MLS 2008 - Week 5 Goals Video

Music: Sam Sparro - "Black & Gold" Week 5 Results: FC Dallas 0:1 New England Revlution Toronto FC 2:0 Kansas City Wizards Columbus Crew 1:0 Houston Dynamo DC United 4:1 Real Salt Lake Chicago Fire 2:1 Colorado Rapids Los Angeles Galaxy 5:2 CD Chivas USA Red Bull New York 2:0 San Jose Earthquakes Goals: (in order shown) Santino Quaranta Sacha Kljestan Amado Guevara Landon Donovan Jaime Moreno Josmer Altidore Landon Donovan John Thorrington Alejandro Moreno Khano Smith Carey Talley John Thorrington Landon Donovan Mike Magee Alan Gordon Amado Guevara Tom McManus Ante Razov Jaime Moreno Alan Gordon Marcelo Gallardo

Longest Unbeaten & Winless Streaks: Home/Away

See here for part one: overall streaks. Most Home Games Unbeaten - REGULAR SEASON ONLY Games Record First Game Last Game 1 San Jose 18 9-0-9 2004-09-25 2005-10-08 2 Los Angeles 17 11-0-6 2004-07-04 2005-07-16 3 Chivas USA 16 11-0-5 2006-09-09 2007-09-29 3 Colorado 16 10-0-6 2003-05-31 2004-05-22 3 DC United 16 11-0-5 1996-09-17 1997-09-16 6 Chicago 15 13-0-2 2000-05-24 2001-05-26 6 Los Angeles 15 12-0-3 2002-06-08 2003-07-04 6 San Jose 15 9-0-6 1999-08-21 2000-07-04 6 San Jose 15 14-0-1 2001-08-25 2002-09-07 10 DC United 14 9-0-5 1998-03-21 1998-08-22 10 DC United 14 10-0-4 2007-05-03 2007-10-13 10 Los Angeles 14 11-0-3 1997-09-07 1998-07-18 13 Colorado 12 6-0-6 2004-06-19 2005-04-23 13 DC United 12 8-0-4 2005-10-15 2006-08-19 13 New England 12 9-0-3 2004-09-18 2005-07-27 16 Chivas USA 11 6-0-5 2006-04-29 2006-08-26 16 Columbus 11 7-0-4 2001-05-05 2001-09-01 16 Columbus 11 8-0-3 2004-07-03 2005-04-15 16 Dallas 11 8-0-3 2005-09-18 2006-05-20 16 DC United 11 7-0-4 2004-06-12 2005-04-09 16 Miami 11 10-0-1 2000-08-05 2001-06-30 16 New York 11 6-0-5 2005-05-21 2005-09-17 23 Columbus 10 8-0-2 1997-07-20 1998-04-18 23 Houston 10 7-0-3 2007-06-03 2007-09-08 23 New York 10 7-0-3 2000-06-17 2001-04-07 Yes, the Earthquakes' streak was active going into this season, and ended versus the Fire in their home opener. Meanwhile, NY now has a 9 game streak (10 games in all competitions, see the next list). Most Home Games Unbeaten - ALL COMPETITIONS Games Record First Game Last Game 1 Chicago 23 21-0-2 2000-05-24 2001-05-26 2 DC United 20 15-0-5 1997-10-05 1998-08-22 3 DC United 19 15-0-4 1996-09-17 1997-08-19 4 Colorado 18 11-0-7 2003-05-31 2004-05-22 4 Los Angeles 18 12-0-6 2004-07-04 2005-07-16 6 Chivas USA 17 12-0-5 2006-09-09 2007-09-29 7 DC United 16 12-0-4 2007-05-03 2007-10-13 7 San Jose 16 16-0-0 2001-08-25 2002-07-24 9 DC United 15 9-0-6 2004-06-12 2005-04-09 9 Los Angeles 15 11-0-4 1997-09-07 1998-07-18 9 Los Angeles 15 14-0-1 2002-06-08 2003-03-23 9 San Jose 15 9-0-6 1999-08-21 2000-07-04 13 Chicago 14 12-0-2 2003-07-19 2004-03-24 13 Houston 14 9-0-5 2007-06-03 2007-09-08 13 Kansas City 14 11-0-3 2004-08-24 2005-05-28 13 San Jose 14 7-0-7 2004-09-25 2005-08-13 17 Colorado 13 7-0-6 2004-06-19 2005-04-23 17 Columbus 13 9-0-4 2001-05-05 2001-09-01 17 Dallas 13 9-0-4 2005-09-14 2006-05-20 17 DC United 13 10-0-3 2006-04-02 2006-08-23 17 New England 13 10-0-3 2004-09-18 2005-07-27 22 Chivas USA 12 6-0-6 2006-04-29 2006-08-26 22 Miami 12 11-0-1 2000-08-05 2001-06-30 24 Chicago 11 8-0-3 1998-08-15 1999-05-01 24 Houston 11 8-0-3 2006-08-12 2007-04-14 24 Los Angeles 11 7-0-4 1996-09-05 1997-05-25 24 Los Angeles 11 8-0-3 