MLS 2010: Domestic vs Foreign Minutes Played

I noticed a blog post (Down the Byline) where someone worried about the number of American players on Sporting Kansas City for next year, and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the percentages were for each MLS team in 2010: Domestic Foreign 1 SJ 75.79% 24.21% 2 LA 67.25% 32.75% 3 HOU 65.44% 34.56% 4 COL 64.74% 35.26% 5 CLB 63.16% 36.84% 6 DAL 61.86% 38.14% 7 PHI 58.08% 41.92% 8 RSL 54.72% 45.28% 9 NE 54.69% 45.31% 10 CHI 54.34% 45.66% 11 DC 52.38% 47.62% 12 KC 49.08% 50.92% 13 SEA 48.55% 51.45% 14 CHV 47.27% 52.73% 15 NY 33.29% 66.71% 16 TOR 31.24% 68.76% San Jose leads the league, while to no one's surprise New York brings up the rear (excluding Toronto, where the percentage is counted using Canadians, see below). A few notes: Includes only regular season matches. For Toronto FC, Canadians are counted as domestic. The TFC breakdown was 31.24% Canadian, 36.19% American, and 32.56% other. Leaguewide, the USA percentage was 55.60%. (EDIT: actually, it's very slightly less because I originally counted Ruben Luna's 48 minutes as domestic) Each player is given one nationality only. If he plays for a specific national team (in a game, not just a camp), then that's it. If a player has more than one nationality (such as by being born somewhere else and moving here), then he's counted as his first one. So for example, Stefani Miglioranzi is counted as Brazilian, and Jesus Padilla is counted as American. You can see a list of every nationality by downloading my MLS Lineup Database. I'd love to go back and do this for each season, but it'd be hard because nationalities can change. For example, Jeff Cunningham from Jamaica to USA. Come to think of it, maybe Teal Bunbury should've counted as foreign for this season (since he would've been considered Canadian until he was capped by the USA)? I counted him as domestic based on his current status.

MLS: Number of Meaningless Games per Season (Updated)

(Edited 2010-12-21 with final numbers, and a list of the games) The 2010 playoff berths are pretty much decided at this point. Seven of the eight teams are known, and it would take another collapse by the Colorado Rapids for them to miss out (and let Kansas City sneak in). It's unusual to see things nearly wrapped up with a few weekends left. There's less parity this season, and we're now in a situation where only half the teams in the league make the playoffs, the smallest percentage in league history (I'm not complaining, I wish it was even less). How many games will actually be meaningless? The answer is very few. I've defined meaningless as any game which has no impact on the playoffs or the Supporters' Shield. So even though the playoff teams are almost decided, seeding still comes into play which makes plenty of games meaningful. There are only five games this season which will definitely lack any meaning. Two of them occurred this past weekend: CHV vs TOR and HOU vs NE. Only three of the remaining 18 are in that category as well. We could possibly see a couple more added on the final weekend, but I doubt more than eight total. That's still a high for the seasons I've looked at. Here's some numbers for recent seasons: Number of Meaningless Games per Season Games Total PCT 2010 6 240 2.50% 2009 0 225 0.00% 2008 3 210 1.43% 2007 2 195 1.03% 2006 3 192 1.56% 2005 3 192 1.56% 2004 0 150 0.00% 2003 2 150 1.33% 2002 0 140 0.00% Total 19 1,694 1.12% Of course, this can't measure exactly how meaningful a game is. In my opinion, having fewer teams make the playoffs means that the games which are meaningful are worth more. List of Games 2010-10-09 CHV vs TOR 2010-10-10 HOU vs NE 2010-10-16 CHI vs DC 2010-10-23 DC vs TOR 2010-10-23 CHV vs CHI 2010-10-24 CLB vs PHI 2008-10-25 SJ vs TOR 2008-10-25 CHV vs HOU 2008-10-26 LA vs DAL 2007-10-20 TOR vs NE 2007-10-20 DC vs CLB 2006-10-14 LA vs DAL 2006-10-15 DC vs CHI 2006-10-15 CHV vs RSL 2005-10-08 SJ vs RSL 2005-10-15 NE vs CHI 2005-10-15 DC vs CLB 2003-10-25 SJ vs LA 2003-10-26 CLB vs CHI

