Saturday, September 29, 2007

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.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

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.

Monday, September 24, 2007

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?

Friday, September 21, 2007

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)

Thursday, September 20, 2007

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

Monday, September 17, 2007

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

Saturday, September 15, 2007

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

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

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.