1999-09-29 2000-05-27 24 New York 11 6-0-5 2005-05-21 2005-09-17 29 Chicago 10 9-0-1 2006-08-14 2006-09-27 29 Columbus 10 6-0-4 1999-06-16 1999-09-04 29 Columbus 10 7-0-3 2004-07-28 2005-04-15 29 New York 10 7-0-3 2000-06-17 2000-09-05 29 New York 10 6-0-4 2007-08-12 current 29 San Jose 10 6-0-4 2001-05-05 2001-08-11 29 San Jose 10 5-0-5 2003-10-25 2004-06-26 Several interesting items on this one, as this list differs from the previous one. First of all, in 2001-02 SJ won 16 straight games at home, just incredible. This includes the last 2 games of the 2001 regular season, 2 home playoff games, 2 home games vs Olimpia and Pachuca in the Champions Cup, and the first 10 regular season games of 2002. Indeed, SJ's regular season home record in 2002 of 2.643 PPG (12-1-1) remains the best in league history, despite not going undefeated like their 2005 team (too many draws for that one). The thing that makes the SJ streak so incredible though, is not only the fact that they won all those games in a row but how they did it. The final tally for the 16 games was 43 goals scored and 8 against. Second, the Fire's record streak of 23 is the longest home or away streak in this post, with only 2 draws. It includes 11 games of the 2000 regular season, 4 playoff games, and 4 Open Cup games on their way to that title, as well as 4 games of the 2001 regular season. Most Home Games Winless - REGULAR SEASON ONLY Games Record First Game Last Game 1 New York 11 0-8-3 1999-05-29 1999-09-22 2 Los Angeles 9 0-6-3 2005-10-15 2006-06-24 2 Real Salt Lake 9 0-8-1 2005-08-13 2006-05-06 2 San Jose 9 0-6-3 2000-06-21 2000-08-26 5 Columbus 8 0-4-4 2006-05-20 2006-08-16 5 New England 8 0-6-2 1998-05-16 1998-07-29 5 Tampa Bay 8 0-5-3 2000-08-26 2001-06-06 8 New York 7 0-3-4 2004-10-02 2005-05-21 Most Home Games Winless - ALL COMPETITIONS Games Record First Game Last Game 1 New York 12 0-9-3 1999-05-29 1999-09-22 2 Los Angeles 9 0-5-4 2006-02-23 2006-06-24 2 Real Salt Lake 9 0-8-1 2005-08-13 2006-05-06 2 Tampa Bay 9 0-6-3 2000-08-26 2001-06-06 5 Columbus 8 0-4-4 2006-05-20 2006-08-16 5 New England 8 0-6-2 1998-05-16 1998-07-29 5 New York 8 0-4-4 2004-10-02 2005-05-21 Most Away Games Unbeaten - REGULAR SEASON ONLY Games Record First Game Last Game 1 Columbus 9 2-0-7 2004-07-10 2004-10-16 2 DC United 8 5-0-3 1997-03-29 1997-06-14 2 DC United 8 5-0-3 1999-07-04 1999-09-25 2 DC United 8 4-0-4 2006-05-20 2006-07-22 2 Tampa Bay 8 3-0-5 1999-07-25 1999-10-06 6 DC United 7 4-0-3 2007-08-05 2007-10-05 6 Houston 7 2-0-5 2006-04-29 2006-07-15 6 Los Angeles 7 7-0-0 1997-09-14 1998-05-17 6 New England 7 4-0-3 2002-08-24 2003-05-24 6 New York 7 2-0-5 2005-10-05 2006-06-03 6 San Jose 7 4-0-3 2003-06-14 2003-08-16 Chicago currently sits at 6 games and counting, so they'll join the list if they can get a result at the Revs on Saturday. Most Away Games Unbeaten - ALL COMPETITIONS Games Record First Game Last Game 1 DC United 11 7-0-4 1996-09-24 1997-06-14 2 Columbus 9 2-0-7 2004-07-10 2004-10-16 3 DC United 8 4-0-4 2006-05-20 2006-07-22 3 Los Angeles 8 5-0-3 1998-08-05 1999-04-03 3 Los Angeles 8 4-0-4 1999-10-09 2000-05-17 3 Tampa Bay 8 3-0-5 1999-07-25 1999-10-06 7 Colorado 7 3-0-4 1998-09-16 1999-05-16 7 Houston 7 2-0-5 2006-04-29 2006-07-15 7 Kansas City 7 2-0-5 2000-08-12 2000-09-20 7 Kansas City 7 5-0-2 2004-06-05 2004-07-20 7 New England 