MLS Playoffs: Yellow Card Rule Change

This was brought to my attention in the play-by-play thread on Bigsoccer: Did you notice that MLS has changed its rules for playoff yellow card suspensions? I'm not sure if this was put into place this year or last year, but it definitely was not the case as of 2007. Two yellow cards in consecutive games mean a suspension. That's not the change. The change is that a player cannot be suspended for the MLS Cup for yellow cards. So if Jamison Olave, who got a yellow at Crew Stadium, gets another yellow in Chicago and RSL wins, then he would be eligible for the title game. If you remember, Ricardo Clark missed the 2006 MLS Cup final because of the old rule. I think the change must be new, because that link above to the MLSnet discipline page has conflicting language on the subject - look at "playoff caution accumulation" and then the 5th paragraph under "2009 MLS Cup Playoffs Guidelines." However, when you check out the 2009 Playoff Guide (PDF), it confirms the change. Also, about last night's game: Pat Phelan came close to equalizing for the Revolution, but it shouldn't be a surprise that NE couldn't break the aggregate tie or come back once they went behind. Their attacking depth was non-existent, especially once Mauricio Castro went down. They started the game with zero forwards on the bench; the six field player subs were Igwe, Tierney, Phelan, Thompson, Castro, and Colaluca. I know Stephane Assengue is a player for the future, but surely they might've named him to the bench in case they needed a goal. It's not good to be relying on Phelan as your last ditch sub in that situation. Of course, even if the Revs had attacking depth, that doesn't mean Nicol would use it - remember Ricardo Phillips and Jose Manuel Abundis?

Home/Away Records, Rookies, and CLB/RSL

1) I've updated the home/away records for each MLS team in each season through 2009: Check them out here. 2) If Omar Gonzalez wins the Rookie of the Year award, he'll be the youngest winner ever. He was 20.72 years of age as of July 1st. The current record-holder is Carlos Bocanegra in 2000, at 21.10 years old. All three of this year's nominees (Gonzalez, Frei, Pontius) started and played 90 minutes on opening day. That means it is now 10/14 seasons where the winner got time in his team's opening game, and 28/42 nominees. 3) Tonight is the conclusion of the CLB-RSL series. If you clicked the link above, you saw the RSL had the league's best home record and second worst away record this season. That's one reason why so many people still feel like the Crew should still win this series. It's interesting how little these teams have changed from a year ago. Of the 27 players who saw action in game one, only Crew starters Eric Brunner and Emilio Renteria weren't with the same team in last year's playoffs. This is the moment for Robert Warzycha. The season long rotation of Guillermo Barros Schelotto all comes to a head tonight. There's been injuries, concerns about playing on turf, balancing league and CONCACAF play, and most notably the benching Saturday for defensive reasons. Schelotto definitely should be fully healthy and ready to go. The balancing act has worked out well so far, so it's kind of unfair to base it all on one game. But that's the way the MLS playoff system works, and you can imagine the reaction if the Crew are eliminated tonight. If it works, Warzycha could come out looking like Alex Ferguson. If not, it's more like when Greg Andrulis started Dante Washington over Edson Buddle and Jeff Cunningham. Remember that?

