Missing Out (Post 2010 Update)

What follows is a list of the men who have played the most games in the MLS regular season without playing in an MLS Cup, updated through the 2010 season. With Jeff Cunningham relinquishing the top spot this past weekend, Jason Kreis returns to the top of the list. Pablo Mastroeni also played in the MLS Cup and is out of the top five. #1 ranking history: Start End Mark Chung ??? 2006-07-04 Jason Kreis 2006-07-04 2009-08-01 Jeff Cunningham 2009-08-01 2010-11-21 Jason Kreis 2010-11-21 ??? Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in an MLS Cup (includes games through 2010 season) Games 2009 2008 1 Kreis, Jason 305 2 1 2 Chung, Mark 284 3 3 3 Kotschau, Ritchie 244 5 4 4 Clark, Mike 221 6 6 5 McBride, Brian 220 10 15 6 Rhine, Bobby 212 7 7 7 Pause, Logan 198 15 N/A 8 Brown, Chris 197 8 8 8 Denton, Eric 197 8 12 10 Pareja, Oscar 189 11 10 11 Clark, Ricardo 181 12 22 12 Valderrama, Carlos 175 13 13 13 McKinley, Ivan 174 14 14 14 Maisonneuve, Brian 172 15 15 15 Dunseth, Brian 171 17 17 16 Washington, Dante 170 18 18 17 Burns, Mike 169 19 19 18 Thomas, Shavar 167 N/A N/A 19 Alvarez, Arturo 166 N/A N/A 20 Busch, Jon 165 N/A N/A 21 Boswell, Bobby 164 N/A N/A 22 Lewis, Eddie 163 N/A N/A 23 Chronopoulos, Ted 162 20 20 24 Warzycha, Robert 160 21 21 25 Quaranta, Santino 159 N/A N/A Active MLS players in bold. Next to the number of games played is the rank on this list after previous seasons. An "N/A" means that player wasn't in the top 25 for that year. In addition to the two that fell off, we have six newcomers to the top 25. Quaranta was a part of the 2004 DC United championship team, but did not play in the final. Thomas could've also played for KC in that game, but didn't. Lewis has also sat the bench for the final. Falling off the list are last year's 22-25: Richard Farrer, Ted Eck, Jorge Rodriguez, and Mark Santel. All Dallas Burn players. It looks like Pause is the only hope for a new number one, but even if he plays every game, he's still not going to do it until 2014 at the earliest. It seems that Kreis will reign once again for quite some top into the future. Who else could make the top 25 in the coming years? Active MLS players Outside the Top 25 Parke, Jeff 152 Barrett, Chad 147 Convey, Bobby 143 Oughton, Duncan 136 Ballouchy, Mehdi 129 Hernandez, Jason 124 Sealy, Scott 117 Oduro, Dominic 116 Peterson, Jacob 116 Saragosa, Marcelo 116 Harrington, Michael 115 Kamara, Kei 115 Segares, Gonzalo 114 Gordon, Alan 108 Sala, Dario 100

Cunningham, Mastroeni: Missing Out No Longer

Currently, Jeff Cunningham is the all-time record holder for most MLS regular season games played without playing in an MLS Cup (top 25 after 2009 here). He passed Jason Kreis to claim that record on August 1, 2009. It looks like he'll give the record back to Kreis in a few days. However, despite finally being part of an MLS Cup team, he still could miss his chance to play depending on how Schellas Hyndman pulls the strings. He wasn't in the lineup in the magnificent 3-0 win over the Galaxy. Wouldn't it be cruel for him to not get off the bench? Meanwhile, Pablo Mastroeni has now moved up to third, passing former Rapids teammate Mark Chung. There's quite a few former Burn and Rapids players in the top 25, as you can imagine. Mastro is a lock to be in the lineup on Sunday. Watching these two longtime MLS stalwarts getting their chance in the big game must be making Logan Pause sweat - with the retirement of Brian McBride, he'll be far and away the active leader if Cunningham/Mastroeni both play.