7 3-0-4 2004-10-31 2005-06-11 7 San Jose 7 4-0-3 2001-04-28 2001-06-27 7 San Jose 7 7-0-0 2005-07-20 2005-10-15 DC's streak includes both 1996 road playoff games and the Open Cup semifinal at Dallas. Most Away Games Winless - REGULAR SEASON ONLY Games Record First Game Last Game 1 Kansas City 21 0-16-5 1998-05-20 1999-08-08 1 New York 21 0-17-4 1998-06-20 1999-08-28 3 Real Salt Lake 19 0-17-2 2005-04-02 2006-04-22 4 Colorado 18 0-12-6 1996-05-25 1997-06-07 4 DC United 18 0-15-3 2001-07-18 2002-09-07 6 Los Angeles 17 0-10-7 2003-04-05 2004-05-01 7 Chicago 14 0-9-5 2004-05-08 2005-04-09 7 Chivas USA 14 0-11-3 2005-04-09 2005-09-10 7 Los Angeles 14 0-10-4 2006-08-30 2007-09-19 7 Real Salt Lake 14 0-8-6 2006-08-26 2007-08-26 11 Tampa Bay 13 0-8-5 1996-09-18 1997-07-27 12 Columbus 12 0-6-6 1996-05-02 1996-08-14 12 New England 12 0-6-6 1999-06-26 2000-04-08 12 New York 12 0-10-2 1996-09-15 1997-08-17 12 San Jose 12 0-8-4 1999-10-01 2000-07-01 16 Colorado 11 0-8-3 2007-06-02 2007-09-29 16 Columbus 11 0-6-5 2004-10-09 2005-08-14 16 Dallas 11 0-9-2 2000-04-15 2000-07-05 16 Kansas City 11 0-6-5 2001-07-18 2002-06-29 16 Tampa Bay 11 0-11-0 2001-05-05 2001-09-01 21 Colorado 10 0-8-2 2004-08-28 2005-06-11 21 Kansas City 10 0-7-3 2006-06-24 2006-10-14 21 Los Angeles 10 0-7-3 1996-06-30 1996-09-10 21 Los Angeles 10 0-6-4 2004-07-14 2005-05-14 21 Miami 10 0-8-2 1998-03-26 1998-07-18 21 New England 10 0-8-2 1997-07-04 1997-09-16 21 New England 10 0-6-4 2001-05-26 2002-04-06 21 Toronto 10 0-8-2 2007-07-07 2008-04-05 TB's streak ended when they were contracted. Interestingly, the Red Bulls have a current streak of 7 away games winless. So they now are on the verge of joining these lists positively for winning at home and negatively for losing away. Most Away Games Winless - ALL COMPETITIONS Games Record First Game Last Game 1 Kansas City 22 0-17-5 1998-05-20 1999-08-08 1 New York 22 0-18-4 1998-06-20 1999-08-28 3 DC United 20 0-17-3 2001-07-18 2002-09-07 3 Real Salt Lake 20 0-18-2 2005-04-02 2006-04-22 5 Real Salt Lake 15 0-9-6 2006-08-26 2007-08-26 6 Dallas 14 0-12-2 1999-10-23 2000-07-05 6 Los Angeles 14 0-8-6 2002-10-24 2003-08-20 8 Los Angeles 13 0-9-4 2004-07-14 2005-05-14 8 Tampa Bay 13 0-9-4 1996-10-10 1997-07-27 10 Colorado 12 0-9-3 2007-06-02 2007-09-29 10 Columbus 12 0-6-6 1996-05-02 1996-08-14 10 Columbus 12 0-7-5 2004-10-09 2005-08-14 10 New England 12 0-6-6 1999-06-26 2000-04-08 10 New York 12 0-11-1 1996-09-15 1997-07-04 10 Tampa Bay 12 0-12-0 2001-05-05 2001-09-01 16 Colorado 11 0-7-4 1996-05-25 1996-09-05 16 Colorado 11 0-8-3 1997-10-26 1998-07-19 16 Colorado 11 0-9-2 2004-08-28 2005-06-11 16 Kansas City 11 0-8-3 2006-06-24 2006-10-14 16 New England 11 0-7-4 2001-05-26 2002-04-06 21 Colorado 10 0-6-4 2003-09-18 2004-06-12 21 DC United 10 0-7-3 2004-06-05 2004-09-25 21 Los Angeles 10 0-7-3 1996-06-30 1996-09-10 21 Los Angeles 10 0-7-3 1996-09-26 1997-06-28 21 Miami 10 0-8-2 1998-03-26 1998-07-18 21 Miami 10 0-8-2 1999-08-01 2000-04-29 21 New England 10 0-8-2 1997-07-04 1997-09-16 21 New York 10 0-8-2 2000-09-26 2001-06-30 21 San Jose 10 0-7-3 1999-10-01 2000-06-10 21 Toronto 10 0-8-2 2007-07-07 2008-04-05 Again, KC and NY tie for the lead, losing an Open Cup match and a playoff match respectively in the midst of their regular season ineptitude. Currently, DC and NY sport 8 game streaks.