2010's New MLS Players

The 2010 MLS season ended with the total all time player count at 1,504 (all competitions); Tyler Deric of Houston was the 1,500th player. The full list can be found by downloading my MLS lineup database. Debuts By Year Debuts Per Team 1996 241 24.1 1997 80 8.0 1998 93 7.8 1999 62 5.2 2000 75 6.3 2001 63 5.3 2002 54 5.4 2003 68 6.8 2004 63 6.3 2005 120 10.0 2006 87 7.3 2007 113 8.7 2008 136 9.7 2009 114 7.6 2010 135 8.4 Total 1,504 2010 Debuts By Team CHI 10 CHV 11 CLB 6 COL 5 DAL 9 DC 12 HOU 5 KC 8 LA 4 NE 9 NY 12 PHI 12 RSL 6 SEA 7 SJ 9 TOR 10 Debuts per Expansion Team 1998 CHI 9 1998 MIA 10 2005 CHV 17 2005 RSL 14 2007 TOR 20 2008 SJ 7 2009 SEA 14 2010 PHI 12 Player Breakdown Where did these 135 new players come from? The team listed is the one that gave the player his first minutes, not necessarily the one that first acquired him. 2010 Superdraft (41) CHI Bone, Corben CHI Johnson, Sean CHI Kinney, Steven CHI Watson-Siriboe, Kwame CHV Gavin, Blair CHV Zemanski, Ben CLB Duka, Dilly CLB Francis, Shaun COL Akpan, Andre COL LaBauex, Ross DAL Alexander, Eric DAL Loyd, Zach DAL Wiederman, Andrew DAL Yeisley, Jason DC Graye, Jordan HOU Appiah, Samuel KC Aiyegbusi, Korede KC Bunbury, Teal LA Stephens, Michael NE Boggs, Zak NE Griffiths, Jason NE Schilawski, Zack NE Sinovic, Seth NY Chinn, Conor NY da Luz, Austin NY Garcia, Irving NY Ream, Tim NY Tchani, Tony PHI McInerney, Jack PHI Mwanga, Danny PHI Nakazawa, Kyle PHI Okugo, Amobi PHI Stahl, Toni RSL Schuler, Chris RSL Warner, Collen SEA Estrada, David SEA Seamon, Mike SJ Beitashour, Steven SJ Morrow, Justin SJ Opara, Ike TOR Nane, Joseph The past two years, there were 29 and 36 Superdraft players used in the same year they were drafted. Here's a list of them by round: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total 2008 12 8 8 8 36 2009 14 5 6 4 29 2010 15 12 9 5 41 2009 Superdraft (3) COL Ceus, Steward SEA Fucito, Michael SJ Ring, Brad Three holdovers from the previous draft who finally made their debuts. Ring missed last season due to injury. I know Fucito was waived and re-signed, I just feel like it makes more sense to put him here rather than in domestic signings. This is how he was initially brought into the league. Academy Players (14) CHV de la Fuente, Bryan DAL Levya, Bryan DAL Luna, Ruben DC Hamid, Bill DC Najar, Andy HOU Deric, Tyler HOU Navas Cobo, Francisco NY Agudelo, Juan TOR Cordon, Oscar TOR Henry, Doneil TOR Lindsay, Nicholas TOR Matheson, Allando TOR Morgan, Ashtone This category should only get bigger and bigger. I still have no explanation for how Toronto was allowed to use players not under contract in official games. Weighted Lottery (2) CHV Zizzo, Sal RSL Gil, Luis RSL didn't win the lottery, but Gil first played for them. A list of past lotteries can be found here. Emergency Loan (2) CHV Guppy, Kevin DC Rodrigues, J.P. Guppy is an MLS pool goalkeeper, but got to play similar to Seattle's Ben Dragavon a year ago. Pool