Missing Out (Post 2009 Update)

What follows is a list of the men who have played the most games in the MLS regular season without playing in an MLS Cup, updated through the 2009 season. Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in an MLS Cup (includes games through 2009 season) Games Prev Rank 1 Cunningham, Jeff 317 2 2 Kreis, Jason 305 1 3 Chung, Mark 284 3 4 Mastroeni, Pablo 257 5 5 Kotschau, Ritchie 244 4 6 Clark, Mike 221 6 7 Rhine, Bobby 212 7 8 Brown, Chris 197 8 8 Denton, Eric 197 12 10 McBride, Brian 194 15 11 Pareja, Oscar 189 10 12 Clark, Ricardo 181 22 13 Valderrama, Carlos 175 13 14 McKinley, Ivan 174 14 15 Maisonneuve, Brian 172 15 15 Pause, Logan 172 N/A 17 Dunseth, Brian 171 17 18 Washington, Dante 170 18 19 Burns, Mike 169 19 20 Chronopoulos, Ted 162 20 21 Warzycha, Robert 160 21 22 Farrer, Richard 158 23 23 Eck, Ted 156 24 24 Rodriguez, Jorge 155 25 25 Santel, Mark 154 N/A Active MLS players in bold. Prev rank refers to their ranking after the 2008 season. Jeff Cunningham passed Jason Kreis for the top spot on August 1, 2009. That was also the game where he scored four goals (a "beaver trick") against Kansas City in a 6-0 win. Previously, Kreis held the record from July 4, 2006 until August 1, 2009. Before that, it was held by Mark Chung. Cunningham is in the same company as fellow athletes Gary Anderson (NFL), Dale Ellis (NBA), Mike Gartner (NHL), and Rafael Palmeiro (MLB), who all currently hold the distinction in their respective leagues. If there's going to be a challenge to Cunningham any time in the near future, it will have to come from Pablo Mastroeni. He's still two full seasons behind, though. Other big news: two MLS veterans saw their first MLS Cup action on Sunday and fall off the list: Kyle Beckerman and Edson Buddle. They were 9th and 12th in last year's ranking, and would've been 7th and 9th this year. Logan Pause makes his debut in 15th place. Meanwhile, because of the two dropoffs, the retired Mark Santel comes back into the top 25. Who else could make the top 25 in the coming years? Active MLS players Outside the Top 25 Guevara, Amado 153 Lewis, Eddie 150 Thomas, Shavar 150 Alvarez, Arturo 147 Busch, Jon 147 Boswell, Bobby 138 Oughton, Duncan 133 Simms, Clyde 133 Quaranta, Santino 132 Moor, Drew 131 Barrett, Chad 124 Rolfe, Chris 123 Stammler, Seth 121 Convey, Bobby 115 Segares, Gonzalo 108 Kljestan, Sacha 104 Ballouchy, Mehdi 102 Bornstein, Jonathan 102 Saragosa, Marcelo 102

Cunningham's Milestone Night

It was a record setting night for FC Dallas striker Jeff Cunningham on Saturday. He scored four goals in a regular season match, also known as a beaver trick. That's only the tenth time in MLS history a player has achieved that feat. It's been three years since Brian Ching was the last to do it in the Houston Dynamo's first ever match. However, that's not what I meant by record setting. I'm sure most of you know that Clint Mathis holds the record for most goals in a single match with 5. When I say Cunningham broke a record, I'm referring to something else. Last night, Cunningham played in his 306th regular season match. As mentioned in the MLSnet match report linked above, he passed former Dallas star Jason Kreis on the all time list to move up to third. However, he also passed Kreis on another list: Cunningham now holds the league record for the most regular season games played without ever playing in an MLS Cup. It's good that he was able to mark the occasion with a stellar performance. Kreis was the "missing out" record holder from July 4, 2006 until August 1, 2009. The previous record holder before him was Mark Chung, who's now third. Here's the top 25 post-2008. Cunningham now joins the likes of fellow athletes Gary Anderson (NFL), Dale Ellis (NBA), Mike Gartner (NHL), and Rafael Palmeiro (MLB). All those players currently hold the distinction in their respective leagues.