MLS 2008 - Week 4 Goals Video

Music: Lupe Fiasco - "Hip Hop Saved My Life" Week 4 Results: DC United 1:2 Columbus Crew Toronto FC 1:0 Real Salt Lake Red Bull New York 1:1 New England Revlution Colorado Rapids 0:2 San Jose Earthquakes Los Angeles Galaxy 2:2 Houston Dynamo Chicago Fire 0:1 Kansas City Wizards CD Chivas USA 0:2 FC Dallas Goals: (in order shown) Josmer Altidore Landon Donovan Jeff Larentowicz Kei Kamara Franco Caraccio Laurent Robert Own Goal (Gonzalo Peralta) Kenny Cooper Jack Jewsbury Landon Donovan Abe Thompson Bryan Namoff Ronnie O'Brien Brad Davis Alejandro Moreno

OTFATT 2008: Update #1

It's back! OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In this post and subsequent updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). This feat has been accomplished a total of 29 times in 12 seasons. Click here for the full list of survivors. It's interesting to follow because the players who do it have to be good, but not so good that they miss time with the national team. They also have to be fit and injury free, as well as disciplined to avoid suspensions. Now you would think that goalkeepers would make up the majority of the men who have done this, but that's not the case. Only 13/29 were keepers. There are 14 MLS teams, so multiply that by 11 and we have 154 potential candidates. After three weekends, that's already been narrowed to 68. So who's the most likely to survive? Number one on the list has to be Revolution GK Matt Reis. He hasn't missed a minute over the past two seasons, and has just set an MLS record for most consecutive minutes played. Keepers Bouna Coundoul and Kevin Hartman are very good candidates once again this year; Bouna was one of the final guys eliminated while Hartman was one of three to achieve the goal. They have weak backups which helps. Among field players, Chris Klein was the only guy to make it last year and is always a good bet, but with Ruud Gullit as head coach I wouldn't feel confident about his chances. And it's always hard to do it two years straight. Nick Garcia and Jay Heaps are other defenders likely to make a run. Also, I want to point out that MLSnet is back to their old tricks. The stats on the site show that apparently Rafael Gomes came on for Jose Burciaga during the last minute of one of the Rapids' games, and the process of elimination puts that substitution against the Wizards. But that sub is not found in any of the lineups listed on the matchtracker or the game report, and you would have to look deep into the game guide to find a mention of his debut. They have a history of missing subs in the posted lineups (including 4 last year). Remaining Candidates (68) 4 CHI Blanco, Busch, Pause, Segares 6 CHV Bornstein, Curtin, Guzan, Marsch, Nagamura, Thomas 6 CLB Carroll, Hejduk, Hesmer, Marshall, Moreno, O'Rourke 4 COL Cooke, Coundoul, Erpen, Keel 4 DAL Davino, Sala, Serioux, Wagner 4 DC McTavish, Namoff, Peralta, Simms 4 HOU Boswell, De Rosario, Mulrooney, Robinson 2 KC Conrad, Hartman 6 LA Cronin, Beckham, Donovan, Klein, Pires, Vanney 4 NE Heaps, Joseph, Parkhurst, Reis 6 NY Conway, Goldthwaite, Leitch, Sassano, Stammler, van den Bergh 5 RSL Beckerman, Borchers, Mantilla, Rimando, Wingert 7 SJ Cannon, Cochrane, Corrales, Garcia, Kamara, O'Brien, Riley 6 TOR Brennan, Edu, Marshall, Robinson, Velez, Wynne

