MLS Reserve Division Leading Scorers

The reserve division stats on MLSnet are incomplete for both 2005 and 2007; the pdf's for those seasons only go up to a certain point in the season. The former is only missing the final four games, but the latter is missing a huge chunk of the season, so I had to go through each match report and add up things by hand. Why is this important? Because the leading goalscorers listed on the pages for each season are therefore incorrect. I was looking up to see who won the golden boot each year, but I couldn't find it. Heh, I feel like I'm on an edition of Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage. Bottom line America: Major League Soccer should update the reserve division portion of their web site to include pdf's with full data for both the 2005 and 2007 seasons, so we can see who the leading goalscorers are without having to add up the stats ourselves. Here you go. Be sure to note Chris Wondolowski's dominance, leading the league the past two years and finishing second in 2005. That's a total of 29 goals in 3 years. Ryan Pore is another reserve division god, finishing in the top ten in all 3 seasons as well. It appears he's near the top again this season too. 2005 9 Jamil Walker DC 8 Chad Barrett CHI 8 Dante Washington RSL 8 Chris Wondolowski SJ 7 Connally Edozien NE 6 Sasha Gotsmanov COL 6 Ryan Pore KC 6 Jamal Sutton CLB 5 Mamba Chisoni LA 5 Luchi Gonzalez COL 5 Wolde Harris COL 5 Abe Thompson DAL 2006 13 Chris Wondolowski HOU 7 Ryan Pore KC 5 Herculez Gomez LA 5 Arturo Alvarez DAL 5 Chris Brown RSL 5 Calen Carr CHI 5 Thiago Martins COL 5 Yura Movsisyan KC 4 Matt Nickell DC 4 Dominic Oduro DAL 4 Melvin Tarley COL 4 Blake Camp NY 4 Lucio Filomeno DC 4 Floyd Franks CHI 2007 8 Anthony Hamilton CHV 8 Chris Wondolowski HOU 7 Ryan Pore KC 5 Jerrod Laventure NY 4 Kyle Brown RSL 4 Jose Cancela COL 4 Mike Caso CLB/LA 4 Floyd Franks CHI 4 Gavin Glinton LA 4 Kei Kamara CLB 4 Andrea Lombardo TOR 4 Yura Movsisyan KC 4 Dominic Oduro DAL 4 Matt Taylor CHV 4 Jamie Watson RSL Note: If you judge this the same way as the normal MLS Golden Boot, then Wondolowski is the winner because he had 1 assist vs 0 by Hamilton.

MLS: Remaining Strength of Schedule

There are only 9 games left for each team in the regular season. Since each team (finally) has the same number of games played, it makes it easy to compare the schedules for all 14 teams. Going by the total number of points, here is the remaining strength of schedule for each team: 1 New York 279 2 Columbus 278 3 Los Angeles 275 4 Colorado 263 5 DC United 259 5 Kansas City 259 7 Chicago 257 7 Dallas 257 7 Toronto 257 10 New England 256 11 Chivas USA 251 12 San Jose 250 13 Real Salt Lake 243 14 Houston 234 New York, Columbus, and Los Angeles face the toughest schedules, while Houston has the easiest followed by RSL. The Dynamo only play 2/9 more games versus teams currently in the playoff positions, whereas the top three most difficult schedules have 7/9 games against such teams. Obviously, where the games take place is also important, and I didn't take that into account here. 13 of 14 teams have 4-5 home games remaining out of the last 9. The exception is SJ, which has 6 home games left out and only three away. So it would not be a surprise to see them do well.

