Former MLS Players now in the USL

There's a large number of former MLS players who've eventually made their way to the United Soccer Leagues, the second division in the US and Canada. In fact, every team in USL-1 has at least one former MLS player, and many teams have quite a few more.



This chart lists the current USL-1 players that have made 10 or more appearances in Major League Soccer.

[Edit: Added Matt Jordan - Montreal Impact]
[Edit: MLS appearances now only Regular Season Totals]

Player	Current USL Club	Former MLS Club(s)	MLS Appearances
Chris Brown	Portland Timbers	KC, NE, RSL, SJ	197
Matt Jordan	Montreal Impact	DAL, CLB, COL	117
Petter Villegas	Puerto Rico Islanders	NY, DC	109
Tenywa Bonseu	Rochester Rhinos	CHI, CLB, DAL, NY	87
Stephen Armstrong	Charleston Battery	DC, CLB, KC	71
Jack Stewart	Charleston Battery	CHI, RSL	39
Taylor Graham	Seattle Sounders	KC, NY	34
David Testo	Montreal Impact	CLB	33
Luchi Gonzalez	Miami FC	SJ, COL	30
Kevin Novak	Rochester Rhinos	RSL	29
David Stokes	Carolina Railhawks	DC	24
Eric Vasquez	Miami FC	CLB	23
Andrew Gregor	Portland Timbers	CLB, KC	23
Jose Retiz	California Victory	LA, CLB	22
Josh Gardner	Seattle Sounders	LA	21
Fabrice Noël	Puerto Rico Islanders	COL	16
Adam Braz	Montreal Impact	TOR	13
Scott Buete	Atlanta Silverbacks	CHI	13
Alberto Delgado	Puerto Rico Islanders	COL	13
Melvin Tarley	Puerto Rico Islanders	RSL, COL	12
Alfonso Loera	Rochester Rhinos	CHV	12
Nicolas Addlery	Vancouver Whitecaps	DC	11
Chris Aloisi	Rochester Rhinos	LA, SJ	10

Players with less than 10 MLS appearances currently in USL-1:
Luke Kreamalmeyer, Marco Reda, Rey Angel Martinez, Roberto Brown, Jay Nolly, Steve Guppy, Leighton O'Brien, Chris Bagley, Ray Burse, Srdjan Djekanovic, John Ball, Connally Edozien, Justin Moore, David Hayes, Tony McManus, Mike Munoz, Joey Worthen, Matt Jordan, Scot Thompson, Cameron Knowles, Jared Montz, Dusty Hudock


Real Salt Lake has more former players in USL-1 than any other MLS team. Former RSL players include: Chris Brown, Jack Stewart, Kevin Novak, Melvin Tarley, Luke Kreamalmeyer, Jay Nolly, Leighton O'Brien, Cameron Knowles, and Joey Worthen.

There's also a large number of former MLS draft picks that never signed with the team that drafted them, instead ending up in USL-1.



Official USL Website

MLS Opening Day Results since 1996

MLS opens it's season today at 4:00PM Eastern with the Toronto FC-Columbus Crew game, followed by 5 other games this weekend. Finally, it has been a long offseason!

Here, I've compiled the historical opening game MLS standings. There are obvious shortcomings to the standings, due to the different season totals of many of the clubs, but they give a good general idea of opening day form. I've also made an average points per game chart for a different perspective.

I chose to count the early "shootout" results as 1 point draws to keep the point system the same from '96 to now.

Team	W	D	L	Points
Kansas City Wizards	6	3	3	21
San Jose/Houston Dynamo	5	4	3	19
DC United	5	2	5	17
FC Dallas	4	5	3	17
Los Angeles Galaxy	4	5	3	17
Chicago Fire	4	3	3	15
Columbus Crew	4	3	5	15
New York Red Bulls	3	5	4	14
New England Revolution	2	5	5	11
Colorado Rapids	1	5	6	8
Chivas USA	2	0	1	6
Real Salt Lake	0	2	1	2
Toronto FC	0	0	1	0

Kansas City comes out on top, can they continue their good form in a tough home opener this season against DC United?

Since San Jose moved to Houston, the Dynamo have not lost an opening game.

Colorado has been dismal with their only opening day win being last season against DC United.

Suprisingly, New England is also pretty awful on opening day with only 2 wins in 12 years.

Can Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake, and the "new" San Jose Earthquakes pick up their first opening day wins this year? I think RSL has the best chance with a home opener against Chicago and a reworked starting eleven.