MLS Foul Awards 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the year again. The regular season is over, so now we can look at the official numbers for fouls committed and fouls suffered and put them in the context of "per 90 minutes" rather than just raw totals. Which players will lead in the eight categories below? 1. Most Fouls Committed 2. Least Fouls Committed 3. Most Fouls Suffered 4. Least Fouls Suffered 5. Most FC Compared to FS 6. Most FS Compared to FC 7. Most FC + FS 8. Least FC + FS Rules: Players must have played 20% of the season, in minutes. This year, that was 540 out of 2700. Field players only, no goalkeepers. Total Fouls (1996-2009): FC FS Diff Games FC FS 1996 4432 4386 46 160 27.70 27.41 1997 4583 4579 4 160 28.64 28.62 1998 5402 5132 270 192 28.14 26.73 1999 5551 5285 266 192 28.91 27.53 2000 6489 6236 253 192 33.80 32.48 2001 5211 4966 245 158 32.98 31.43 2002 4559 4364 195 140 32.56 31.17 2003 4836 4584 252 150 32.24 30.56 2004 4573 4348 225 150 30.49 28.99 2005 5670 5432 238 192 29.53 28.29 2006 5573 5297 276 192 29.03 27.59 2007 5524 5232 292 195 28.33 26.83 2008 5211 4880 331 210 24.81 23.24 2009 5146 4729 417 225 22.87 21.02 As you can see, this year and last the number of fouls called is way down. Refs have been instructed to not interrupt the flow of the game as much, for better or worse. That explains the Seattle-Houston game last week, huh? Why the difference in FC and FS? First of all, stats for goalkeepers haven't been listed since 2004. That would only make up a couple dozen fouls, though. I can only assume it's due to handballs. Also, remember for this table that the average length of a game in 2000-3 was a bit longer due to OT. Now, on to the awards. 1. Most Fouls Committed And the winner is... Rookie forward Quincy Amarikwa of the San Jose Earthquakes. Would you have guessed that he commits the most fouls per 90 minutes? The last two recipients of this award were not in the league the next year; I think he'll break that streak. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC 1 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 3.588 602 24 2 Alan Gordon LA 2.911 1175 38 3 Steven Lenhart CLB 2.789 1065 33 4 Conor Casey COL 2.674 2087 62 5 Eduardo Lillingston CHV 2.637 1263 37 6 Edson Buddle LA 2.582 1255 36 7 Pablo Campos SJ/RSL 2.582 1011 29 8 Ben Olsen DC 2.363 1371 36 9 Marcelo Saragosa DAL/CHV 2.335 1272 33 10 Cam Weaver SJ/HOU 2.332 772 20 Gordon's name should be no surprise - this is his third time in the top ten (2006, 2008). Same thing for Olsen and Saragosa, grizzled veterans of the fouls committed category. They're here for the 5th and 4th times respectively. All Time Winners 1996 Jose Vasquez LA 1997 Paul Keegan NE 1998 Paul Keegan NE 1999 Paulo Dos Santos NE 2000 Matt Okoh COL 2001 Matt Okoh NE 2002 Raul Palacios COL 2003 Carlos Ruiz LA 2004 Jesse Marsch CHI 2005 Brian Ching SJ 2006 Marcelo Saragosa LA/DAL 2007 Roberto Brown COL 2008 Rod Dyachenko DC 2009 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 2. Least Fouls Committed And the winner is... The two-time winner of the MLS Fair Play Award, New England's Steve Ralston. This is his 4th top ten appearance in this category. Ralston should probably thank Rapids coach Gary Smith in his acceptance speech. Smith released the three-time defending champion, Terry Cooke. Cooke was on pace for a top ten appearance, but didn't have enough minutes to qualify. Who knows if he could've won again? 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC 1 Steve Ralston NE 0.233 1543 4 2 Jacob Peterson COL 0.239 1131 3 3 Justin Mapp CHI 0.267 1013 3 4 Eric Denton SJ 0.336 803 3 5 Richard Mulrooney HOU 0.357 1260 5 6 Steve Zakuani SEA 0.406 1993 9 7 Brian McBride CHI 0.413 1963 9 8 Josh Tudela LA 0.424 637 3 9 Kelly Gray SJ 0.427 632 3 10 Sebastien Le Toux SEA 0.432 1457 7 Peterson's here for a second straight year in the top ten, while Denton/Gray/McBride also all made their second top tens. All Time Winners 1996 Billy Thompson CLB 1997 David Patino COL 1998 Gerell Elliot DAL 1999 Kevin Knight NY 2000 Carlos Valderrama TB 2001 Robert Fraser COL 2002 Richard Farrer DAL 2003 Jesus Ochoa LA 2004 Kelly Gray CHI 2005 Michael Parkhurst NE 2006 Terry Cooke COL 2007 Terry Cooke COL 2008 Terry Cooke COL 2009 Steve Ralston NE 3. Most Fouls Suffered And the winner is... Seattle Sounders designated player Freddie Ljungberg. This award has now gone to a DP in each season since the rule was passed. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FS 1 Freddie Ljungberg SEA 3.284 1836 67 2 Fredy Montero SEA 2.517 2217 62 3 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI 2.417 1452 39 4 Macoumba Kandji NY 2.414 1752 47 5 Javier Morales RSL 2.384 2076 55 6 Ben Olsen DC 2.298 1371 35 7 Santiago Hirsig KC 2.218 2110 52 8 Pablo Vitti TOR 2.182 1650 40 9 Robbie Rogers CLB 2.159 1709 41 10 Brian Ching HOU 2.150 1549 37 Blanco's finished in the top three in each of his MLS seasons. Rogers is back for a second consecutive season, while Ching and Olsen make their 4th top tens. Olsen completes a double by being in the top ten for both fouls committed and suffered. That's not exactly rare, however. Adam Cristman, Danny Dichio, and Andrea Lombardo all did it in 2007. Reigning MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto made the past two top tens in 2007-8. Where is he now? 32nd, right after A.J. DeLaGarza. Alejandro Moreno, who's normally a lock for this top ten, was only 13th. His teammate Steven Lenhart, who started over him in the playoff opener, was right up there at 19th. All Time Winners 1996 Giuseppe Galderisi NE/TB 1997 Damian DAL 1998 Diego Serna MIA 1999 Jason Moore DC 2000 DaMarcus Beasley CHI 2001 Onandi Lowe KC 2002 DaMarcus Beasley CHI 2003 Jose Cancela NE 2004 Davy Arnaud KC 2005 Alejandro Moreno SJ 2006 Jose Cancela NE 2007 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI 2008 Marcelo Gallardo DC 2009 Freddie Ljungberg SEA 4. Least Fouls Suffered And the winner is... Chivas USA defender Shavar Thomas has not only won the award, he's also set an all time record. He was only fouled once in 1,459 minutes of playing time; that should be pretty hard to break. Thomas and runner up Sam Cronin both eclipsed Ezra Hendrickson's record which lasted all of one year. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FS 1 Shavar Thomas CHV 0.062 1459 1 2 Sam Cronin TOR 0.076 2363 2 3 Chris Tierney NE 0.172 1044 2 4 Jim Brennan TOR 0.218 2478 6 5 Simon Elliott SJ 0.219 1234 3 6 Darrius Barnes NE 0.233 2700 7 7 Bobby Burling CHV/SJ 0.252 713 2 8 Scott Palguta COL 0.257 1749 5 9 Josh Tudela LA 0.283 637 2 10 Aaron Pitchkolan DAL/SJ 0.285 631 2 Thomas also made the top ten in 2003. Brennan and Pitchkolan are here for a second time also. All Time Winners 1996 Richard Weiszmann NE 1997 Joey Martinez DAL 1998 Kris Kelderman MIA 1999 Leo Cullen MIA 2000 Brian Johnson KC 2001 Edson Buddle CLB 2002 Zak Ibsen SJ 2003 Daouda Kante NE 2004 Hong Myung-Bo LA 2005 Kenny Cutler RSL 2006 Kelly Gray HOU 2007 Bobby Boswell DC 2008 Ezra Hendrickson CLB 2009 Shavar Thomas CHV 5. Most FC Compared to FS And the winner is... San Jose's Quincy Amarikwa wins his second award. He committed 2.093 more fouls per 90 minutes than he suffered. For the fourth straight year, the winner of Most FC also wins Most FC compared to FS. You'd think that happens every year, but it actually never happened in the league's first ten seasons. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC FS FC FS 1 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 2.093 602 24 10 3.59 1.50 2 Rodney Wallace DC 1.629 2265 52 11 2.07 0.44 3 Jovan Kirovski LA 1.498 1202 30 10 2.25 0.75 4 Eduardo Lillingston CHV 1.496 1263 37 16 2.64 1.14 5 Edson Buddle LA 1.434 1255 36 16 2.58 1.15 6 Aaron Pitchkolan DAL/SJ 1.426 631 12 2 1.71 0.29 7 Yamith Cuesta CHV 1.374 786 15 3 1.72 0.34 8 Julius James HOU/DC 1.334 1214 25 7 1.85 0.52 9 Atiba Harris CHV/DAL 1.178 2139 55 27 2.31 1.14 10 Andy Iro CLB 1.141 631 12 4 1.71 0.57 I know Kirovski gets bashed a lot already, but shouldn't a creative player like him (right?) do better in this category? Second top tens for Harris/Pitchkolan (both 2007). All Time Winners 1996 Curt Onalfo LA 1997 Cle Kooiman TB 1998 Cle Kooiman MIA 1999 Geoff Aunger DC 2000 Ricardo Iribarren DAL 2001 Brian Namoff DC 2002 Raul Palacios COL 2003 Diego Walsh CLB 2004 Simo Valakari DAL 2005 Esteban Arias CHV 2006 Marcelo Saragosa LA/DAL 2007 Roberto Brown COL 2008 Rod Dyachenko DC 2009 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 6. Most FS Compared to FC And the winner is... Three years, three wins in this category for the Chicago Fire's Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who just edges out Ljungberg. The winning number of 1.798 more FS per 90 minutes than FC is by far the lowest #1 total in league history, 26% lower than Blanco's total last year (the previous low #1). 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC FS FC FS 1 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI -1.798 1452 10 39 0.62 2.42 2 Freddie Ljungberg SEA -1.765 1836 31 67 1.52 3.28 3 Amaechi Igwe NE -1.290 628 5 14 0.72 2.01 4 Santino Quaranta DC -1.272 1769 15 40 0.76 2.04 5 Justin Mapp CHI -1.244 1013 3 17 0.27 1.51 6 David Ferreira DAL -1.170 2692 23 58 0.77 1.94 7 Brian McBride CHI -1.100 1963 9 33 0.41 1.51 8 Javier Morales RSL -1.084 2076 30 55 1.30 2.38 9 Mike Banner CHI -1.051 942 6 17 0.57 1.62 10 Jair Benitez DAL -0.935 1155 10 22 0.78 1.71 Look at all the Fire players. Does this mean they're a creative team, or just soft? They did win the team fair play award this year by a wide margin. Mapp (5th) and McBride (7th) make this top ten on what seems like a yearly basis. Also, Igwe...really? He did barely qualify with 628 minutes, so I wonder how a full season would look. All Time Winners 1996 Giuseppe Galderisi NE/TB 1997 Damian DAL 1998 Gilmar TB 1999 Jason Moore DC 2000 DaMarcus Beasley CHI 2001 Onandi Lowe KC 2002 Brian McBride CLB 2003 Jose Cancela NE 2004 Jose Cancela NE 2005 Jose Cancela NE 2006 Jose Cancela NE 2007 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI 2008 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI 2009 Cuauhtemoc Blanco CHI 7. Most FC + FS And the winner is... San Jose's Quincy Amarikwa is a triple winner. Sure it's a small sample size (602 minutes), barely over the 20% minimum, but rules are rules. The only other player to win three foul awards in a single year was Onandi Lowe of KC in 2001. Lowe played over 1,000 minutes that year and set a record for the highest fouls suffered rate, which is a pretty good accomplishment. The interesting thing will be watching Amarikwa next year and seeing if this holds up. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC FS FC FS 1 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 5.083 602 24 10 3.59 1.50 2 Alan Gordon LA 5.055 1175 38 28 2.91 2.14 3 Freddie Ljungberg SEA 4.804 1836 31 67 1.52 3.28 4 Steven Lenhart CLB 4.732 1065 33 23 2.79 1.94 5 Ben Olsen DC 4.661 1371 36 35 2.36 2.30 6 Macoumba Kandji NY 4.623 1752 43 47 2.21 2.41 7 Conor Casey COL 4.442 2087 62 41 2.67 1.77 8 Fredy Montero SEA 4.425 2217 47 62 1.91 2.52 9 Pablo Campos SJ/RSL 4.362 1011 29 20 2.58 1.78 10 Cam Weaver SJ/HOU 4.080 772 20 15 2.33 1.75 Atiba Harris, where have you gone? Alas, the two-time former winner only could finish 27th this year. If the pattern holds, he should again be first in 2010. The only previous top ten finisher is Olsen; it's his 7th top ten here! A warrior for sure. All Time Winners 1996 Alberto Naveda NE 1997 Paul Keegan NE 1998 Evans Wise NE/TB 1999 Paulo Dos Santos NE 2000 Diego Serna MIA 2001 Onandi Lowe KC 2002 Alejandro Moreno LA 2003 DaMarcus Beasley CHI 2004 Andy Williams CHI 2005 Brian Ching SJ 2006 Atiba Harris RSL 2007 Andrea Lombardo TOR 2008 Atiba Harris CHV 2009 Quincy Amarikwa SJ 8. Least FC + FS And the winner is... The second rookie to claim an award, Sam Cronin of Toronto FC. He was second to Shavar Thomas in fouls suffered, but here he's second to none. Like Thomas, he also sets an all time record by being involved in only 0.533 fouls per game either way. 2009 Top Ten Team Per 90 Min FC FS FC FS 1 Sam Cronin TOR 0.533 2363 12 2 0.46 0.08 2 Josh Tudela LA 0.706 637 3 2 0.42 0.28 3 Jacob Peterson COL 0.716 1131 3 6 0.24 0.48 4 Eric Denton SJ 0.785 803 3 4 0.34 0.45 5 Simon Elliott SJ 0.802 1234 8 3 0.58 0.22 6 Scott Palguta COL 0.823 1749 11 5 0.57 0.26 7 Darrius Barnes NE 0.833 2700 18 7 0.60 0.23 8 Chris Tierney NE 0.862 1044 8 2 0.69 0.17 9 Sean Franklin LA 0.880 1125 7 4 0.56 0.32 10 Bobby Burling CHV/SJ 0.884 713 5 2 0.63 0.25 Cronin is taking over this award for fellow Wake Forest alumni Michael Parkhurst. Denton makes a second top ten appearance in this category. All Time Winners 1996 Frank Yallop TB 1997 David Patino COL 1998 Leo Cullen MIA 1999 Leo Cullen MIA 2000 Eric Denton DC 2001 Leo Cullen MIA/NE 2002 Richard Farrer DAL 2003 Chris Brown KC/NE 2004 Kelly Gray CHI 2005 Clyde Simms DC 2006 Terry Cooke COL 2007 Michael Parkhurst NE 2008 Michael Parkhurst NE 2009 Sam Cronin TOR Further Reading Foul Awards 2008

