentine Colombano was signed. Put your hands up for Eloy! Open Slots: 2 SI, 1 YI LOS ANGELES SI: David Beckham, Ante Jazic, Carlos Pavon, Abel Xavier YI: Kevin Harmse Green Card: Gavin Glinton Changes: N/A Open Slots: 2 YI NEW ENGLAND SI: Brian Byrne YI: Abdoullie Mansally, Sainey Nyassi Green Card: Andy Dorman, Avery John, Shalrie Joseph, Willie Sims (?), Khano Smith Changes: Arsene Oka released, Gambian youth international Nyassi signed. Open Slots: 3 SI, 1 YI NEW YORK SI: Juan Pablo Angel, Markus Schopp, Ronald Waterreus YI: Francis Doe, Elie Ikangu, Dane Richards Green Card: Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Dave van den Bergh Changes: Signed the Liberian Doe. Open Slots: 1 SI REAL SALT LAKE SI: Fabian Epindola, Jean-Martial Kipre, Matias Mantilla, Javier Morales YI: Atiba Harris Green Card: Andy Williams Changes: Signed trio of Argentines. Kipre is apparently counted as an SI despite being eligible to be a YI. Movsisyan will no longer count as a YI due to being granted "asylum status" here in the USA. Open Slots: 1 YI TORONTO SI: Jeff Cunningham, Danny Dichio, Todd Dunivant, Tyrone Marshall, Ronnie O'Brien, Carl Robinson, Collin Samuel YI: Andrew Boyens, Maurice Edu, Marvell Wynne Green Card: Tyrone Marshall, Ronnie O'Brien (these two hold AMERICAN green cards) Changes: Andy Welsh released. TFC should be able to sign additional SIs in the same way Dallas signed Denilson, if they choose to. That's because Cunningham and O'Brien are out for the year. Open Slots: 3 YI