Team	Avg. Points per Game
Chivas USA	2.00
Kansas City Wizards	1.75
San Jose/Houston Dynamo	1.58
Chicago Fire	1.50
DC United	1.42
FC Dallas	1.42
Los Angeles Galaxy	1.42
Columbus Crew	1.25
New York Red Bulls	1.17
New England Revolution	0.92
Colorado Rapids	0.67
Real Salt Lake	0.67
Toronto FC	0.00

EPL - Shortest Players since 1992

[update] Euro 2008 Shortest Players

These are the shortest players (165 cm [5ft5] or less) to have played in the English Premier League since the competition was formed in 1992. A few of these players have played for more than one club, but I've only listed the club they've played the most matches for.

I thought for sure that Shaun Wright-Phillips would make this list, but he squeaked by at 166cm. Currently, Aaron Lennon is the only player that is listed at 5ft5 or shorter seeing first team action in the Premiership.


Note: There were a few other fringe players that would have made the list, but I chose to only include players with at least 10 Premier League appearances.

Player	Club	Height (cm)	Years in Premiership
Jose Dominguez	Tottenham	160	1997-2000
Alan Wright	Aston Villa	163	1992-2006
Andres D'Allesandro	Portsmouth	163	2006
Ruel Fox	Tottenham	165	1994-2002
Juninho Paulista	Middlesbrough	165	2002-2004
Jody Morris	Chelsea	165	1995-2003
Clint Marcelle	Barnsley	165	1997-1998
Lee Todd	Southampton	165	1997-1998
Jon Stevenson	Leicester	165	2001-2002
Aaron Lennon	Tottenham	165	2003-Present

MLS Player Home States - Detailed Map

I did a post recently about the MLS players in California and it piqued my interest in the specifics of where all of the other US born MLS players are from. I put together a list from MLSnet and made up this map that shows where the players are coming from.

Texas is way behind the 49 players from California, but they do have the second most players in MLS with 16. Colorado comes in 3rd place with 12 players which is pretty impressive considering that the land of the Rockies is only the 22nd most populated state in the nation with just over 4 million people.

Click to Enlarge


Click read more for a full list:

Arizona (6)
Alan Gordon, Brad Evans, Greg Vanney, Pablo Mastroeni, Rob Valentino, Robbie Findley

California (49)
Amaechi Igwe, Ante Razov, Anthony Hamilton, Calen Carr, Chad Marshall, Chance Myers, Charles Alamo, Chris Seitz, Chris Wondolowski, CJ Brown, Daniel Paladini, Eric Avila, Eric Kronberg, Frankie Hejduk, Gavin Glinton, Ian Joy, Jimmy Conrad, Joe Cannon, Joe Franchino, John Thorrington, Jonathon Bornstein, Jordan Harvey, Jorge Flores, Jovan Kirovski, Kevin Goldthwaite, Kevin Hartman, Kyle Reynish, Landon Donovan, Leonard Griffin, Marvell Wynne, Matt Reis, Maurice Edu, Mike Chabala, Mike Randolph, Nick Hatzke, Nick Rimando, Patrick Ianni, Peter Vagenas, Ramiro Corrales, Robbie Rogers, Sacha Kljestan, Sasha Victorine, Sean Franklin, Stephen Wondolowski, Steve Cronin, Tony Beltran, Troy Roberts, Tyson Wahl, Zach Wells

Colorado (12)
Aaron Pitchkolan, Bobby Burling, Brian Mullan, Colin Clark, Conor Casey, David Wagenfuhr, James Riley, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Roger Espinoza, Stephen Keel, Todd Dunivant

Connecticut (1)
Pat Phelan

Washington DC (2)
Amir Lowery, Mike Banner

Florida (9)
Anthony Wallace, Blake Wagner, Bobby Boswell, Dax McCarty, Jeff Cunningham, Jozy Altidore, Keith Savage, Nathan Sturgis, Scott Campbell

Georgia (3)
Kyle Helton, Lawson Vaughn, Ricardo Clark

Hawaii (1)
Brian Ching

Illinois (8)
Brad Guzan, Brian Plotkin, Bryan Namoff, Doug Warren, Jed Zaynor, Mike Magee, Ned Grabavoy, Quavas Kirk

