MLS 2010 - Week 4 Notes

1) Edson Buddle's hot streak continues. He's now scored 7 times in four games, and according to the MLS web site, he's "...became the first player in MLS history to score his team’s first seven goals to start off a season." When I heard that, I immediately had to check because I remember Giovanni Savarese being the only early source of goals for the 1996 NY/NJ Metrostars. It turns out that while Savarese did score 8 goals to start the season before anyone else on the team scored, there was an own goal in there. So Buddle indeed ranks ahead of him. 2) More age-related milestones: 17 year old Omar Jasseh (who?) played for San Jose in the Open Cup qualifying loss to RSL last Wednesday. He's another young Gambian, and he signed officially on the day of the game. He became the 13th youngest player in all competitions, and also the youngest player in Earthquakes history. I've also updated the oldest debuts page, since Juan Manuel Pena played a couple weeks ago and entered at 8th on that list. Also, a reminder - we're less than three weeks away from Pat Onstad becoming the league's oldest player of all time. 3) DC United is a stunning 0-4. Most people weren't predicting greatness, but this is a bad start of epic proportions. They're only the third team in league history to start off 0-4 after 2001 NE and 2007 TOR. The record is 6 straight losses, by that Revs team. United is now tied with Chivas for the offense so far this season. Should we be surprised? It was something I was wondering about before the season. DC has been in the top half of the league on offense for 6 straight years (2-1-1-1-7-2), but they hired a head coach who turned KC into one of the league's worst in that category (5-12-13). On the other hand, LA is now the second team to go 4-0 after 1996 LA (who started 8-0). They've now gone 11 matches without a loss in all competitions since last October (remember, the MLS Cup counts as a draw).