OTFATT 2008: Update #4

Previous Updates #1 4/14 68 players remaining #2 5/18 40 players remaining #3 6/8 25 players remaining 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. With a third of the season to go, we're down to 13 names (7 keepers, 6 field players). Since the last update, two more teams (CHV & TOR) have lost their last player. Probably the biggest shock was seeing Matt Reis getting subbed out this past weekend. Reis had played every single minute of every single MLS regular season match since August 27, 2005 (which was when he got red carded the previous match vs the Rapids). He had played 7,795 minutes in a row (MLSnet link) which was an MLS record. The Olympics also had an effect, causing Michael Parkhurst and Marvell Wynne to fall off. But the big thing to watch out for now is discipline. For many of the remaining players, that's the biggest obstacle from playing every minute. For instance, I have a hard time believing that Bobby Boswell will make it the rest of the season without getting another yellow. The most obvious candidates to make it are Jon Busch, Joe Cannon, Jon Conway, and Kevin Hartman. They all have backups who have yet to play an MLS match. Among field players, I would tab Nat Borchers as the favorite. It really seems like the record of 5 players making it in a single year could be matched or broken this season. Remaining Candidates (13) CHI Busch CLB Carroll, Hesmer DC Simms (2) HOU Boswell (1) KC Conrad (2), Hartman LA Cronin NE Heaps (2) NY Conway RSL Borchers, Rimando SJ Cannon Order of teams being totally wiped out, with last surviving player: 1. DAL-Dario Sala (6/1) 2. COL-Facundo Erpen (6/7) 3. CHV-Brad Guzan (6/14) 4. TOR-Marvell Wynne (7/28)

Fernando Clavijo's coaching peers

Goff reported that he was given the vote of confidence for the rest of the season yesterday, though now it's edited to quote a Rapids official saying that actually didn't happen. I'm not surprised that there's no move to fire him. If they didn't do it after last year, why do it now? His contract is up after this season, and hopefully then the Rapids will make a better decision. Because this is a man who absolutely does not deserve to stay in the job he has. Winning two playoff series on penalty shootouts does not make you a good coach. Making to MLS' final four twice is not a big accomplishment, especially since even then no one expected the Rapids to win it all. The fact is, Fernando Clavijo is now in his 7th season as an MLS coach and he has yet to have a winning record (more wins than losses). Just look: W L D 2000 NE Clavijo, Fernando 13 13 6 2001 NE Clavijo, Fernando 7 14 6 2002 NE Clavijo, Fernando 2 4 1 2005 COL Clavijo, Fernando 13 13 6 2006 COL Clavijo, Fernando 11 13 8 2007 COL Clavijo, Fernando 9 13 8 2008 COL Clavijo, Fernando 6 10 3 Overall record: 61-80-38 (1.23 PPG) All Competitions: 71-90-41 (1.26 PPG) I was thinking about this earlier: How many coaches in the four major sports here in the US have coached for 7 seasons without a winning record? I used the Reference family of sites to figure it out. The answer? Only 12 men can say they also were that bad, and the overall record is 9 seasons. It includes non-full seasons, such as interim stints. If the Rapids don't start winning, at the end of this year only 4 men will be ahead of Clavijo. Sports Coaches with most years as head coach without a winning record: MLB 9-Rene Lachemann (1981-84, 1993-96, 2002) 9-Jimmie Wilson (1934-38, 1941-44) 7-Harry Craft (1957-59, 1961-64) 7-Preston Gomez (1969-72, 1974-75, 1980) Amusingly enough, all four MLB guys managed the Chicago Cubs at one point. NBA 7-Dick McGuire (1959-63, 1965-68) NFL 9-Marion Campbell (1974-76, 1983-85, 1987-89) 7-Dan Henning (1983-86, 1989-91) 7-Harland Svare (1962-65, 1971-73) NHL 8-Paul Holmgren (1988-96) 7-Ron Low (1994-02) 7-Red Sullivan (1962-69, 1974-75) 7-Tom Watt (1981-87, 1990-92)