MLS 2008 - Week 3 Goals Video

Music: Groove Armada - "The Girls Say" Week 3 Results: Kansas City Wizards 1:3 New England Revlution San Jose Earthquakes 0:1 Chicago Fire Columbus Crew 4:3 CD Chivas USA New England Revolution 0:1 Colorado Rapids Kansas City Wizards 0:0 Houston Dynamo FC Dallas 2:0 Red Bull New York Real Salt Lake 4:0 DC United Los Angeles Galaxy 2:3 Toronto FC Goals: (in order shown) Landon Donovan Alejandro Moreno Kyle Beckerman Sacha Kljestan Arturo Alvarez Chad Barrett Robbie Rogers Paulo Nagamura Nick LaBrocca Guillermo Barros Schelotto Fabian Espindola Sainey Nyassi Danny Dichio Kenny Cooper Jesse Marsch Kenny Mansally Jack Jewsbury Robbie Rogers Jeff Cunningham Robbie Findley own goal (Jack Jewsbury) Kyle Beckerman Landon Donovan Jarrod Smith

Various Notes

1) My thoughts on how the 35 CONCACAF teams rank, in tier form. I've thought about ranking them 1-35 for a blog post, but that seems very hard to do considering that you never see them play. 2) On the subject of MLS rookies who played in their team's opening game, I now have the data for all years. However, I don't want to post it because there's a few cases in the early years where I'm not sure if a player is technically a rookie. But I can say for this year 15 rookies saw action in their first possible game: Allen (LA), Borman (NY), Braun (CHV), Cameron (HOU), Dube (NE), Edwards (TOR), Gavin (LA), Iro (CLB), King (CHI), Leathers (KC), McDonald (LA), O'Brien (COL), Salinas (SJ), Sassano (NY), and Stratford (DC). The six names in bold started. What's interesting is if you look back over the past 12 years, 9/12 rookie of the year winners played on opening day. The only ones who didn't were Carlos Bocanegra, Rodrigo Faria, and Maurice Edu (injured). Also, 23/36 nominees played on opening day as well. So the odds are good that the winner will come from that group of 15 above. 3) I had forgotten all about San Jose's 14 game regular season unbeaten streak entering the season. The Earthquakes were only 5 games away from the record, not that I ever expected them to break it. 4) Sounders FC is the nickname in Seattle. I'm fine with that, although I don't like the logo. Messy looking with all the overlapping stuff. So I guess we can now add a few more entires to the list of nicknames reportedly considered by MLS teams but ultimately dropped: CHI-Rhythm CLB-Eclipse DAL-Express, Fury DC-Force, Justice, Spies KC-Bandits, Express, Outlaws LA-Beat, Groove, Traffic NY-Empire RSL-Alliance, Glory, Highlanders, Union SEA-Alliance, Republic God, Nike sucked. Steve Pastorino has a great article on selecting names here.

Home vs Away PPG by Club

Previously: Home Field Advantage in MLS Somebody on Bigsoccer was interested in the team by team breakdown of the home field advantage numbers in the previous post. I don't think you can use these numbers in the same way as the overall one, but it's definitely interesting nonetheless. The Rapids being so high won't surprise anyone. Includes all regular season games from 1996-2007, shootouts counted as draws. Home Away Diff 1 Miami 1.774 0.867 0.908 2 Colorado 1.745 0.875 0.870 3 Kansas City 1.755 0.951 0.804 4 Los Angeles 1.946 1.174 0.772 5 Toronto 1.200 0.467 0.733 6 Chicago 1.922 1.217 0.704 7 Chivas USA 1.553 0.872 0.681 8 DC United 1.869 1.189 0.680 9 Dallas 1.723 1.054 0.668 10 Real Salt Lake 1.234 0.596 0.638 11 New England 1.625 1.016 0.609 12 Columbus 1.641 1.076 0.565 13 San Jose 1.680 1.137 0.542 14 Houston 1.839 1.323 0.516 15 New York 1.554 1.049 0.505 16 Tampa Bay 1.596 1.097 0.499