MLS Sporcle Quizzes

I've made a couple of new ones. A great way to kill some free time! MLS Players Off The Pitch - How familiar are you with the off the field activities of past and present MLSers? Includes both well-known and obscure examples. First MLS Game - Name the players and more from the April 6, 1996 clash between San Jose and DC United. Previous quizzes I've made: MLS Best XIs - Name the members of from each year (1996-2008). FIFA Members That Aren't Countries - Not MLS related, but any fan of CONCACAF should do well here.

MLS Goal Details 2009

Taken from the game guide pdfs on MLSnet. They appear each week, and also in the playoffs. For the non-playoff teams who played each other last week (NY-TOR, KC-DC), I've added in the stats myself. I'll say it again: MLS should really promote these stats as they are very detailed and interesting and just get buried in the game guides. Totals Goals 571 100.00% Right Foot 300 52.54% Left Foot 155 27.15% Headers 114 19.96% Other 2 0.35% Open Play 289 50.61% Cross 111 19.44% Corner 43 7.53% Rebound 24 4.20% Penalties 49 8.58% Direct From FK 18 3.15% FK (indirect) 19 3.33% Own goals 18 3.15% Inside Goal Area 152 26.62% Inside Penalty Area 339 59.37% Outside Penalty Area 80 14.01% Compared to Previous Years 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Right Foot 48.21% 56.62% 57.65% 57.72% 53.98% 52.54% Left Foot 32.65% 23.77% 26.64% 23.75% 26.90% 27.15% Headers 18.37% 18.15% 15.51% 17.57% 18.44% 19.96% Other 0.77% 1.45% 0.20% 0.97% 0.68% 0.35% Open Play 52.04% 51.72% 49.50% 47.30% 51.78% 50.61% Cross 21.43% 19.60% 18.09% 18.34% 18.61% 19.44% Corner 6.63% 6.53% 7.36% 8.11% 6.77% 7.53% Rebound N/A N/A 7.36% 7.14% 6.09% 4.20% Penalties 9.95% 9.07% 6.96% 9.07% 6.09% 8.58% Direct From FK 2.55% 3.45% 2.98% 3.09% 2.88% 3.15% FK (indirect) 5.36% 6.72% 5.57% 5.21% 5.08% 3.33% Own goals 2.04% 2.90% 2.19% 1.74% 2.71% 3.15% Inside Goal Area 26.79% 25.05% 26.84% 22.59% 21.15% 26.62% Inside Penalty Area 61.99% 60.80% 56.86% 62.16% 60.74% 59.37% Outside Penalty Area 11.22% 14.16% 16.30% 15.25% 18.10% 14.01% Team Breakdowns: Offense CHI CHV CLB COL DAL DC HOU KC LA NE NY RSL SEA SJ TOR Goals 39 34 41 42 50 43 39 33 36 33 27 43 38 36 37 Right Foot 16 21 18 25 31 28 18 13 16 17 18 22 22 11 24 Left Foot 15 9 10 10 9 8 11 15 11 6 6 14 12 15 4 Headers 7 3 13 7 10 7 10 5 9 10 3 7 4 10 9 Other 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Open Play 22 19 15 23 27 21 16 13 19 14 15 25 25 14 21 Cross 7 7 12 6 9 4 10 8 6 11 3 7 5 10 6 Corner 2 0 6 1 5 2 6 3 4 0 0 4 7 0 3 Rebound 0 2 1 4 0 2 0 2 1 1 3 1 1 2 4 Penalties 4 3 4 5 3 8 2 2 3 5 3 2 0 5 0 Direct From FK 1 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 FK (indirect) 1 1 1 0 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 Own goals 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 3 0 2 1 Inside Goal Area 4 10 11 10 14 8 16 16 9 8 8 7 14 9 8 Inside Penalty Area 29 20 28 25 24 29 16 9 21 22 15 33 21 23 24 Outside Penalty Area 6 4 2 7 12 6 7 8 6 3 4 3 3 4 5 Team Breakdowns: Defense CHI CHV CLB COL DAL DC HOU KC LA NE NY RSL SEA SJ TOR Goals 34 31 31 38 47 44 29 42 31 37 47 35 29 50 46 Right Foot 20 18 14 17 22 20 19 27 18 17 24 20 14 24 26 Left Foot 8 6 11 9 15 12 5 7 8 14 14 10 10 14 12 Headers 6 7 6 12 10 11 5 8 5 6 9 5 5 12 7 Other 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Open Play 15 17 17 16 22 19 15 22 13 16 27 20 18 25 26 Cross 5 6 7 5 7 10 4 9 7 6 10 9 4 12 10 Corner 2 1 1 5 7 2 6 2 3 5 1 2 0 4 2 Rebound 2 1 2 3 2 2 0 3 2 0 3 2 2 1 0 Penalties 5 3 1 5 4 5 2 3 5 2 5 1 1 3 4 Direct From FK 2 1 2 1 2 1 0 1 1 3 1 0 0 1 2 FK (indirect) 2 1 0 3 0 3 2 2 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 Own goals 1 1 1 0 3 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 3 2 1 Inside Goal Area 7 10 6 10 15 12 6 13 13 12 10 10 7 13 9 Inside Penalty Area 20 17 20 25 26 28 19 22 14 17 29 18 19 33 31 Outside Penalty Area 7 4 5 3 6 4 4 7 4 8 8 7 3 4 6 If you're looking at this really carefully, you may notice an error. For offense, there are 289 open play goals and 24 rebounds, as well as 152 inside goal area and 339 inside penalty area. For defense, the numbers are 288-25 and 153-338. I checked, and it's not from any of the non-playoff teams that I manually added. Maybe at a later date I'll go through each week's game guides to find the error...not now. Some interesting things to point out: Corner kick goals. For the past four seasons, the MLS Cup winner has been in the top three percentage wise. Here's this year's breakdown: Corners Goals PCT 1 SEA 167 7 4.19% 2 CLB 144 6 4.17% 2 HOU 144 6 4.17% 4 DAL 146 5 3.42% 5 LA 138 4 2.90% 6 RSL 160 4 2.50% 7 TOR 129 3 2.33% 8 KC 157 3 1.91% 9 DC 127 2 1.57% 10 CHI 183 2 1.09% 11 COL 134 1 0.75% 12 CHV 129 0 0.00% 12 NE 118 0 0.00% 12 NY 135 0 0.00% 12 SJ 157 0 0.00% Total 2168 43 1.98% The total PCT of 1.98% is lower this year: Corners Goals PCT 2009 2168 43 1.98% 2008 1980 40 2.02% 2007 1826 42 2.30% 2006 1751 37 2.11% 2005 1776 36 2.03% 2004 1554 26 1.67% Of course, keep in mind that due to the way MLS counts things, there are actually more goals scored off corners. I believe that if a corner is sent in and headed on goal, parried by the keeper back to an attacker who then puts in home, that would count as a rebound goal rather than a corner goal. And Blanco's corner vs CHV last week would go down as an own goal, because that's a separate category. Stuff that jumped out at me: KC and SJ were the only teams with more left-footed goals than right-footed. LA only allowed 13 goals from "open play," the fewest in the league. DAL led the league by far in goals scored outside the area. CLB was last. CLB had the most goals with the head, and also lead the league in goals from crosses. They were right among the leaders in corner goals as well. SEA didn't allowed a goal off a corner all year. I would include "defensive corner" percentages, but I have no way of easily getting corners against stats without going through all the match reports. HOU and KC had the highest rates of goals scored "inside goal area," which means the six-yard box. CHI and NE both were at the top of goals against from outside the area. Will we see any long distance bombs in their series? NE gave away 4 own goals this year, the most in any year so far (2004-09). See anything else interesting? Further Reading 2008 Goal Details 2007 Goal Details