MLS Per Game Stats

For all 135 previous MLS team seasons. They are from left to right: Shots, shots on goal, fouls committed, fouls suffered, offsides, corner kicks, yellow cards, and red cards. The last five years for reds aren't listed with the others on MLSnet, so I'll have to go through and figure them out at a later time. Now the next step is to see how these relate to PPG, GF, and GA... SHT SOG FC FS OF CK YC RC 1996 Colorado 13.6 6.3 12.3 12.2 3.3 6.0 1.5 0.1 1996 Columbus 12.7 6.3 13.0 16.3 3.1 5.3 1.3 0.2 1996 Dallas 12.8 7.0 13.3 14.8 3.1 4.8 1.7 0.1 1996 DC United 13.6 7.0 13.0 12.6 2.8 6.1 1.5 0.1 1996 Kansas City 16.1 7.8 12.9 12.6 2.9 4.5 1.1 0.1 1996 Los Angeles 13.8 6.9 14.4 13.0 2.9 5.8 1.8 0.0 1996 New England 12.0 5.4 16.1 13.6 3.7 4.1 2.0 0.2 1996 New York 13.1 6.4 13.4 14.1 3.7 5.4 1.9 0.1 1996 San Jose 13.1 6.6 16.1 15.2 4.3 5.6 1.8 0.1 1996 Tampa Bay 11.8 5.8 14.0 12.8 4.6 4.4 1.8 0.1 1997 Colorado 13.5 5.8 14.8 13.3 3.9 5.3 1.3 0.1 1997 Columbus 14.1 5.6 13.7 15.1 3.4 5.2 1.0 0.1 1997 Dallas 13.5 7.2 14.9 14.5 3.9 4.8 1.4 0.1 1997 DC United 13.5 7.5 12.4 13.2 4.7 5.8 1.1 0.1 1997 Kansas City 12.8 6.9 15.0 12.7 3.7 4.9 1.5 0.1 1997 Los Angeles 15.0 7.3 14.5 14.5 3.9 5.1 1.6 0.2 1997 New England 12.5 6.1 16.7 14.2 3.3 5.6 1.5 0.1 1997 New York 12.1 5.5 13.8 15.7 3.3 3.8 1.6 0.1 1997 San Jose 13.2 6.5 14.3 14.5 4.5 5.4 1.3 0.1 1997 Tampa Bay 12.5 6.0 13.0 15.3 4.3 4.1 2.0 0.2 1998 Chicago 15.2 6.8 13.6 14.4 3.2 5.5 1.3 0.1 1998 Colorado 15.8 7.0 12.4 13.0 3.6 4.8 1.8 0.2 1998 Columbus 15.8 6.2 14.3 15.7 3.1 5.9 1.3 0.1 1998 Dallas 13.5 5.9 13.5 12.0 2.6 5.7 2.0 0.2 1998 DC United 15.8 7.8 14.2 12.9 3.1 7.8 1.7 0.2 1998 Kansas City 13.8 6.3 14.6 13.6 2.8 5.2 1.1 0.2 1998 Los Angeles 13.8 7.2 14.5 11.8 3.3 5.0 1.5 0.2 1998 Miami 12.0 5.5 14.3 14.0 3.7 5.6 2.1 0.2 1998 New England 14.6 6.4 16.3 11.5 3.5 5.8 1.6 0.2 1998 New York 15.5 6.7 14.2 13.9 3.0 4.7 1.8 0.3 1998 San Jose 13.8 6.6 15.0 14.6 3.7 6.1 1.6 0.1 1998 Tampa Bay 13.6 5.4 12.0 12.9 4.2 4.9 1.6 0.1 1999 Chicago 14.0 6.3 15.5 14.1 3.1 5.6 1.7 0.2 1999 Colorado 12.4 4.6 15.4 14.3 3.5 4.9 1.4 0.1 1999 Columbus 14.2 6.2 14.8 14.5 3.5 5.0 1.3 0.0 1999 Dallas 12.9 6.4 14.0 13.9 3.6 5.0 1.4 0.2 1999 DC United 13.8 6.4 15.8 15.0 2.8 6.7 1.9 0.3 1999 Kansas City 13.7 5.3 13.1 13.4 2.3 5.3 