MLS: First Teams to 100 Goals

In the last post, I looked at the breakdown of goals by competition and by team. I couldn't help but notice that Seattle is already over 100 goals in only two seasons, helped by their US Open Cup success. Not only that, they're 2/3rds of the way to Toronto's total despite playing two seasons vs four for TFC. It got me thinking, how long did each team take to get to the 100 goal milestone? It's not exactly a fair comparison for all teams, since the goals per game average was higher for the original MLS franchises. It was over 3.00 for six of the first seven years (and none since). As for Chicago and Miami, 1998 was the single highest scoring year (3.57 per game). However, 1999 was a down year (2.86), so the totals for 1996-97 are actually higher than 1998-99. The past decade's expansion teams mostly took a bit longer to get there. However, I think that it's fair to compare them and the original teams amongst their own groups. This includes all competitions: Number of Games to 100 Goals DC 49 KC 52 TB 52 CHI 56 DAL 59 LA 59 SJ 61 CLB 64 COL 68 HOU 71 NY 73 NE 74 SEA 77 MIA 80 CHV 81 RSL 89 TOR 91 DC leads the list, scoring at a rate of two per game. NE is the last original team, just one game behind NY, while Miami was even worse. Toronto comes up last, taking 91 games to score 100 goals. That would be the 2-0 home win over DC on August 15, 2009. Funny that the next season, they hire a defensive coach. I'm not surprised that the club which famously set records for scoring futility in their expansion season ends up with this record as well. RSL barely bests TFC, not reaching the mark until August 29, 2007. That 3-1 home win over Kansas City also marked Javier Morales' debut. Currently, after one season Philadelphia has scored 36 times in 31 matches. Such a rate suggests that it will take 86 matches, though it's likely that they'll improve a bit. But given the struggles most recent expansion teams have seen, and more importantly the downward trend in scoring, it wouldn't be a shock to see them or one of the other new teams (Portland, Vancouver, Montreal) break the mark.

Curt Onalfo fired by DC United

Back in March, I noticed when compiling the offense/defense ranks by year that KC's offense tanked under Onalfo after a good first season. Meanwhile, DC United was going into the season with a six year streak of being in the top half of the league on offense, tied for the longest ever. Something had to give, and with DC sitting dead last in points and on offense, Onalfo has been fired. KC offense rankings 2006 - 6th (Gansler/Bliss) 2007 - 5th (Onalfo's first year) 2008 - 12th 2009 - 13th (Onalfo/Vermes) DC offense rankings 2004 - 2nd (Nowak) 2005 - 1st 2006 - 1st 2007 - 1st (Soehn) 2008 - 7th 2009 - 2nd 2010 - 16th (Onalfo) Out of the 17 coaches who have been in charge of multiple teams, only one has had a better record with their second team than the first. That would be Fernando Clavijo, who was below average with both the Revs and Rapids.

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).

Best & Worst MLS Teams After Three Games Played

Counting shootouts as draws. The 2010 Galaxy became the 7th team in league history to win their first three games. They can be joined by the Wizards if they can win for a second straight year at Qwest Field against Seattle. Top 10 Best W L D Pts GF GA GD 3 1 1999 Chicago 3 0 0 9 10 2 8 3 2 2009 Seattle 3 0 0 9 7 0 7 3 3 1997 Tampa Bay 3 0 0 9 8 2 6 3 4 2010 Los Angeles 3 0 0 9 5 0 5 3 5 2009 Chivas USA 3 0 0 9 6 2 4 3 6 2006 Kansas City 3 0 0 9 6 2 4 3 6 1996 Los Angeles 3 0 0 9 6 3 3 3 8 2000 Los Angeles 2 0 1 7 8 3 5 3 9 2008 Chicago 2 0 1 7 6 1 5 3 10 2005 New England 2 0 1 7 9 5 4 None of those teams ended up winning the title, though two made it to the MLS Cup. Meanwhile, DC became the 10th team to lose their first three. Toronto can join them if they lose again. Top 10 Worst W L D Pts GF GA GD 3 1 2007 Toronto 0 3 0 0 0 9 -9 3 2 1999 Kansas City 0 3 0 0 0 8 -8 3 3 2010 DC United 0 3 0 0 2 9 -7 3 4 1996 DC United 0 3 0 0 1 7 -6 3 5 2004 Columbus 0 3 0 0 1 6 -5 3 6 2009 Dallas 0 3 0 0 2 7 -5 3 7 1996 New York 0 3 0 0 1 5 -4 3 8 2007 DC United 0 3 0 0 3 7 -4 3 9 1998 New York 0 3 0 0 4 8 -4 3 10 2001 New England 0 3 0 0 2 5 -3 Here we have one MLS Cup winner and two Supporters Shield winners. So there's some hope yet. Interestingly, only three teams have a 100% winning or losing record after four games. Those are 1996 LA (4-0), 2001 NE (0-4), and 2007 TOR (0-4). LA started 8-0 while NE started 0-6, which are the records.

MLS Week 14 Notes

1) The Colorado Rapids defeated DC United by a score 3:0. This means that next year it will be at least a decade that the Rapids have gone undefeated against DC at home: 2001-07-04 3-1 W 2002-04-03 2-0 W 2003-04-26 1-1 D 2003-06-11 0-0 D 2004-05-22 2-1 W 2005-09-03 1-0 W 2006-05-06 2-1 W 2007-04-07 2-1 W 2008-05-04 2-0 W 2009-06-20 3-0 W 10 matches over 9 years. That's not even the longest streak in the league, however. CHI-SJ, NY-KC, COL-LA, and NE-NY are all current 12 game streaks. And in terms of time, San Jose has never won at Chicago...ever. That does include one shootout win, though. I posted last September which teams couldn't win where, which needs to be updated. 2) Speaking of Colorado, they're looking really good so far. They have the third best PPG in the league, though the standings currently place them fourth in the west. They've also played two fewer games at home than away. One stat that I always remember about the Rapids is the fact that they have never finished above third in their division/conference. Over the past 13 years, their placement has been as follows: 5-4-3-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-4-4-4 Total mediocrity. They've also never finished above 4th on the overall table. Is this their year? Can Pat Noonan make it to yet another MLS Cup? 3) Nick Garcia has switched teams, but he's still played every minute of every regular season match he's been available for. Unfortunately, unlike Chris Klein in 2007 (who played 32 matches in a 30 game season), if he lasts for the entire year he won't play more matches than the length of the season. He'd actually play only 29. More on this in the next OTFATT update. 4) New York may have gone 20 away games winless in the regular season, but that's not a record thanks to the shootout messing things up as usual. I consider the record to be 21 games, jointly held by KC and NY who each were pitiful in 1998-99. Also as usual, I hope this streak can continue for two more games so any confusion is gone. 5) Toronto FC has now had two players change the names that they go by this season since last year: Abdus Ibrahim is now Fuad Ibrahim, while Nana Attakota-Gyan is now just Nana Attakora. Chad Barrett may have to become the third if he doesn't start finishing...