OTFATT 2009: Final Update

Previous Updates #1 4/12 68 players remaining #2 5/25 34 players remaining #3 6/25 23 players remaining #4 7/19 11 players remaining #5 8/17 5 players remaining OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In these updates throughout the season, I've kept track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). The season is over, and we have four survivors: three you could've guessed in March (Busch, Hartman, Onstad) and one that shocked everyone (Barnes). The only player to drop off in the past two months was Joe Cannon, who was rested by San Jose in a couple of their meaningless final games. Darrius Barnes benefited from the injury to Gabrielle Badilla in preseason and never looked back. Kind of like Michael Parkhurst's story, who replaced the worn out Carlos Llamosa in 2005. The two NE center backs from ACC colleges are the last two rookies to accomplish the feat. Nick Garcia in 2000 is the only other rookie on the list below. Some stats: Playing every minute is still a rare feat, it's only happened 39 times over the past 14 seasons (by 29 different players). Goalkeepers have taken the all time edge over field players: 20-19. That's actually the first time they've held the edge in league history, and I'd be shocked to see it swing back the other way. KC players have accomplished OTFATT 10 times, leading the league. Runners up are NE with 7. 5 teams have not had a player play every minute: CHV, DAL, MIA, SEA, and TOR. Kevin Hartman has played every minute for three straight season; that's unprecedented. He holds the league record for consecutive minutes played. Jon Busch is back on the list for a second straight year. He's the sixth player to repeat after Peter Vermes (1999-00), Scott Garlick (2000-01), Pat Onstad (2005-06), Matt Reis (2006-07), and Kevin Hartman (2007-09). A total of 8 players have multiple appearances: the six mentioned in the last bullet point, and also Joe Cannon and Nick Rimando. Pat Onstad didn't repeat, but he's still standing for a third time. That's a record now shared by him and Hartman. All this while becoming the league's second oldest player ever. 1996-2009: Played Every Minute (players in bold played every minute of every game in all competitions, goalkeepers in italics) 1996 Preki (KC), Steve Trittschuh (COL) 1997 Mike Burns (NE) 1998 (none) 1999 Peter Vermes (COL) 2000 Joseph Addo (TB), Nick Garcia (KC), Scott Garlick (TB), Peter Vermes (KC) 2001 Scott Garlick (TB/COL), Tim Howard (NY), Steve Jolley (NY), Zach Thornton (CHI), Kerry Zavagnin (KC) 2002 Nick Rimando (DC) 2003 Tony Meola (KC) 2004 Joe Cannon (COL), Jim Curtin (CHI), Richard Mulrooney (SJ), Steve Ralston (NE) 2005 Todd Dunivant (LA), Simon Elliott (CLB), Pat Onstad (SJ), Bo Oshoniyi (KC), Michael Parkhurst (NE) 2006 Pat Onstad (HOU), Matt Reis (NE) 2007 Kevin Hartman (KC), Chris Klein (RSL/LA), Matt Reis (NE) 2008 Jon Busch (CHI), Joe Cannon (SJ), Jimmy Conrad (KC), Kevin Hartman (KC), Jay Heaps (NE), Nick Rimando (RSL) 2009 Darrius Barnes (NE), Jon Busch (CHI), Kevin Hartman (KC), Pat Onstad (HOU) Order of teams being totally wiped out for 2009, with last surviving player: 1. NY - Dane Richards (4/18) 2. CLB - Brian Carroll (5/27) 3. SEA - Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (6/14) 4. RSL - Will Johnson (6/27) 5. LA - Omar Gonzalez (6/28) 6. TOR - Adrian Serioux (7/18) 7. COL - Jordan Harvey (7/18) 8. DAL - David Ferreira (8/1) 9. CHV - Carey Talley & Zach Thornton (8/8) 10. DC - Bryan Namoff (8/15) 11. SJ - Joe Cannon (9/27) *Toronto's Nick Garcia was eliminated on 8/15. However, he was traded mid-season and had played every minute he was available for two teams - SJ & TOR. Toronto themselves had no players left after Adrian Serioux.

All Time Best MLS Teams Post Updated!

I won't put it on the main page because it's such a long post, so check it out here: All Time Best & Worst MLS Teams (single season & multiple) How do this year's teams stack up? Columbus lost three of their last four, which means that they ended up tied for the worst Supporters Shield winners ever with the 2004 Crew. Technically though, I have the 2009 version ranked ahead due to goal difference. With the parity this year, the Crew only ended up with the 32nd best regular season in league history. RSL had their best year ever (on GD over last year), as did Toronto. Still, neither of them have had a winning record yet. No other team ended up with a best or worst year in franchise history. New York needed a point to avoid their worst year ever on the final day, and they did it. Speaking of NY, the Red Bulls only ended up as the 5th worst single season ever.

MLS Week 32 Notes

This is my favorite time of the year to blog. Not because it's playoff time, but rather because the regular season is over and I can get into the business of comparing this year's teams historically. I'll have plenty of material in the coming weeks, so check back often. However, there's still two more games to play today. Let's discuss some things that happened this weekend first. 1) New England must get a result (win or draw) today in Columbus to return to the MLS playoffs. But that's not all - the Revolution streak of seven straight years in the playoffs is at stake. That's not just tops in Major League Soccer, but tied for 6th among the top five sports leagues in the US. Click on the link for a full list (which has yet to be updated with the latest MLB season, but that doesn't affect the Revs' position). Only the Red Wings, Spurs, Devils, Mavericks, and Pistons have longer streaks. It would also be Steve Nicol's first season without making it (not counting his interim coaching stint in 1999). 2) Team MVP winners are starting to be announced. They're usually given out at the team's last home game, though not every team does that. Already, I've seen articles naming Jeff Cunningham, Shalrie Joseph, Josh Wolff, and Nat Borchers (interesting) as winners. Check out the full list of previous winners (1996-2008) here, which I'll be sure to update once all 2009 winners are known. 3) All of the interconference games are done, and for the first time in five seasons, the west has finished on top. The final record was 45-37-30, with the Los Angeles Galaxy dominating to the tune of 8-1-5 vs eastern opponents. That does mean that LA was under .500 against its own conference, interestingly. In the 14 MLS seasons, the east has been the top conference/division 7 times (96-97, 03, 05-08) and the west has been on top 6 times (98-99, 01-02, 04, 09). The extinct central division was first in 2000, with the west finishing second. So I guess you could say that both east and west have been better than the other an equal 7 times. 4) Barring something crazy, Jeff Cunningham is the 2009 MLS Golden Boot winner with 17 goals. At the age of 32.86 (on July 1st), he's the oldest winner (see Golden Boot Ages). Previously, Alex Pineda Chacon was the oldest at 31.53 years of age. Let's hope Cunningham doesn't fall off the way he did. 5) Questionable coaching decisions last night? In all the all-important final match, Gary Smith started Preston Burpo over Matt Pickens in goal for the Rapids. I know their fans weren't happy about that, and it looks like their fears were justified with the way the match turned out. You have to question him leaving his line on the second goal and also the angle on the third (Yura's). Speaking of which, Movsisyan is always great on breakaways and one-on-ones. Possibly the best in the league in those situations. It was surprising to see Schellas Hyndman wait until the 81st minute to insert Marvin Chavez into the match for Dallas. He waited 20 minutes after the equalizer to make an offensive substitution in a situation where their season depended on another goal. Tom Soehn didn't start Jaime Moreno, among other "really interesting roster moves". I only watched the last 15 minutes, but he looked like the biggest threat on the field for United. Of course, they were so close to a game winner and a playoff berth in stoppage time, and then Soehn would've been something of a genius. DC's failure to make the playoffs may not look like a huge collapse based on the weekly standings, but it was. They had five straight league games at home before last night and only went 2-3-0.