1.5 0.1 1999 Los Angeles 13.3 5.8 14.3 13.3 3.6 5.6 1.7 0.1 1999 Miami 13.0 5.7 15.1 14.0 3.5 6.3 1.8 0.2 1999 New England 12.3 6.1 15.8 13.4 3.0 5.3 1.8 0.2 1999 New York 16.3 6.0 12.4 13.1 3.0 6.5 1.5 0.2 1999 San Jose 11.6 5.5 15.6 12.8 2.6 4.3 1.8 0.1 1999 Tampa Bay 14.1 5.8 11.8 13.4 2.6 4.9 1.4 0.2 2000 Chicago 15.3 7.2 17.0 17.6 2.3 5.7 2.2 0.2 2000 Colorado 15.1 6.1 18.2 16.4 3.6 5.4 1.8 0.1 2000 Columbus 13.4 5.8 15.6 17.0 2.4 5.5 2.0 0.1 2000 Dallas 12.3 6.2 18.4 16.3 3.2 4.5 1.9 0.1 2000 DC United 14.8 6.7 19.3 16.6 3.5 8.2 2.3 0.1 2000 Kansas City 14.1 5.5 15.7 16.9 3.0 4.7 1.7 0.1 2000 Los Angeles 14.8 6.3 16.1 15.8 3.5 5.8 1.7 0.1 2000 Miami 14.9 6.4 16.1 16.9 4.1 6.1 1.9 0.3 2000 New England 13.8 6.6 17.8 16.5 3.4 5.4 2.2 0.1 2000 New York 13.7 6.5 18.5 16.3 3.4 4.3 2.2 0.3 2000 San Jose 12.9 6.0 16.5 14.8 3.5 5.3 1.8 0.2 2000 Tampa Bay 14.3 6.3 13.6 13.9 4.1 4.6 1.6 0.1 2001 Chicago 14.0 7.0 17.0 18.1 3.4 5.7 2.0 0.2 2001 Colorado 13.6 6.0 16.4 15.6 3.4 5.0 1.7 0.1 2001 Columbus 12.7 5.8 14.4 16.1 2.8 4.7 1.5 0.2 2001 Dallas 15.7 7.1 17.9 12.8 3.3 5.7 2.2 0.1 2001 DC United 14.9 8.3 19.6 17.7 3.0 6.1 2.5 0.1 2001 Kansas City 13.0 5.4 15.7 15.5 3.0 5.6 1.7 0.1 2001 Los Angeles 15.5 7.7 16.6 15.5 3.8 6.7 1.9 0.0 2001 Miami 15.0 7.0 15.0 15.3 3.2 5.5 2.3 0.2 2001 New England 12.6 5.4 17.9 16.9 3.3 4.4 2.2 0.1 2001 New York 13.9 6.1 17.9 16.8 2.8 4.9 2.3 0.2 2001 San Jose 14.2 7.5 15.3 14.8 3.5 4.6 1.4 0.1 2001 Tampa Bay 12.9 5.3 14.3 13.4 3.7 5.1 2.1 0.2 2002 Chicago 13.6 5.9 16.9 17.1 2.6 5.3 2.1 0.1 2002 Colorado 13.2 5.8 16.8 13.9 3.1 4.6 2.3 0.1 2002 Columbus 13.4 5.5 17.2 16.8 3.3 4.5 2.1 0.1 2002 Dallas 14.4 6.5 16.8 14.7 3.3 6.1 2.0 0.1 2002 DC United 11.9 5.9 17.6 15.8 3.5 6.6 2.5 0.1 2002 Kansas City 14.4 6.3 12.9 15.8 3.3 5.4 1.7 0.2 2002 Los Angeles 14.3 7.1 16.3 14.5 2.4 5.8 1.9 0.2 2002 New England 13.1 6.6 16.5 15.2 2.3 5.2 1.8 0.1 2002 New York 13.7 6.2 15.9 18.4 3.1 5.4 2.1 0.3 2002 San Jose 13.3 6.3 16.0 13.7 2.7 5.6 2.0 0.1 2003 Chicago 15.1 6.7 16.4 17.0 3.3 4.8 1.7 2003 Colorado 12.8 5.7 16.1 13.6 3.2 4.5 1.7 2003 Columbus 13.2 6.0 15.9 15.4 2.9 4.9 2.2 2003 Dallas 11.1 4.4 17.0 13.1 3.4 4.3 1.7 2003 DC United 11.0 4.9 17.7 16.9 2.2 5.8 2.3 2003 Kansas City 13.7 6.0 14.1 14.4 2.8 4.2 1.9 2003 Los Angeles 12.2 5.7 16.5 15.6 2.8 5.8 