Top Ten Most/Least Domestic MLS Teams

Recently, I looked at every team from the past five years in my April 1 column on the subject. I've since gone back and done it for every year and every team, though I'm still not 100% sure that I got every single nationality change. At least those from American to foreign, and vice versa. There's Arturo Alvarez, Jeff Cunningham, Taylor Graham, Pablo Mastroeni, and Preki. Also possibly Martin Vasquez (wasn't capped during 1996 season, though he was called up), but I didn't count him. Based on the percentage of minutes played: Most Domestic MLS Teams 1 KC 2001 88.85% 2 COL 2003 87.99% 3 CHI 2003 87.15% 4 KC 2003 85.32% 5 CLB 2004 84.77% 6 KC 2000 84.21% 7 CLB 2003 84.16% 8 KC 2002 84.05% 9 KC 2007 84.01% 10 KC 2005 83.98% Notice anything? Bob Gansler's KC teams relied heavily on American players. It's interesting that under Peter Vermes, the team has seen a steep drop in their percentage. The drop from 2009 to 2010 was 30 percentage points (79 vs 49), and 2011 is right at the same level as last year. The 2001 Wizards are at the top of the list. They were a lot like the 2000 Wizards, but without Miklos Molnar's minutes. And no Preki, which lead to a much worse record. The only foreign players were Gary Glasgow, Mo Johnston, and Onandi Lowe. Hey, remember when Lowe came in and somewhat took the league by storm for half a year? He racked up the highest fouls suffered per 90 rate of all time. Least Domestic MLS Teams All right, you knew Toronto would dominate the top ten list, so I've expanded it to 14 to include 10 American teams. 1 TOR 2008 22.28% 2 CHV 2005 31.18% 3 TOR 2010 31.24% 4 TOR 2007 32.24% 5 NY 2010 33.29% 6 TOR 2009 36.22% 7 NY 2009 43.92% 8 DAL 2008 45.34% 9 NE 1998 46.88% 10 CHV 2010 47.27% 11 SEA 2009 47.41% 12 SEA 2010 48.55% 13 DAL 2006 49.04% 14 DC 2009 49.07% The least domestic American team is the infamous 2005 Chivas USA expansion side. It was obvious from the preseason results and turmoil that things weren't going to be smooth for them (remember Ramon Ramirez and his nanny?). And to think, people were worried about them fielding a mostly foreign team. Second to them among American teams is last year's New York Red Bulls. This year, they're on track to beat Chivas 2005 as the league's overall domestic percentage continues to decrease. Tim Ream and Juan Agudelo are the only American starters, and for the last two games it was only Ream.