2009 MLS Awards Voting Details

Voting for the 2009 MLS Year End Awards is underway. I've learned some interesting things about this season's voting process: 1) For the Best XI, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Landon Donovan are listed as midfielders this year, while Guillermo Barros Schelotto is listed as a forward. You may remember the unfortunate situation from two years ago, where Blanco was a finalist for the MVP award yet missing from the Best XI. That was because MLS only allows two forwards on the Best XI, and that year he and the other two MVP finalists (Juan Pablo Angel and Luciano Emilio) were all in the forwards category. So for this season, with no Donovan in the way, I'd expect Jeff Cunningham and Schelotto to be the two forwards. If Donovan had been listed as a forward, then we could've seen a repeat of Blanco 2007 if those three players end up as the MVP finalists. 2) Rookie of the Year. Eligible for the voting are Alex Grendi (127 minutes played), Stefan Dimitrov (124), Danny Cruz (107), Michael Holody (80), Peri Marosevic (47), and Andrew Dykstra (0, seriously). Missing are Nick Zimmerman (757), Graham Zusi (434) and O'Brian White (343). How is player who hasn't played a game in the running when others who have actually contributed aren't? From what I understand, MLS teams are responsible for providing nominees, so they're likely to blame. But hey, Dykstra did get 90 minutes in the Open Cup. 3) Jhon Kennedy Hurtado will not be among the Newcomer of the Year finalists. Neither will his Sounders teammate Osvaldo Alonso. Seattle's nominees for the position are Keller, Ljungberg, and Moreno (I believe the limit is three for each team), so the other two aren't in the running. Meanwhile, Hurtado is listed as 5th by the MLSnet Awards Tracker for that award. 4) Referee Jorge Gonzalez, who made the awful diving call on Chris Rolfe this past weekend, is one of six people in the running for Referee of the Year. If he turns out to be a finalist, I'll be really disappointed.

FIFA Business: Seeding Formula, Pots, & 2014 Spots

1) The 2010 seeding formula. Using the previous formula (from 2006), it appears that Portugal's resurgence may see them get seeded after all at the expense of France. They were always in good shape as long as they managed to qualify, and that looks very likely now. The same eight teams have been in the running ever since July 2006, so one good team is going to get let out no matter what. Now despite what the formula shows us currently, we can never be certain as to what FIFA will actually do. The average person on the street would probably say that the previous World Cup runner up (France) should be seeded ahead of a team that barely qualified (Argentina). Remember, they've changed it slightly the past few World Cups. BTW, I didn't see this Soccernet article until now. US Soccer president Sunil Gulati doesn't know what the formula was in 2006. He said it included "...50 percent for performance over the last three World Cups" which is incorrect. Acutally, they only used the past two World Cups for the 2006 formula. Also wrong is author Frank Dell'Apa, so I guess that gives you an idea of how many people really follow this stuff closely. I'd really expect Gulati to know better. Anyway, there's speculation that this time only the current FIFA ranking could be used, maybe by itself or in conjunction with the previous World Cup performance half of the formula. I would approve such a decision. Why? Well, one thing that I always forget about until somebody mentions it is the fact that because the FIFA rankings half of the formula includes snapshots from three separate years (12/2007, 12/2008, 11/2009), matches from some years count more than others. The current FIFA rankings procedure takes into account the past four years worth of results (before 2006 it was eight years). Those results are weighted 100-50-30-20. If the seeding formula stays the same and uses three years worth of FIFA rankings, what they're doing is this: Dec-07 Dec-08 Nov-09 Total PCT 2009 100 100 16.7% 2008 100 50 150 25.0% 2007 100 50 30 180 30.0% 2006 50 30 20 100 16.7% 2005 30 20 50 8.3% 2004 20 20 3.3% So matches from 2007 are counted the most, closely followed by 2008. Compare this to only using Nov-09: Only Current Nov-09 2009 17% 50% 2008 25% 25% 2007 30% 15% 2006 17% 10% 2005 8% 2004 3% It makes more sense to do it this way when determined who should be seeded for next year. The whole idea of using the rankings in the formula is to measure who's the best right now, isn't it? And then since the other half involves previous World Cups, that half is for who was the best in the past, which gives you a formula that involves both past and present. 2) Not only will FIFA have to decide what formula to use, they'll also have to decide the four pots for the World Cup draw. Unless they decide to seed all pots (which IMO is a good idea, but that's another post), the top pot should consist of seeded teams and the second pot of UEFA teams. That leaves the following 16 teams left: 4.5 - AFC 5.0 - CAF 2.5 - CONMEBOL 3.5 - CONCACAF 0.5 - OFC Last time, AFC/CONCACAF/OFC was one pot and CAF/CONMEBOL was another. Before, it ws CAF/CONCACAF. What will they do this time? If Uruguay wins the playoff with Costa Rica, it makes things simple. CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would each be at three teams, and either could be paired with the five teams of AFC/OFC or CAF. If Costa Rica & New Zealand win, then you would expect the only option to be AFC/CONCACAF (4 + 4) and CAF/CONMEBOL/OFC (5 + 2 + 1). But if Costa Rica & Bahrain win, things get messy: 5.0 - AFC 5.0 - CAF 2.0 - CONMEBOL 4.0 - CONCACAF 0.0 - OFC Now this is where Edgar has suggested we could see the return of the dreaded "special pot" which was used for Serbia & Montenegro in 2006 when things didn't add up evenly. That's something to look out for. Or, they could just draw the groups instead of the teams which would be the fairer way to do it. That probably makes too much sense for FIFA, though. 3) I was discussing the possible 2014 World Cup qualifying playoffs on Bigsoccer the other day. No, it's not too early. Will the number of spots for each confederation change? Here's what I was thinking: The interesting thing for 2014 will be how Brazil hosting affects things. For 2010, they decided to give CAF 5 spots plus the host spot for a total of 6. That never used to be the case; before, they would've given CAF 4+host for a total of 5 (taking the host spot out of the normal number). So if they continue with the 2010 policy, Brazil as host should mean their spot wouldn't come out of the 4.5 for CONMEBOL. However, 5.5 total spots for that region (out of 10 teams) seems like a lot. Remember, for 2006 they originally reduced it to 4 (giving OFC a full spot) before changing it back. I would be kind of surprised to see CONMEBOL with 5.5. Given the way AFC didn't lose their spots after 2002, I wonder if FIFA might do something like give CONMEBOL only 4+host and then give the extra 0.5 to CAF. Thoughts?

