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