MLS 2008 - Week 2 Goals Video

Music: ATB - "Justify" Week 2 Results: Chicago Fire 4:0 New England Revlution Los Angeles Galaxy 2:0 San Jose Earthquakes Kansas City Wizards 3:2 Colorado Rapids DC United 4:1 Toronto FC Red Bull New York 2:0 Columbus Crew CD Chivas USA 3:1 Real Salt Lake Houston Dynamo 3:3 FC Dallas Goals: (in order shown) Landon Donovan Tomasz Frankowski Sacha Kljestan Arturo Alvarez Marcelo Gallardo Cuauhtemoc Blanco David Beckham Atiba Harris Dave van den Bergh Kenny Deuchar Maurice Edu Jaime Moreno own goal (Drew Moor) Santino Quaranta Jimmy Conrad Tomasz Frankowski Geoff Cameron Luciano Emilio Kenny Cooper Chad Barrett Kevin Goldthwaite Franco Caraccio Scott Sealy Jose Burciaga Kenny Cooper John DiRaimondo Jimmy Conrad Alecko Eskandarian

The Best Possible MLS Team?

Now that the salary info is out for 2008, as usual everyone's talking about who is underpaid and overpaid. I thought it would be fun to see what the best possible MLS team would look like, and I've done that below. Of course, I'm following all of the MLS rules: $2.3 million salary cap for the 18 senior roster players (supposedly, may actually be closer to 2.2), 10 developmental players and a max of 8 international players. I believe that the first column of salary numbers is what counts against the cap, btw. I also relied on MLSnet for the Generation Adidas statuses. Here's what I came up with: Players in italics are on the developmental roster and don't count against the cap. Goalkeepers COL Bouna Coundoul $33,000.00 CHV Brad Guzan $88,974.38 RSL Chris Seitz $70,000.00 Guzan is a bargain for possibly the league's top starting keeper. The backup keeper position is one where I definitely was going to have a minimum salary, especially when a GA keeper like Seitz doesn't count against the cap. Coundoul's a no-brainer pick for that position. Defenders RSL Tony Beltran $55,000.00 CHV Jonathan Bornstein $77,500.00 HOU Bobby Boswell $33,000.00 HOU Patrick Ianni $75,000.00 DC Devon McTavish $33,000.00 NY Jeff Parke $57,487.50 NE Michael Parkhurst $135,382.50 CHI Bakary Soumare $70,000.00 DAL Blake Wagner $36,300.00 HOU Craig Waibel $70,008.00 With this group, you could have a starting back four of Bornstein-Parkhurst-Boswell-Waibel. Boswell's another easy pick with his minimum salary, while McTavish is useful as a cheap player who can play multiple positions. I think the lack of a quality backup central defender is probably the biggest weakness on this roster, but I felt that the money was better spent elsewhere. Parke's decent though. The backup LB and RB are two more developmental roster guys, Wagner and Beltran. Midfielders LA David Beckham $5,500,000.08 HOU Brad Davis $126,000.00 HOU Dwayne De Rosario $324,999.96 HOU Stuart Holden $33,075.00 NE Shalrie Joseph $300,000.00 NE Jeff Larentowicz $33,000.00 CLB Adam Moffat $17,700.00 NE Sainey Nyassi $17,700.00 LA Josh Tudela $17,700.00 This is where over half my money was spent, and I get a lineup of Joseph-Davis-Beckham-De Rosario. Beckham is a DP and only would count for 400k against the cap. Backups are minimum salary guys, while the developmental players have shown a lot of promise. No real backup for De Rosario, but you can't expect to have two great playmakers. Forwards NY Josmer Altidore $105,000.00 NY Juan Pablo Angel $1,500,000.00 NE Adam Cristman $33,000.00 CHV Maykel Galindo $79,750.00 SJ Kei Kamara $47,850.00 CHI Patrick Nyarko $55,000.00 As a second DP, Angel would only count for 325k against the cap. I decided to go with Angel over Blanco for my second DP because I think the difference between Angel and Emilio or Twellman is greater than the difference between Blanco and De Rosario. DeRo's a proven winner in this league, as well. There was also the possibility of getting both of those two and taking Ralston instead of Beckham, but Becks is probably the most talented player in the league and I couldnt pass on him. On to the other forwards: Galindo is an obvious choice, while I picked Cristman over Scott Sealy. I don't think that the developmental forwards are as good as the defenders and midfielders, but I did end up selecting two of them. Kamara is the most obvious one, and then I'm left with inexperienced guys. Because of that I originally had only 5 forwards, but I decided that I had enough cover elsewhere and 5 is not very many for a full roster. So I dropped Quavas Kirk and put Nyarko on there instead. Thoughts I ended up with using $2,288,177.34 in salaries, leaving only a little more than $11,000 left over. As you can see, even when doing this you still end up with some untested guys on the end of the bench. My strategy was to pick the best few players in the league, and then fill in the rest of the roster with mostly bargains. So I have four guys over 300k mixed with six minimum salary players. In an exercise like this, the minimum salary guys are good enough to be above-average starters if there were injuries; you can't count on that in real life. I passed on a lot of young cheap talent like Maurice Edu or Sacha Kljestan because with the big names, their 75-100k salaries wouldn't fit. With 18 senior roster players, the average salary is around 127k. For every 300k player, you need to lower every other player's salary by over 10k. So after choosing the big four for my team, the rest had to average about 67k to fit under the cap. Overall, I ended up using 5.30% of the cap on goalkeepers, 17.67% on defenders, 52.92% on midfielders, and 23.60% on forwards. The breakdown of the 28 players' teams is as follows: 6-HOU, 5-NE, 3-CHV, 3-NY, 2-CHI, 2-LA, 2-RSL, 1-CLB, 1-COL, 1-DAL, 1-DC, 1-SJ, and none from Kansas City or Toronto. Kind of surprising to have only one DC player, but they have a lot of newcomers who aren't sure things and older players who are injury prone. I only used 5/8 international slots (Beckham, Moffat, Nyassi, Angel, Nyarko), though six players do have green cards.