Indiana (3)
Josh Tudela, Kevin Burns, Ryan McMahen

Kansas (1)
Andy Gruenebaum

Kentucky (2)
John Micael Hayden, Ray Burse

Louisiana (1)
Jason Garey

Massachussetts (2)
Jay Heaps, Sam Brill

Maryland (6)
Alex Yi, Israel Sesay, Michael Dello-Russo, Nick Noble, Santino Quaranta, Zach Thornton

Michigan (2)
Jacob Peterson, Kerry Zavagnin

Minnesota (1)
Andrew Peterson

Missouri (9)
Bobby Rhine, Brad Davis, Chris Klein, Diego Guitierrez, Erik Ustruck, Jack Jewsbury, John Raimondo, Steve Ralston, Taylor Twellman

Mississippi (1)
Justin Mapp

North Carolina (10)
Brian Edwards, Clyde Simms, Eddie Robinson, Joe Vide, Justin Hughes, Justin Moose, Logan Pause, Michael Harrington, Wells Thompson, Will Hesmer

Nebraska (1)
Ryan Junge

New Jersey (7)
Alecko Eskandarian, Andrew Daniels, Claudio Reyna, Eddie Gaven, Jason Hernandez, Nick LaBrocca, Stephen King

Nevada (1)
Hercules Gomez

New York (10)
Carlos Mendes, Chris Wingert, Danny Cepero, Edson Buddle, Gary Flood, Jerrod Laventure, John Wolyniec, Jon Busch, Mike Petke, Ryan Cordeiro

Ohio (10)
Chris Leitch, Chris Rolfe, Danny O'Rourke, Dasan Robinson, Dustin Kirby, Eric Brunner, Kenny Schoeni, Marc Burch, Ryan Pore, Seth Stammler

Oklahoma (1)
Lance Parker

Oregon (3)
Chad Barrett, Craig Waibel, Ryan Cochrane

Pennsylvania (10)
Ben Olsen, Chris Albright, Dan Gargan, David Horst, Jeff Curtin, Jeff Larentowicz, Jeff Parke, Jim Curtin, Jon Conway, Julian Valentin

Rhode Island (2)
Michael Parkhust, Nico Colaluca

Tennesee (3)
Carey Talley, Michael Kraus, Richard Mulrooney

Texas (16)
Arturo Alvarez, Brek Shea, Chase Wileman, Daniel Woolard, Davy Arnaud, Domenic Mediate, Drew Moor, Hunter Freeman, Jose Burciaga, Kenny Cooper, Kyle Brown, Lance Watson, Nick Garcia, Spencer Wadsworth, Ugo Ihemelu, Stuart Holden

Utah (1)
Justin Braun

Virginia (10)
Abe Thompson, Adam Cristman, Brad Knighton, Brian Carroll, Corey Ashe, Devon McTavish, Jeff Carroll, Kenny Cutler, Pat Carroll, Wade Barrett

Washington (5)
Brandon Prideaux, Ciaran O'Brien, Ely Allen, Nikolas Besagno, Preston Burpo

Wisconsin (4)
Aaron Hohlbein, Jesse Marsch, Josh Lambo, Tim Ward


MLS Roster Maps

MLS Stadiums Interactive Map

This map shows the past, present, and future stadium sites for the current and incoming MLS teams, as well as the now defunct Miami and Tampa Bay franchises. I've also included the average attendance figures and the years the teams played in each stadium.

Zoom in to see the seperate markers in the individual cities and the actual aerial photos of the stadiums and sites. Click on the markers for information about each site.

Just like the other google maps I've posted here, there are more navigation options if you click on view larger map.

Red = Current Stadiums
Blue = Future/Proposed Stadiums and Sites
Green = Past Stadiums


View Larger Map

MLS Birthday Fun

I was looking through MLS birth dates the other day and I noticed a rather strange occurrence. There are ten different pairs of players currently in MLS that were born on the same day in the same year. What are the odds?


