2008 MLS Debuts

Overall, there have now been 1,255 players to play in a competitive match for a Major League Soccer team. 136 of those players made their debut during the 2008 season, a record for any year past the first: Debuts By Year 1996 241 1997 80 1998 93 1999 62 2000 75 2001 63 2002 54 2003 68 2004 63 2005 120 2006 87 2007 113 2008 136 Total 1,255 No surprise that the three expansion years rank 1-2-3-4 after the first season, and that post-contraction 2002 saw the lowest total of new players. The average team blooded 10 new players in 2008. The team breakdown is as follows: CHI 9 CHV 11 CLB 6 COL 7 DAL 7 DC 15 HOU 5 KC 11 LA 10 NE 13 NY 14 RSL 8 SJ 7 TOR 13 The Earthquakes' total of 7 seems really low for an expansion team. You can see how Frank Yallop's approach was way different than that of Mo Johnston and Toronto FC, who introduced 20 new players in 2007. Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake had 14 and 17 in 2005, as well. Talent Breakdown Let's see where these new players came from, started with those drafted. The team listed is the one that gave the player his first minutes, not the one that drafted him. 2008 Superdraft (36) 1 Allen, Ely LA 2 Avila, Eric DAL 3 Beltran, Tony RSL 4 Cameron, Geoff HOU 5 Cordeiro, Ryan DC 6 Edwards, Brian TOR 7 Espinoza, Roger KC 8 Franklin, Sean LA 9 Germanese, Joe NE 10 Grazier, Brian COL 11 Horst, David RSL 12 Iro, Andy CLB 13 James, Julius TOR 14 Josten, George CLB 15 King, Stephen CHI 16 Leathers, Jonathan KC 17 Lenhart, Steven CLB 18 Lowry, Peter CHI 19 Marquess, Matt KC 20 McDonald, Brandon LA 21 McKenzie, Rauwshan KC 22 Miller, Ryan DC 23 Myers, Chance KC 24 Nyarko, Patrick CHI 25 O'Brien, Ciaran COL 26 Phelan, Pat NE 27 Roberts, Jamil SJ 28 Roth, David NY 29 Salinas, Shea SJ 30 Sassano, Luke NY 31 Savage, Keith CHV 32 Shea, Brek DAL 33 Valentin, Julian LA 34 Valentino, Rob NE 35 Washington, Austin CHI 36 Zaher, Mike DC 12 first rounders, 8 second rounders, 8 third rounders, and 8 fourth rounders saw action. 2008 Supplemental Draft (14) 37 Alcaraz, Johnny HOU 38 Borman, Danleigh NY 39 Chiles, Kraig CHV 40 Dube, Kheli NE 41 Elenio, Cory CLB 42 Gavin, Michael LA 43 Gilkerson, John NY 44 Nunez, Tino RSL 45 Smarte, Adam SJ 46 Stratford, Dan DC 47 Thompson, Craig DC 48 Thorpe, James DC 49 Tierney, Chris NE 50 Zambrano, Cesar COL By round: 8, 4, 1, and 1. Now, let's look at the leftovers from the previous drafts who finally debuted: 2007 Superdraft (4) 51 Burling, Bobby CHV 52 Ebert, Eric CHV 53 Ibrahim, Abdus TOR 54 Igwe, Amaechi NE 2007 Supplemental Draft (8) 55 Cepero, Danny NY 56 DiRaimondo, John COL 57 Kljestan, Gordon NY 58 Kraus, Michael KC 59 Noble, Nick CHI 60 Smith, Jarrod TOR 61 Wileman, Chase DAL 62 Woolard, Daniel CHI 2006 Superdraft (1) 63 Kronberg, Eric KC 2006 Supplemental Draft (1) 64 Paladini, Daniel CHV A player like G.Kljestan makes this complicated, as he spent time on an MLS roster in 2007, was cut, and then played indoor soccer earlier this year before signing with New York. So I suppose you could say he came from the MISL instead, but it's easier just to count it this way. Same thing for Paladini, who was cut and played in the PDL (which is not a pro team), then came back. Domestic-Based Players (20) 65 Attakora-Gyan, Nana TOR 66 Ayres, Jay SJ 67 Braun, Justin CHV 68 Brill, Sam NE 69 Carroll, Pat DC 70 Gaudet, Derek TOR 71 Janicki, Greg DC 72 Jordan, Bryan LA 73 Kandji, Macoumba NY 74 Khumalo, Thabiso DC 75 Mbuta, Matthew NY 76 Megaloudis, Chris NY 77 Parker, Lance CHV 78 Pizarro, Nelson KC 79 Saunders, Josh LA 80 Souter, Kevin KC 81 Tyler, Brandon NE 82 Velez, Marco TOR 83 Wicks, Josh LA 84 Wondolowski, Steve HOU These are the guys who came from a lower league in the USA/Canada or were undrafted. Saunders and Velez were previously drafted years ago, but I'm not going to count that. Foreign-Based Players (49) 85 Badilla, Gabriel NE 86 Caig, Tony HOU 87 Caraccio, Franco HOU 88 Carvallo, Jose DC 89 Castro, Mauricio NE 90 Cichero, Gabriel NY 91 Cordoba, Matias RSL 92 Crayton, Louis DC 93 Davino, Duilio DAL 94 Dalby, Greg COL 95 Dejair CHV 96 Deuchar, Kenny RSL 97 Dominguez, Eduardo LA 98 Echeverry, Oscar NY 99 Ekpo, Emmanuel CLB 100 Fernandez, Argenis NE 101 Frankowski, Tomasz CHI 102 Gallardo, Marcelo DC 103 Gomes, Rafael COL 104 Hilgenbrinck, Chase NE 105 Huckerby, Darren SJ 106 Jimenez, Diego NY 107 Joy, Ian RSL 108 Kennedy, Dan CHV 109 Lima, Francisco SJ 110 Lopez, Claudio KC 111 Manzonelli, Brandon NE 112 Marmol, Lider CHI 113 Martinez, Gonzalo DC 114 McManus, Tom COL 115 Niell, Franco DC 116 Nurse, Roberto CHV 117 Olave, Jamison RSL 118 Padula, Gino CLB 119 Pappa, Marco CHI 120 Peralta, Gonzalo DC 121 Pietravallo, Juan NY 122 Pires, Alvaro LA 123 Ricketts, Rohan TOR 124 Robert, Laurent TOR 125 Rocha, Andre DAL 126 Rojas, Jorge NY 127 Rosenlund, Tyler TOR 128 Russell, Robbie RSL 129 Sikora, Victor DAL 130 Smith, Johann TOR 131 Somma, Davide SJ 132 Tebily, Olivier TOR 133 Trujillo, Ivan KC 134 Wicky, Raphael CHV These are the players who came from teams in other countries. DC had the most with 6, while 5 teams only had 2. I should do a breakdown by region and/or league these guys came from. Finally, we have two players who came into the league via "weird" circumstances: Weighted Lottery (1) 135 Guarda, Bruno DAL Emergency Loan (1) 136 Kambere, Diaz TOR The weighted lottery is a famous, rare, and despised MLS tradition. Usually the players don't amount to much, except for Robbie Rogers. That drawing may have won a title for Columbus... And Kambere was part of the John Carver meltdown over the national team callups in September. The other couple of players loaned (Regan, Titus) had previous MLS experience. Due to the expanded rosters, Kambere was the first non-goalkeeper emergency loan to play since Chris Carrieri for Chicago in 2004. We might be seeing more of that in 2009 thanks to the reduced rosters.