CONCACAF Hex Statistics

The hexagonal or "hex" has been in its current form for four cycles: 1998/2002/2006/2010. The fourth edition has just been completed. The USA and Mexico are now tied with identical all time records of 22-8-10, though Mexico is ahead with a better goal differential. What else is new statistically? Carlos Pavon of Honduras won the golden boot for the second time (2002, 2010), and also became the hex's all time leading scorer. His 7 goals also tied for the most in one hex with Mexico's Carlos Hermosillo in 1998. This was also the highest scoring edition, as well as the one with the largest home field advantage. Home teams combined for a 20-5-5 record. The top team in hex history is still 2002 Costa Rica with 23 points. They're immediately followed in the rankings by all 8 Mexico and USA teams. See below for the full list. Some hex statistics: Goals per Game & Draw Percentage Goals Draws 1998 2.53 43.3% 2002 2.43 20.0% 2006 2.77 13.3% 2010 2.93 16.7% OVR 2.67 23.3% Home Field Advantage HFA Home Away 1998 1.30 1.93 0.63 2002 0.40 1.60 1.20 2006 1.40 2.13 0.73 2010 1.50 2.17 0.67 OVR 1.15 1.96 0.81 Measured as home PPG minus away PPG. For comparison, the all time home field advantage in MLS is around 0.67 PPG. Golden Boot Winners 1998 Carlos Hermosillo 7 MEX 2002 Rolando Fonseca 5 CR Carlos Pavon 5 HON Cuauhtemoc Blanco 5 MEX Earnie Stewart 5 USA 2006 Francisco Fonseca 6 MEX Stern John 6 TRI 2010 Carlos Pavon 7 HON Pavon becomes the first two-time winner, and who would've guessed it a year ago? Team Ranking GP W L D Pts PPG GF GA GD 1 2002 Costa Rica 10 7 1 2 23 2.30 17 7 10 2 2006 Mexico 10 7 2 1 22 2.20 22 9 13 3 2006 United States 10 7 2 1 22 2.20 16 6 10 4 2010 United States 10 6 2 2 20 2.00 19 13 6 5 2010 Mexico 10 6 3 1 19 1.90 18 12 6 6 1998 Mexico 10 4 0 6 18 1.80 23 7 16 7 1998 United States 10 4 1 5 17 1.70 17 9 8 8 2002 Mexico 10 5 3 2 17 1.70 16 9 7 9 2002 United States 10 5 3 2 17 1.70 11 8 3 10 2010 Honduras 10 5 4 1 16 1.60 17 11 6 11 2006 Costa Rica 10 5 4 1 16 1.60 15 14 1 12 2010 Costa Rica 10 5 4 1 16 1.60 15 15 0 13 2002 Honduras 10 4 4 2 14 1.40 17 17 0 14 1998 Jamaica 10 3 2 5 14 1.40 7 12 -5 15 2006 Trinidad 10 4 5 1 13 1.30 10 15 -5 16 1998 Costa Rica 10 3 4 3 12 1.20 13 12 1 17 2006 Guatemala 10 3 5 2 11 1.10 16 18 -2 18 1998 El Salvador 10 2 4 4 10 1.00 11 16 -5 19 2010 El Salvador 10 2 6 2 8 0.80 9 15 -6 20 2002 Jamaica 10 2 6 2 8 0.80 7 14 -7 21 2010 Trinidad 10 1 6 3 6 0.60 10 22 -12 22 1998 Canada 10 1 6 3 6 0.60 5 20 -15 23 2002 Trinidad 10 1 7 2 5 0.50 5 18 -13 24 2006 Panama 10 0 8 2 2 0.20 4 21 -17 Overall Performance (1998-2010) GP W L D Pts PPG GF GA GD 1 Mexico 40 22 8 10 76 1.90 79 37 42 2 United States 40 22 8 10 76 1.90 63 36 27 3 Costa Rica 40 20 13 7 67 1.68 60 48 12 4 Honduras 20 9 8 3 30 1.50 34 28 6 5 Trinidad 30 6 18 6 24 0.80 25 55 -30 6 Jamaica 20 5 8 7 22 1.10 14 26 -12 7 El Salvador 20 4 10 6 18 0.90 20 31 -11 8 Guatemala 10 3 5 2 11 1.10 16 18 -2 9 Canada 10 1 6 3 6 0.60 5 20 -15 10 Panama 10 0 8 2 2 0.20 4 21 -17 Leading Goalscorers Total 1998 2002 2006 2010 HON Carlos Pavon 12 5 7 CR Paulo Wanchope 10 3 4 3 TRI Stern John 9 3 6 MEX Cuauhtemoc Blanco 8 5 3 MEX Carlos Hermosillo 7 7 MEX Jared Borgetti 7 3 4 CR Alvaro Saborio 6 2 4 MEX Francisco Fonseca 6 6 USA Earnie Stewart 6 1 5 USA Landon Donovan 6 3 3 Pavon passed Wanchope on September 5th, 2009, with his second goal in the 4-1 win over Trinidad & Tobago. No player has scored in all four hexes. Three have scored in 3/4: Ronald Gomez, Pavel Pardo, and Wanchope.