1.7 2003 New England 14.7 6.7 15.3 16.1 2.2 5.3 1.5 2003 New York 13.3 6.4 16.6 17.0 2.1 4.9 1.8 2003 San Jose 12.6 5.5 15.9 13.6 2.6 5.6 1.8 2004 Chicago 12.7 5.0 14.0 16.3 2.6 4.9 1.7 2004 Colorado 13.2 5.5 15.4 12.4 3.4 5.2 1.6 2004 Columbus 11.2 4.9 15.5 12.8 2.5 4.5 1.6 2004 Dallas 13.6 5.3 16.6 12.2 2.4 5.4 2.0 2004 DC United 12.2 6.2 18.1 13.3 2.5 6.0 2.2 2004 Kansas City 12.3 5.4 13.5 14.2 2.2 3.6 1.4 2004 Los Angeles 11.6 5.2 16.1 15.4 2.5 5.5 2.0 2004 New England 12.1 5.9 13.5 15.6 2.4 5.8 1.6 2004 New York 15.2 6.4 14.3 16.4 1.6 5.0 1.8 2004 San Jose 12.4 5.3 15.3 16.3 2.4 5.9 1.7 2005 Chicago 12.2 5.7 14.2 13.8 2.8 5.8 1.4 2005 Chivas USA 11.1 4.3 16.3 13.9 2.8 4.4 2.2 2005 Colorado 10.6 4.4 15.3 13.9 3.3 4.2 2.3 2005 Columbus 12.2 4.3 14.3 12.8 3.3 4.5 1.7 2005 Dallas 14.4 6.2 17.4 12.4 3.0 5.0 2.0 2005 DC United 12.8 6.3 15.8 14.5 2.8 5.0 1.9 2005 Kansas City 13.2 5.6 12.2 14.4 3.2 4.0 1.3 2005 Los Angeles 12.7 5.7 14.0 14.8 3.4 4.3 1.8 2005 New England 12.5 6.3 13.8 14.0 2.7 5.6 1.7 2005 New York 12.2 5.4 14.3 12.4 3.9 3.9 2.0 2005 Real Salt Lake 11.0 4.9 13.2 14.2 2.8 4.2 1.9 2005 San Jose 10.8 5.1 16.5 18.3 3.0 4.5 1.7 2006 Chicago 10.8 4.8 14.3 14.0 2.6 4.4 1.7 2006 Chivas USA 11.3 5.4 13.7 12.3 4.0 4.6 1.8 2006 Colorado 11.4 4.7 13.1 11.8 3.1 5.4 2.0 2006 Columbus 11.2 4.5 16.0 14.3 3.7 4.9 1.8 2006 Dallas 12.4 5.3 14.9 12.6 3.3 3.5 1.8 2006 DC United 11.8 6.1 14.2 13.1 2.8 4.5 2.0 2006 Houston 10.9 4.9 15.7 16.2 3.2 4.8 1.6 2006 Kansas City 12.8 5.6 12.5 13.9 2.7 5.3 1.6 2006 Los Angeles 10.5 4.5 16.6 15.1 2.7 4.4 1.8 2006 New England 11.9 5.2 13.2 15.9 2.9 4.9 1.8 2006 New York 12.3 5.3 16.9 13.5 3.4 4.1 2.0 2006 Real Salt Lake 11.1 4.6 13.2 12.8 3.8 3.9 1.8 2007 Chicago 10.4 5.2 13.1 13.3 3.0 4.6 2.0 2007 Chivas USA 11.8 5.8 14.5 12.6 3.3 3.9 2.1 2007 Colorado 10.7 3.9 14.8 12.4 2.7 5.2 2.0 2007 Columbus 12.8 5.9 13.9 15.4 3.4 5.2 1.5 2007 Dallas 11.7 5.1 15.5 14.1 2.7 3.8 2.1 2007 DC United 12.0 6.3 17.0 11.6 3.8 4.0 2.2 2007 Houston 11.2 4.8 13.7 14.8 4.2 4.6 1.6 2007 Kansas City 14.0 6.0 12.9 15.5 3.4 5.3 1.9 2007 Los Angeles 10.5 4.2 11.8 12.2 3.2 4.6 1.6 2007 New England 13.3 6.4 12.7 14.5 2.8 5.4 1.6 2007 New York 13.2 5.9 14.1 11.2 3.4 4.9 1.3 2007 Real Salt Lake 11.5 4.9 13.7 13.5 3.0 5.0 2.1 2007 Toronto 9.2 5.1 16.5 13.3 2.6 4.3 2.1