MLS Week 11 Notes

1) Jeff Cunningham is seven games away from history. At that point, he'll tie Jason Kreis for the dubious record of having played the most MLS regular season games without playing in an MLS Cup. See the top 25 post-2008 here. Kreis has held the record for three years now, but Cunningham should have it all to his own shortly. 2) The Colorado Rapids are second in the league for offense with 1.60 goals per game. If you have a gut feeling that it's unusual to see them scoring so frequently, then you're right. They've never finished higher than 4th in that category, and they've only been in the top half in two of thirteen years. I suppose looking back, they were on the right track last year, finishing 5th and breaking a nine year streak of lower half finishes. 3) New England's offense, on the other hand, has been pathetic. Maybe that'll change now that Taylor Twellman is back, but currently they're averaging a goal per game which is tied for worst in the league. They're also on pace to set two new records: Fewest shots per game (8.0) and fewest corner kicks per game (3.4). The current records are held by 2007 Toronto (9.2) and 2006 Dallas (3.5) respectively. 4) Chicago was the league's last undefeated team. How have those teams done in previous years? Usually pretty well, although the last two years (NY and Dallas) are exceptions. Before the past two years, every year a team in that category finished in the top three of the league (a couple years featured multiple teams tying for the last undefeated status). Columbus was the league's last winless team, and the omens aren't good for them. Only once has such a team advanced past the first round of the playoffs (2002 NE). I counted shootouts as draws in both these categories, and also I went by the number of games into the year rather than by the calendar. 5) Even though there have been plenty of draws (did you hear?), this year's home field advantage (0.68) is right in line with the all time average (around 0.67 PPG). So it's not like away teams are having a harder time getting points than in previous years.

Missing Out (post-2008 update)

What follows is a list of the men who have played the most games in the MLS regular season without playing in an MLS Cup. When I first posted about this in 2006, Mark Chung was the all time leader. Jason Kreis passed him on July 4th, 2006 and and has been the leader since. For 2009, Jeff Cunningham is within striking distance of the record. Most Regular Season Games Played Without Playing in an MLS Cup (includes games through 2008 season) 1 Kreis, Jason 305 2 Cunningham, Jeff 289 3 Chung, Mark 284 4 Kotschau, Ritchie 244 5 Mastroeni, Pablo 232 6 Clark, Mike 221 7 Rhine, Bobby 212 8 Brown, Chris 197 9 Beckerman, Kyle 193 10 Pareja, Oscar 189 11 Buddle, Edson 187 12 Denton, Eric 186 13 Valderrama, Carlos 175 14 McKinley, Ivan 174 15 Maisonneuve, Brian 172 15 McBride, Brian 172 17 Dunseth, Brian 171 18 Washington, Dante 170 19 Burns, Mike 169 20 Chronopoulos, Ted 162 21 Warzycha, Robert 160 22 Clark, Ricardo 159 23 Farrer, Richard 158 24 Eck, Ted 156 25 Rodriguez, Jorge 155 Active players in bold. The only new name on the list is Ricardo Clark, who didn't play in either of Houston's two title games due to suspension. Three players shot up the list in the past year: Beckerman (16-9), Buddle (21-11), and Denton (19-12). Here are the current MLS players that have missed out despite playing over 100 games. They're next in line: Pause, Logan 146 O'Brien, Ronnie 142 Thomas, Shavar 133 Parke, Jeff 132 Magee, Mike 130 Guevara, Amado 128 Alvarez, Arturo 124 Oughton, Duncan 124 Lewis, Eddie 123 Kirovski, Jovan 118 Busch, Jon 117 Borchers, Nat 112 Quaranta, Santino 110 Wingert, Chris 110 Boswell, Bobby 109 Simms, Clyde 105 Moor, Drew 102 Sealy, Scott 102 Guerrero, Ivan 101