UEFA National Team Coefficients

These are the latest UEFA coefficients for national teams, which will determine the pots used for drawing the World Cup qualifying groups in November. All the results from today are included. This is determined by the average number of points from games in Euro 2008 qualifying plus World Cup 2006 qualifying. First tiebreaker is PPG from the most recent competition, then average goal differential. Italy is seeded first due to their World Cup championship. I'm assuming that Montenegro will be put in the bottom pot like Kazakhstan was. There will be 9 groups for WCQ, so the first 9 teams will comprise the first pot. There are only a few more games for each team, so there won't be huge changes from here on out. Still, there's plenty of drama for teams on the verge of moving up or down a pot, especially for that top pot. It looks like there are 6 teams fighting for the last 3 spots in the first pot. Personally, I hope that Portugal, Spain, and France don't get there, because having those teams in the second pot could make for an exciting group of death in the WCQ. That would also be good for the USA in 2010 if the good teams don't qualify. Spain and France are up against it, though. The best both could do is 2.181 (48/22). Romania would only need 8 points in their final 4 games to best that. Spain probably has the hardest schedule left; they play Sweden and Denmark. France will likely need to win in Ukraine in the final matchday. Games remaining for those 6 teams: Romania 4 Netherlands (H), Luxembourg (A), Bulgaria (A), Albania (H) Czech 3 Germany (A), Slovakia (H), Cyprus (A) Poland 3 Kazakhstan (H), Belgium (H), Serbia (A) Portugal 4 Azerbaijan (A), Kazakhstan (A), Armenia (H), Finland (H) Spain 3 Denmark (A), Sweden (H), N.Ireland (H) France 3 Faroes (A), Lithuania (H), Ukraine (A) I would project that Romania, Czech, and Portugal would take the three spots. RANKING Overall Games Points 1 Italy 2.263 19 43 2 Germany 2.750 8 22 3 Netherlands 2.600 20 52 4 Croatia 2.474 19 47 5 Sweden 2.389 18 43 6 England 2.368 19 45 7 Romania 2.250 20 45 8 Czech 2.238 21 47 9 Poland 2.143 21 45 10 Portugal 2.136 22 47 11 Spain 2.053 19 39 12 France 2.053 19 39 13 Greece 2.000 20 40 14 Turkey 2.000 20 40 15 Russia 1.952 21 41 16 Ukraine 1.900 20 38 17 Serbia 1.900 20 38 18 Norway 1.842 19 35 19 Israel 1.842 19 35 20 Denmark 1.800 20 36 21 Switzerland 1.800 10 18 22 Scotland 1.789 19 34 23 Bulgaria 1.737 19 33 24 Ireland 1.632 19 31 25 Slovakia 1.571 21 33 26 Bosnia 1.526 19 29 27 Finland 1.522 23 35 28 Austria 1.500 10 15 29 N.Ireland 1.316 19 25 30 Hungary 1.211 19 23 31 Slovenia 1.158 19 22 32 Belgium 1.150 20 23 33 Albania 1.100 20 22 34 Lithuania 1.053 19 20 35 Latvia 1.050 20 21 36 Wales 1.000 18 18 37 Estonia 0.955 22 21 38 Belarus 0.895 19 17 39 Macedonia 0.810 21 17 40 Georgia 0.810 21 17 41 Cyprus 0.778 18 14 42 Armenia 0.750 20 15 43 Iceland 0.632 19 12 44 Liechtenstein 0.571 21 12 45 Moldova 0.526 19 10 46 Azerbaijan 0.444 18 8 47 Malta 0.444 18 8 48 Kazakhstan 0.364 22 8 49 Andorra 0.238 21 5 50 Faroe Islands 0.053 19 1 51 Luxembourg 0.000 21 0 52 San Marino 0.000 19 0 53 Montenegro xxx xxx xxx CURRENT POTS Pot 1: Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Sweden, England, Romania, Czech, Poland Pot 2: Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Norway Pot 3: Israel, Denmark, Switzerland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Ireland, Slovakia, Bosnia, Finland Pot 4: Austria, N.Ireland, Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Wales Pot 5: Estonia, Belarus, Macedonia, Georgia, Cyprus, Armenia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Malta, Kazakhstan, Andorra, Faroe Islands, Luxembourgh, San Marino, Montenegro WCQ MOCK DRAW Group A: England, Portugal, Finland, Lithuania, Belarus, Montenegro Group B: Croatia, Serbia, Denmark, Austria, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands Group C: Sweden, Russia, Ireland, Belgium, Macedonia, Andorra Group D: Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Latvia, Iceland, Luxembourg Group E: Czech, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino Group F: Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Wales, Moldova, Azerbaijan Group G: Italy, Greece, Scotland, N.Ireland, Estonia, Malta Group H: Poland, Turkey, Bosnia, Hungary, Cyprus, Kazakhstan Group I: Germany, France, Slovakia, Albania, Armenia Format: 9 Group winners qualify automatically. Best 8 runners up playoff for remaining 4 spots.

MLS 2007: Records to Watch Out For

A list of things to watch out for down the stretch in MLS: 1) Luciano Emilio has scored 18 goals through 24 games for DC United. He's already among the top ten goalscoring seasons ever. The record (27) seems out of reach, but he easily could be only the 8th man to get to 20 and the first in five years. 2) Juan Pablo Angel needs 2 goals to reach New York's single season record of 16 by Adolfo Valencia, set in 2000. Maykel Galindo is also 2 goals away from Chivas' record of 14, set by Ante Razov last year. Eddie Johnson is 4 goals away from Kansas City's record of 18, set by Preki in 1996. 3) DC United's PPG of 1.92 would place them 5th all time if the season ended today (list of the best seasons). While they're unable to reach the top position, if they get 16 points in their final 6 games they'll be second all time, and they only need 9 points to make the top ten. 4) Houston is currently allowing only 0.80 goals per game, while Chivas USA is allowing 0.95. The record is 0.91, held by 1999 LA & 2000 KC. Either team would need to end up at 27 goals allowed or fewer to break the record. 5) On the flip side, the record for fewest goals scored per game is 0.94, held by 2005 RSL and 2006 CLB. Toronto FC currently is at 0.78, helped by their current curring woes. They'll have to score 11 times in their final 7 games to avoid the record. 6) Chivas USA has a 13 game home unbeaten streak. If the don't lose in their final 5 home games, they'll tie the record of 18 (ongoing streak by SJ). Also, if they won all five of those games, they would have the best home record of all time (currently 2.64 PPG - 2002 SJ). And if they allow 4 goals or fewer in those five games then they'll have the best home defensive record ever as well.