208 to 1: World Cup 2010 Eliminations Timeline

UPDATE: Down to 41. Next update in November, with only 9 more eliminations until the field is set. Yes, we'll all know pretty soon who ends up qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. At that time and many years into the future, it will be easy to look at the qualifying standings to see how things turned out. However, one thing that can't easily be determined from a simple glance at the standings is exactly when each team fell out of contention. It's fairly obvious if you look at the schedule for a minute or two, but that takes some effort. So what I set out to do is to make a list of exactly when each team was officially eliminated, and here it is. You'll see the overall order of each team to the left of their name, counting down from 208 (the number of FIFA members, hence this post's title). The number to the right of the team is their order of elimination within their region. Order of Elimination March 30, 2007 206 (tie). Brunei Darussalam (AFC-44th, tie) 206 (tie). Laos (AFC-44th, tie) 206 (tie). Philippines (AFC-44th, tie) The only three FIFA members not to enter qualifying. May 25, 2007 204. Papau New Guinea (OFC-11th) Were listed as participating in qualifying but apparently "failed to meet the official accreditation" (Wikipedia) before qualifying started. August 7, 2007 205. Guam (AFC-43rd) Withdrew immediately after the AFC preliminary draw. August 29, 2007 203. American Samoa (OFC-10th) First team out during South Pacific Games. August 31, 2007 201 (tie). Central African Republic (CAF-52nd, tie) 201 (tie). São Tomé and Príncipe (CAF-52nd, tie) These two CAF members withdrew before the preliminary round. September 1, 2007 199 (tie). Cook Islands (OFC-8th, tie) 199 (tie). Tahiti (OFC-8th, tie) September 3, 2007 198. Samoa (OFC-7th) 197. Tonga (OFC-6th) September 7, 2007 196. Solomon Islands (OFC-5th) Only four teams remained after the first round of OFC qualifying (aka the South Pacific Games). The first tiebreaker during qualifying is goal differential, and I have Samoa being eliminated before Tonga because of it. Allow me to explain: With one match in the round robin remaining and the second spot to advance still undecided, Vanuatu has 6 points, Samoa 6, and Tonga 3. Samoa has completed all their games with a +1 goal differential; Vanuatu (+17) and Tonga (-1) face each other in the final match. A Tonga win would mean a three way tie, but it is impossible for Samoa's goal differential to be tops in that scenario. September 13, 2007 195. Bhutan (AFC-42nd) Also withdrew from qualifying. October 15, 2007 194. Macau (AFC-41st) October 26, 2007 193. Afghanistan (AFC-40th) October 28, 2007 191 (tie). Mongolia (AFC-38th, tie) 191 (tie). Timor-Leste (AFC-38th, tie) 190. Myanmar (AFC-37th) 189. Nepal (AFC-36th) 187 (tie). Bangladesh (AFC-34th, tie) 187 (tie). Palestine (AFC-34th, tie) 186. Chinese Taipei (AFC-33rd) 184 (tie). Maldives (AFC-31st, tie) 184 (tie). Pakistan (AFC-31st, tie) 183. Malaysia (AFC-30th) 182. Cambodia (AFC-29th) 181. Vietnam (AFC-28th) 180. Sri Lanka (AFC-27th) 179. Kyrgyzstan (AFC-26th) October 30, 2007 178. India (AFC-25th) First round of Asian qualifying. I'm basing the order on the starting times of the matches as well as the time zones of the host countries. Extra time is taken into account too. There are not really any ties here, but I have no way of knowing which games ended first. I would also be unaware if any games were delayed or anything like that, so keep that in mind. November 16, 2007 177. Somalia (CAF-51st) November 17, 2007 176. Comoros (CAF-50th) 175. Guinea-Bissau (CAF-49th) These three lost in the preliminary round of African qualifying. November 18th, 2007 174. Tajikistan (AFC-24th) 173. Yemen (AFC-23rd) 172. Indonesia (AFC-22nd) 171. Hong Kong (AFC-21st) Four teams gone in the small second round of Asian qualifying. March 25, 2008 170. Eritrea (CAF-48th) Withdrew after the group stage was drawn. March 26, 2008 168 (tie). Turks and Caicos Islands (CONCACAF-34th, tie) 168 (tie). U.S. Virgin Islands (CONCACAF-34th, tie) 167. Dominica (CONCACAF-33rd) 166. Aruba (CONCACAF-32nd) 165. Montserrat (CONCACAF-31st) 164. Saint Kitts and Nevis (CONCACAF-30th) 162 (tie). Anguilla (CONCACAF-28th, tie) 162 (tie). Nicaragua (CONCACAF-28th, tie) 161. Dominican Republic (CONCACAF-27th) March 30, 2008 160. British Virgin Islands (CONCACAF-26th) 159. Cayman Islands (CONCACAF-25th) First round of North American qualifying done. June 7, 2008 158. Turkmenistan (AFC-20th) 157. Lebanon (AFC-19th) June 14, 2008 156. Jordan (AFC-18th) 155. Thailand (AFC-17th) 154. Singapore (AFC-16th) 153. China (AFC-15th) 152. Oman (AFC-14th) 151. Kuwait (AFC-13th) 150. Puerto Rico (CONCACAF-24th) June 18, 2008 149. Bahamas (CONCACAF-23rd) June 20, 2008 148. St. Vincent and the Grenandines (CONCACAF-22nd) June 21, 2008 146 (tie). Fiji (OFC-3rd, tie) 146 (tie). Vanuatu (OFC-3rd, tie) 145. Seychelles (CAF-47th) 142 (tie). Belize (CONCACAF-19th, tie) 142 (tie). Grenada (CONCACAF-19th, tie) 142 (tie). St. Lucia (CONCACAF-19th, tie) June 22, 2008 140 (tie). Iraq (AFC-11th, tie) 140 (tie). Syria (AFC-11th, tie) 139. Mauritania (CAF-46th) 138. Djibouti (CAF-45th) 137. Niger (CAF-44th) 135 (tie). Mauritius (CAF-42nd, tie) 135 (tie). Tanzania (CAF-42nd, tie) 134. Barbados (CONCACAF-18th) 133. Guyana (CONCACAF-17th) 132. Antigua and Barbuda (CONCACAF-16th) 131. Bermuda (CONCACAF-15th) 130. Netherlands Antillles (CONCACAF-14th) 129. Panama (CONCACAF-13th) AFC and CONCACAF are now getting into the heart of their qualification methods. Iraq is the first of the reigning confederation champions to be eliminated. I wonder how many such teams have failed to qualify throughout the history of WCQ? Can't be too many. June 28, 2008 128. Lesotho (CAF-41st) September 6, 2008 127. New Caledonia (OFC-2nd) 126. Namibia (CAF-40th) 124 (tie). Equatorial Guinea (CAF-38th, tie) 124 (tie). Liberia (CAF-38th, tie) 123. Burundi (CAF-37th) September 7, 2008 122. Botswana (CAF-36th) New Zealand became the champion of Oceania and also advanced to the Confederations Cup. They'll now wait a year to play their next qualifiers. Also, South Africa was eliminated from the qualifying competition on this date. Of course, they're still guaranteed a spot in the World Cup. September 12, 2008 121. Ethiopia (CAF-35th) Kicked out of the competition by FIFA, in one of the rare instances where they actually followed through on their threats. October 11, 2008 120. Congo DR (CAF-34th) 119. Zimbabwe (CAF-33rd) 115 (tie). Angola (CAF-29th, tie) 115 (tie). Cape Verde (CAF-29th, tie) 115 (tie). Libya (CAF-29th, tie) 115 (tie). Madagascar (CAF-29th, tie) 114. Sierra Leone (CAF-28th) 113. Swaziland (CAF-27th) 112. Senegal (CAF-26th) 110 (tie). Chad (CAF-24th, tie) 110 (tie). Congo (CAF-24th, tie) 109. Canada (CONCACAF-12th) Angola and Cape Verde were hard to figure out because of the second placed teams advancing. I believe they were officially eliminated at the same time, when groups 5 & 7 were settled. Angola becomes the first team from the 2006 World Cup to be eliminated. Meanwhile, Canada surprisingly is the first CONCACAF team out in the semifinal round. Who would've thought that a year after their great 2007 Gold Cup? October 12, 2008 108. Uganda (CAF-23rd) 107. Gambia (CAF-22nd) We're now done with the second round of African qualifying. First of all, I'm really glad that both Angola and South Africa failed to advance. It makes things a whole lot simpler (due to these qualifiers also counting for the 2010 Nations Cup). Of the final 20 teams, in the previous round 10 were #1 seeds. The only two to miss out were Angola and Senegal. 5 were #2 seeds (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Zambia), 4 were #3 seeds (Gabon, Malawi, Rwanda, and Sudan), and 1 was a #4 seed (Kenya). I have to say I'm disappointed to see The Gambia out. They were my surprise pick for a first time qualifier, due to their youth successes recently. Then, seeing some of their players move to MLS only made me more interested in their fate. They played really well, finishing second ahead of Senegal, so they have nothing to be ashamed of. If they're disappointed, they certainly aren't showing it; the president of the country has declared today a public holiday due to the away draw against Senegal. October 15, 2008 106. Cuba (CONCACAF-11th) 104 (tie). Haiti (CONCACAF-9th, tie) 104 (tie). Suriname (CONCACAF-9th, tie) October 19, 2008 103. Jamaica (CONCACAF-8th) 102. Guatemala (CONCACAF-7th) Semifinal round of North American qualifying ends. The hex is set. April 1, 2009 101. United Arab Emirates (AFC-10th) 100. Malta (UEFA-53rd) 99. San Marino (UEFA-52nd) After a near-six month break (by far the longest in the process) we finally can eliminate a couple more teams. The first European casualties are here, and now the number of teams remaining is reduced to double digits. June 6, 2009 98. Georgia (UEFA - 51st) 97. Andorra (UEFA - 50th) 96. Albania (UEFA - 49th) June 10, 2009 95. Qatar (AFC - 9th) 94. Iceland (UEFA - 48th) 93. Kazakhstan (UEFA - 47th) 92. Liechtenstein (UEFA - 46th) 91. Peru (CONMEBOL - 10th) June 17, 2009 90. Uzbekistan (AFC - 8th) 89. Iran (AFC - 7th) Four teams have qualified from Asia, along with the Europe's first, the Netherlands. Iran becomes the second 2006 World Cup team to be eliminated. That's certainly a more shocking elimination than Angola. August 12, 2009 88. Azerbaijan (UEFA - 45th) September 5, 2009 87. Rwanda (CAF - 21st) 86. Armenia (UEFA - 44th) 85. Moldova (UEFA - 43rd) 83 (tie). Guinea (CAF - 19th, tie) 83 (tie). Malawi (CAF - 19th, tie) 82. Estonia (UEFA - 42nd) 79 (tie). Cyprus (UEFA - 39th, tie) 79 (tie). Faroe Islands (UEFA - 39th, tie) 79 (tie). Montenegro (UEFA - 39th, tie) September 6, 2009 76 (tie). Mali (CAF - 16th, tie) 76 (tie). Benin (CAF - 16th, tie) 76 (tie). Sudan (CAF - 16th, tie) African teams in the final round are beginning to drop, as Ghana and Brazil both punched their ticket to the finals. We've gotten to the point now where you can pretty much say, it's either this time or that team for that spot. I'd say of the remaining teams, a good 20 or so have virtually no shot at qualifying. September 9, 2009 75. Belgium (UEFA - 38th) 74. Belarus (UEFA - 37th) 73. Luxembourg (UEFA - 36th) 71 (tie). Macedonia (UEFA - 34th, tie) 71 (tie). Scotland (UEFA - 34th, tie) 69 (tie). Finland (UEFA - 32nd, tie) 69 (tie). Wales (UEFA - 32nd, tie) 68. Saudi Arabia (AFC - 6th) 67. Bolivia (CONMEBOL - 9th) 66. Trinidad & Tobago (CONCACAF - 6th) The Saudis became the third 2006 qualifier to be eliminated this cycle, in heartbreaking fashion by Bahrain. It was funny, because I watched them score around the 90th minute to take the lead. Then, one of their players decided to not to take the ball to the corner a minute later, instead trying to score again. I was thinking it was nice to actually see a player try to go at goal for once in that situation, and of course it costs them. AFC qualifying is now completed. Later on in the day, Trinidad became the 4th 2006 team to fail this time around. Of the other eliminations, Scotland is the only notable one. The others have had no chance for a while now. October 10, 2009 65. Zambia (CAF - 15th) 64. Burkina Faso (CAF - 14th) 62 (tie). Morocco (CAF - 12th, tie) 62 (tie). Togo (CAF - 12th, tie) 61. Turkey (UEFA - 31st) 60. Bulgaria (UEFA - 30th) 57 (tie). Lithuania (UEFA - 27th, tie) 57 (tie). Poland (UEFA - 27th, tie) 57 (tie). Romania (UEFA - 27th, tie) 56. Austria (UEFA - 26th) 54 (tie). Colombia (CONMEBOL - 8th) 54 (tie). El Salvador (CONCACAF - 5th) October 11, 2009 52 (tie). Kenya (CAF - 10th, tie) 52 (tie). Mozambique (CAF - 10th, tie) It was a weekend of many eliminations, but only Colombia looked to have any real hope of making it (and even that was a longshot). At this point, 19 teams have qualified. The dates of qualification can be found on Wikipedia (link). Many of the 32 teams left alive fighting for a berth have only a microscopic chance. We should see another 10 eliminations on Wednesday, and only one (one of Argentina/Ecuador/Uruguay) should give us any drama. Some teams are only alive based on crazy scenarios; what are the odds of Andorra, Luxembourg, Malta, or San Marino getting a result? October 14, 2009 51. Croatia (UEFA - 25th) 49 (tie). Israel (UEFA - 23rd, tie) 49 (tie). Latvia (UEFA - 23rd, tie) 47 (tie). Czech Republic (UEFA - 21st, tie) 47 (tie). Northern Ireland (UEFA - 21st, tie) 44 (tie). Hungary (UEFA - 18th, tie) 44 (tie). Norway (UEFA - 18th, tie) 44 (tie). Sweden (UEFA - 18th, tie) 42 (tie). Ecuador (CONMEBOL - 6th, tie) 42 (tie). Venezuela (CONMEBOL - 6th, tie) None of the crazy scenarios came to pass, so these eliminations were expected. Ecuador will be disappointed at losing to an already qualified Chile. Looks like all the big names will once again make it after Argentina scraped through. All that's left now is African qualifying and the playoffs. For the remaining 9 spots, it's going to be one of two teams: Algeria/Egypt, Cameroon/Gabon, Nigeria/Tunisia, Bahrain/New Zealand, Costa Rica/Uruguay, and the four UEFA playoffs. There are currently 41 teams remaining, broken down by confederation below. 23 teams have qualified, leaving 18 teams for 9 spots. 5-AFC 9-CAF 4-CONCACAF 5-CONMEBOL 1-OFC 17-UEFA

