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)
2006 Supplemental Draft (1)
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)
Emergency Loan (1)
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. |
Comments on "2008 MLS Debuts"
unbelievable work! thanks!