Top 25 Highest Paid Players in MLS

The full list of salaries is here (pdf), on the MLS players union web site. I got the link from Goff's blog. As he mentions, there are few players missing like Claudio Lopez, who would certainly be on this list. I imported the data into an excel file so everything can easily be sorted. Download it here! 1 Beckham, David LA $6,500,000 2 Blanco, Cuauhtemoc CHI $2,666,778 3 Gallardo, Marcelo DC $1,874,006 4 Angel, Juan Pablo NY $1,593,750 5 Reyna, Claudio NY $1,265,000 6 Donovan, Landon LA $900,000 7 Ruiz, Carlos LA $460,000 8 Gomez, Christian COL $430,000 9 Schelotto, G.B. CLB $425,000 10 Davino, Dulio DAL $400,000 11 Twellman, Taylor NE $350,008 12 Robinson, Carl TOR $330,000 13 Joseph, Shalrie NE $325,000 13 De Rosario, Dwayne HOU $325,000 15 Mastroeni, Pablo COL $318,000 16 Emilio, Luciano DC $313,125 17 Moreno, Jaime DC $275,000 18 van den Bergh, David NY $274,583 19 O'Brien, Ronnie SJ $258,750 19 Razov, Ante CHV $258,750 21 Cunningham, Jeff TOR $257,500 22 Martinez, Gonzalo DC $244,750 23 Fred DC $242,000 24 Morales, Javier RSL $240,000 25 Ching, Brian HOU $231,000 Team Salaries 1 Los Angeles Galaxy $7,975,916.58 $9,143,374.87 2 Chicago Fire $4,055,720.13 $4,408,257.13 3 DC United $3,663,570.00 $4,178,701.00 4 Red Bull New York $3,743,277.50 $4,168,443.83 5 Colorado Rapids $2,419,345.50 $2,603,345.50 6 Real Salt Lake $2,212,075.00 $2,440,037.50 7 Houston Dynamo $2,274,606.96 $2,327,419.46 8 FC Dallas $2,017,293.00 $2,269,255.90 9 Toronto FC $1,873,837.50 $2,173,775.00 10 New England Revolution $1,958,245.50 $2,087,495.50 11 Columbus Crew $1,960,072.77 $2,072,822.77 12 CD Chivas USA $1,854,815.88 $1,946,482.13 13 Kansas City Wizards $1,531,453.79 $1,678,578.79 14 San Jose Earthquakes $1,487,528.18 $1,557,653.18