keepers qualify as a loan in my book. Meanwhile, Rodrigues is the first emergency loan field player to get into a match since Diaz Kambere for Toronto in 2008. Domestic-Based Signings (10) CLB Williams, Josh COL Earls, Danny DAL Edward, Edson DC Rice, Barry NE Shuttleworth, Bobby PHI Arrieta, Cristian PHI Williams, Sheanon RSL Araujo, Paulo SEA Boss, Terry SJ Gjertsen, Joey This category includes undrafted rookies and players signed from lower leagues here in the US (even if they're from a foreign club like Montreal or Puerto Rico). Foreign-Based Signings (64) CHI Castillo, Nery CHI John, Collins CHI Krol, Krzysztof CHI Martinez, Julio CHI Ristic, Bratislav CHI Umanzor, Deris CHV Borja, Carlos CHV Delgado, Dario CHV Espinoza, Rodolfo CHV Macotelo, Jose CHV Maldonado, Giancarlo CHV Romero, Osael CLB Griffit, Leandre CLB Herrera, Sergio CLB Mendoza, Andres COL Joyce, Ian DAL Jackson DAL Rodriguez, Milton DC Allsopp, Danny DC Boskovic, Branko DC Carreiro, Junior DC Castillo, Christian DC Hernandez, Pablo DC Pena, Juan Manuel DC Varela, Carlos HOU Obodai, Anthony HOU Palmer, Lovel KC Auvray, Stephane KC Chhetri, Sunil KC Escobar, Pablo KC Nielsen, Jimmy KC Rocastle, Craig KC Smith, Ryan LA Cazumba, Alex LA Juninho LA Leonardo NE Linck, Roberto NE Niouky, Joseph NE Perovic, Marko NE Stolica, Ilija NY Henry, Thierry NY Ibrahim, Salou NY Lindpere, Joel NY Marquez, Rafael NY Miller, Roy NY Nielsen, Brian PHI Coudet, Eduardo PHI Gonzalez, Juan Diego PHI Myrie, David PHI Orozco Fiscal, Michael PHI Torres, Roger RSL Gonzalez, Nelson RSL Saborio, Alvaro SEA Fernandez, Alvaro SEA Montano, Miguel SEA Nkufo, Blaise SJ Eduardo SJ Geovanni SJ Jasseh, Omar SJ Robles, Javier TOR Hscanovics, Raivis TOR Mista TOR Saric, Martin TOR Usanov, Maksim The numbers aren't really up too much for this category, but rather, the number of domestic signings is down from previous years. There were 10 this season compared to 23 and 20 the past two season. The number of academy players makes up the difference, I guess. Further Reading 2009 MLS Debuts 2008 MLS Debuts

2010 MLS Predictions Recap

Here's a look at what some of the major writers had for their predicted order of finish: SD KM MR SG RM IG Actual CHI 1 2 3 2 2 2 4 CLB 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 DC 5 6 6 4 3 3 8 KC 7 7 7 7 7 5 3 NE 6 5 4 3 6 4 6 NY 4 3 2 5 4 6 1 PHI 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 TOR 3 4 5 6 5 7 5 CHV 8 6 7 6 7 6 8 COL 3 5 3 5 8 5 5 DAL 5 7 6 7 6 7 3 HOU 6 4 5 4 3 4 7 LA 4 2 4 3 4 2 1 RSL 1 3 2 2 2 1 2 SEA 2 1 1 1 1 3 4 SJ 7 8 8 8 5 8 6 SD - Steve Davis (SI.com) KM - Kyle McCarthy (Goal.com) MR - Martin Rogers (Yahoo) SG - Steven Goff (Washington Post) RM - Ridge Mahoney (Soccer America) IG - Ives Galarcep (Soccer By Ives) Peter C at MLS Talk has more on this subject, check it out here.

Updated Posts

Some posts I've updated in the past day: Classic MLS Teams Top 25 Oldest MLS Players Top 25 Youngest MLS Players Where We Stand All Time