MLS/Gold Cup - Week 18 Notes

1) A new Texas record for soccer attendance was set last night in the Gold Cup doubleheader: 82,252 fans for Costa Rica-Guadeloupe and Mexico-Haiti. I've updated my list of state records. Also, the friendly between AC Milan and Chelsea in Baltimore this week will set a new Maryland record. Already, it's a 70,000 seat sell out. 2) I've been talking about it, and now it's official. The USA now has the longest Gold Cup unbeaten streak, at 17 games dating back to 2003 (list of games). They broke a tie with Mexico's 16 game streak (1991-2000). 3) About the latest OTFATT update. I mentioned Carey Talley being in danger of suspension. Well in fact yesterday he ended up picking up that 5th yellow card, so he'll drop off the list as of the next Chivas league game. 4) MLSnet has changed its matchtrackers. When you visit the match center page, they're now using the "VW Game Nav" instead of the old version. However, the old matchtrackers are still there if you input the urls yourself. Here's the url to last night's Revs-Chivas match: http://web.mlsnet.com/scoreboard/game.jsp?match=07192009_CHVNE Just change the date and the team abbreviations for different matches. I actually make good use of these; if I miss a match, I'll type in the link to the pbp, start from the bottom and slowly read upwards. That way I can have a little more drama than just immediately seeing the result. 5) The New York Red Bulls are on pace to be the worst team in league history, and San Jose's not doing much better. The good news is that NY only needs 6 points in the final 10 games to avoid taking the record from the 2001 Tampa Bay Mutiny: 2000 DC United 0.938 2000 San Jose 0.906 2007 Real Salt Lake 0.900 2001 Colorado 0.885 2007 Toronto 0.833 1999 Kansas City 0.813 2003 Dallas 0.767 2009 San Jose 0.765 1999 New York 0.625 2005 Real Salt Lake 0.625 2005 Chivas USA 0.563 2001 Tampa Bay 0.519 2009 New York 0.500 You can see the PPG ranking for all 149 MLS team seasons (1996-2008) here.