August 18, 1976
Brandon Prideaux (CHI)
Jon Busch (CHI)

May 24, 1978
Brian Ching (HOU)
Shalrie Joseph (NE)

April 13, 1981
Jack Jewsbury (KC)
Nat Borchers (RSL)

March 04, 1982
Bouna Coundoul (COL)
Landon Donovan (LA)

September 18, 1983
Andrew Boyens (TOR)
Troy Roberts (LA)

April 11, 1984
Colin Clark (COL)
Lawson Vaughn (CHV)

August 08, 1984
Devon McTavish (DC)
John Cunliffe (CHV)

September 01, 1984
Kei Kamara (SJ)
Nick Noble (CHI)

January 08, 1985
Adam Cristman (NE)
Hunter Freeman (NY)

August 13, 1985
Dominic Oduro (DAL)
Stephen Wondolowski (HOU)


and just for fun:

MLS Birthdays on Holidays:
Joe Cannon (SJ) January 1, 1975 - New Year's Day
Matias Mantilla (RSL) February 14, 1981 - Valentine's Day
Danny Cepero (NY) April 22, 1985 - Earth Day
Ned Grabavoy (SJ) July 1, 1983 - Canada Day
Jeff Curtin (DC) July 4, 1983 - Independence Day
Kevin Harmse (TOR) July 4, 1984 - Independence Day
Carlos Mendes (NY) December 25, 1980 - Christmas Day

Non-Fifa International Soccer

Have you ever wondered who the best teams are that are not members of FIFA? I would guess for most of us, probably not. However, I recently read a post at the Culture of Soccer blog reviewing a very interesting looking book called, Outcasts! The Land that FIFA Forgot by Steve Menary.

There is a football association called the NF Board (wiki), or unofficially, Non-Fifa-Board, that was formed in 2003. The teams from this federation are not recognized by FIFA because they are not recognized globally as sovereign states.

Here are the top ten "non-Fifa" teams:



There are quite a few other organizations that are not under the FIFA umbrella as well.

IGA: Island Games Association:
CSANF: South American Council of New Federations
CENF: Confederation of European New Federations
FIFI: Federation of International Football Independents

Maybe I just don't pay enough attention, but I had no idea there was such a non-FIFA "scene" going on in world soccer. Interesting.

J-League 2008

I had the pleasure of visiting Japan a few years back and when I was there I managed to talk my wife into riding a subway for an hour to attend a J-League match between Nagoya Grampus Eight and FC Tokyo in Nagoya.

Once we finally figured out where the stadium was and deciphered the Japanese only tickets to find our seats, we settled in to enjoy the game. The match had a fantastic atmosphere and entertaining style of play and I've done my best to follow the league ever since then. (Nagoya won 1-0 in case you were wondering)

The 2008 J-League season just started a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd list a few of the sites I use to keep track of the league here:



Gambare! J-League Highlights Fridays at 5:30 p.m. EST on Fox Soccer Channel

The Rising Sun News

Official English Language J-League Site

Official Weekly Schedule and Scores

Official League Table

Official J-League Club Profiles

The Japan Times

Bigsoccer Japan Forums

I occasionally catch a live streaming game from myp2p, but they usually start between midnight and 4 AM Eastern Time.

2008 J-League Previews

Soccerphile.com Preview
Goal.com Preview

2008 J-League Kits

A post from football-chat.com that shows the 2008 uniforms.

Ligue 1 - Unique Internationals

This is post number 5 about unique internationals in the world's top leagues. The idea is to identify International players that are the only one from their represented country playing in each league. Here is the list for France's Ligue 1.




Dennis Oliech - Kenya

Daisuke Matsui - Japan

Roberto Leyva - Mexico

Andrew Jacobson - USA

Marama Vahirua - French Polynesia

Manuel Corrales - Peru

Ou Kyoung-Jun - Korea Republic

Jeff Strasser - Luxembourg

Torben Joneleit - Germany

Apoula Edima Bete Edel - Armenia

Eric Mouloungui - Gabon

Ahmed Abou Moslem - Egypt


Previous Unique International Posts:
Serie A
La Liga
Premiership
Bundesliga

The Rest of CONCACAF - Interactive Map

The USA and Canada interactive maps have been quite a popular addition to the site, so I figured I might as well finish off the region and make a map of all the non US/Canadian CONCACAF players in Europe. I had to make this list on my own, so if there is anyone missing, feel free to let me know.


CONCACAF Countries with players in the top two divisions of European Leagues:
Barbados, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago


Some Interesting Facts:
Two Costa Ricans in the Arctic Circle, CHECK
A Dominican in Switzerland's 2nd division, CHECK
A Mexican in Albania, CHECK
A Barbadian in Ireland, CHECK
A Panamanian in Bulgaria, CHECK


View Larger Map

Click the Flags and the Club and Player Names will Appear:
Click View Larger Map for more navigation options

Smallest Players in MLS '08

One of the many reasons I've been drawn to soccer over the years is that you don't have to be freakishly big or tall to enjoy success in the game. In honor of that fact, here is a list of the smallest players currently in MLS.