WCQ Time

Once again, it's that time of the calendar. I expect the US to take care of business, so I'll be looking at how the other matches will affect us. If you haven't heard, the big news is that Sepp Blatter announced a week ago that teams will be seeded in UEFA's World Cup qualifying playoffs. The eight playoff teams will be split into two pots based on their FIFA ranking. I'm disappointed by this announcement. First of all, regardless of your opinion on the decision, it's wrong to wait until the competition is almost over to give us the details of the playoff draw. This should've been announced before a single European qualifier had been played. But it's not unexpected, because the same thing happened four years ago. Not just the seeding, but also the fact that they didn't decide on it until right before qualifying ended (link). We ended up with Spain vs Slovakia, remember? Second, I don't see why the big teams need to be protected. If France and Germany both end up in the playoffs, why not have the possibility that both can be drawn against each other? Well, I know why it's this way, but it doesn't make it fair. Teams were already seeded once when the groups were drawn. If France can't win its group as the top seed, then why do they deserve any more protection? I really thought things might be different with Michel Platini in charge of UEFA, especially after the way he restructured the Champions League. How will the seeding change things? As always, Edgar at Football Rankings is on top of the likely FIFA rankings. Based on probable results, we're looking at the following pots: Pot 1: Croatia, France, Portugal, Russia Pot 2: Bosnia, Czech, Greece, Ireland France would've still been favored to qualify without this seeding, but now it just makes things easier for them (and Germany/Russia, Portugal) which also has an impact on American soccer. Protecting the big teams likely makes the 2010 World Cup harder for the United States. However slightly, this does hurt our chances for advancing from the group stage (due to a greater likelihood of a tough draw), as well as our chances for being seeded in future World Cups. As for FIFA's decision making, as Gabriele Marcotti wrote yesterday, regardless of how you examine it they don't come off looking good. This week's qualifiers As an American, we want the following results: 1) Russia vs Germany. This is the big one. We want Russia to defeat Germany and go on to take the automatic berth. Germany is one of the top teams who rarely miss out on qualification and they probably still won't, but at least there's a chance they could be shocked in the playoffs. 2) Argentina. Again, it's not likely, but we should still want them to finish 6th. It's not like Costa Rica could take them in the playoffs, so 5th is as good as qualified. Anyway, they should defeat Peru at home, before traveling to Uruguay for the final match. Assuming that happens, Uruguay must get at least a point in Ecuador tomorrow so that they can still pass Argentina in the final match with a win. Actually, that result is key. Ecuador can still pass Argentina on the final day no matter what happens on Saturday, so we definitely don't want them to win. It'll also probably be necessary for one or both of Colombia/Ecuador to win away on the final day. Here's what we should be hoping for in CONMEBOL: Bolivia vs Brazil - meaningless Argentina vs Peru - Peru win Colombia vs Chile - Colombia win Ecuador vs Uruguay - draw (or URU win) Venezuela vs Paraguay - Venezuela win - Paraguay vs Colombia - Colombia win Uruguay vs Argentina - Uruguay win Peru vs Bolivia - meaningless Brazil vs Venezuela - Venezuela win Chile vs Ecuador - Ecuador win I don't expect Colombia or Venezuela to get those results, so we're relying on Ecuador and Uruguay. Don't forget to check out the CONMEBOL results simulator, which is great fun. 3) Portugal. They're a team with more potential than Sweden, and I'd like to see them crash out. Saturday's matches are key, since both are likely to easily win on Wednesday (Portugal vs Malta, Sweden vs Albania). Portugal should beat Hungary, so Sweden will need a result in Denmark. A draw there probably won't be good enough. If Sweden-Denmark ends in a draw and Portugal wins, Portugal will be ahead going into the final matchday. At the very least (a one goal win), they would be ahead on goals scored and they have a much easier final opponent. Sweden really needs to win in Denmark. They're capable of that; remember the Euro 2008 qualifier where they were going to win there until the match was abandoned?

Home Field Dis-Advantage

A lot has been made this year over the home struggles of the Chicago Fire and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Fire are doing much better away (1.64 PPG) than at home (1.29 PPG). The Galaxy were in that same boat, but they've won their last two home games and are now sporting equal marks (1.57 PPG) home and away. The Wizards are also close to being equal (home = 4-5-4, away = 4-6-4). What the Fire and Galaxy are doing is rare historically in Major League Soccer. I've covered home field advantage before; the number is around 0.67 PPG for all of MLS history. So for the Fire to have a -0.35, that's on pace for the second lowest mark in league history. In fact, only nine of the 149 team seasons from 1996-2008 have seen a team's away record be equal to or better than their home record. Those teams are: Home Away Diff 1999 New York 0.625 0.625 0.000 1998 Tampa Bay 1.188 1.250 -0.063 2003 San Jose 1.667 1.733 -0.067 1997 San Jose 1.063 1.188 -0.125 1999 Tampa Bay 1.125 1.313 -0.188 1998 Los Angeles 2.063 2.313 -0.250 1999 DC United 1.750 2.000 -0.250 2003 New York 1.267 1.533 -0.267 2002 New York 1.000 1.500 -0.500 A mix of teams good and bad. There are two MLS Cup winners in the group, though both excelled in both categories (like 2009 LA) rather than being poor at home (2009 CHI). As always, I'm counting shootouts as draws. How have these nine teams done in the playoffs? Would you expect them to do better on the road there as well? First, four of them failed to qualify. Of the other five, the results are as follows: LA 1998. Easily disposed of the Dallas Burn in round one, winning home and away. They lost to Chicago after a 0:1 home loss and a 1:1 away draw (shootout loss). So they did slightly better away. TB 1999. Swept out of the playoffs after equal 0:2 results away and home against Columbus. DC 1999. Won the MLS Cup after winning the Supporters' Shield. They played much better at home in those playoffs. Started off by sweeping Miami in two games after a home win and an away draw (shootout win). Defeated Columbus by winning both home games in between a 1:5 shellacking in Crew Stadium. NY 2003. Lost the opener vs NE at home 0:2, then drew 1:1 away to lose by two on aggregate. SJ 2003. Won the MLS Cup after famously coming back from four goals down on aggregate in the quarterfinals (at home). Won both home games and lost the only away game. It's interesting that neither of the MLS Cup winners in this group got there by getting an away result in the playoffs. They both played much better at home. Of course, as I mentioned earlier both were excellent in both categories in the regular season (so basically, they were good wherever they played). Anyway, expecting home and/or away form to carry over into the small sample size that is the MLS playoffs isn't very realistic. One of the top ten disparities on the other side (that is, playing much, much better at home) was last year's New York Red Bulls, and they ended up winning two straight away games to make the final. I don't expect the home/away records of Chicago and LA to have an impact on this year's playoffs. I certainly don't think Fire fans should want their team to get a lower seed so they can play more away games. That's not going to help.