Player	Height	Weight (lbs)	Team
Franco Niell	5-4	152	DC United
Alex Nimo	5-5	140	Real Salt Lake
Argenis Fernandez	5-6	125	New England Revolution
Francisco Mendoza	5-6	135	Chivas USA
Corey Ashe	5-6	140	Houston Dynamo
Gabe Gala	5-7	134	Toronto FC
Chase Wileman	5-7	134	FC Dallas
Israel Sesay	5-7	140	LA Galaxy
Justin Moose	5-7	145	DC United
Tomasz Frankowski	5-7	146	Chicago Fire
Terry Cooke	5-7	149	Colorado Rapids

Other Players listed at 5-7:

Diego Guitierrez (CHI), John Raimondo (COL), Fred (DC), Marcelo Gallardo (DC), Lance Watson (KC), Mike Randolph (LA), Dane Richards (NY), Ned Grabavoy (SJ), Ivan Guererro (SJ), Jeff Cunningham (TOR)


Other Players listed at under 150 lbs:

Sainey Nyassi - 135 (NE)
Javier Morales - 143 (RSL)
Chris Rolfe - 145 (CHI)
Jonathon Bornstein - 145 (CHV)



Here is the Tallest MLS Players post from last week.

Canadian Soccer Players in Europe - Interactive Map

With tonight being the big USA-Canada semifinal matchup in Olympic qualifying, I thought it would be fun to get a better look at the Canadian players that are currently playing in Europe.

It was a bit harder to pull this one off because I had a hard time finding a central list of players to pull from. Eventually, I found a good list at Off The Pitch in their message forum. Thanks Joe!

Just like in the Americans Abroad map from a couple of days ago, I've only included players in the top two divisions in their respective countries with the exception of England, where I've included League One players as well. I've also included a few youth players on this map.



View Larger Map

Click the Icons and the Club and Player Names will Appear:
Click View Larger Map for more navigation options

MLS Players from California

When I was doing the MLS Roster Maps I noticed that a large quantity of players in Major League Soccer are from California. The player numbers in MLS right now seem to be changing daily, but when I counted yesterday, the 46 players from California make up about 15% of MLS.


This map was created using the listed hometowns for each player on MLSnet. It shows, by county, where the players are coming from, with Southern California being the obvious hotspot of soccer talent.




Players that come from the same hometown:

Huntington Beach: Robbie Rogers (CLB), Sacha Kljestan (CHV)

Palmdale: Leonard Griffin (CLB), Sean Franklin (LA)

Danville: Chris and Stephen Wondolowski (HOU)

Mission Viejo: Matt Reis (NE), Jordon Harvey (COL)

San Diego: Ian Joy (RSL), Eric Avila (DAL)


Current players from California that have been MLS All-Stars:

Jonathon Bornstein (CHV)
Ante Razov (CHV)
Matt Reis (NE)
Jovan Kirovski (COL)
Frankie Hejduk (CLB)
Jimmy Conrad (KC)
Kevin Hartman (KC)
Landon Donovan (LA)
Joe Cannon (SJ)

Serie A - Unique Internationals

This is post number 4 about unique internationals in the world's top leagues. The idea is to identify International players that are the only one from their represented country playing in each league. Here is the list for Italy's Serie A.




Rafael Acosta - Venezuela

Damián Lanza - Ecuador

Goran Pandev - Macedonia

Rahman Rezaei - Iran

Mario Frick - Liechtenstein

McDonald Mariga - Kenya

Emil Hallfreðsson - Iceland

Cristián Zapata - Colombia



Previous Unique International Posts:
La Liga
Premiership
Bundesliga

Skillful Goal Videos

Andres Vasquez - IFK Göteborg

Ernie Hunt - Coventry City

Gianfranco Zola - Chelsea

Alvaro Ormeño - Gimnasia LP

Rafael Van der Vaart - Ajax

English Club Location Maps - From Premiership to League Two

I was looking to get a broad overview of where the clubs in the top leagues in England are located. These maps show how many clubs are in each county in England, from the Premiership down to League Two. The first map shows the county locations of 89 of 92 clubs, with the three clubs in Wales being excluded from the statistics. Click the maps to enlarge









Not Including Cardiff, Wales



Not Including Swansea, Wales



Not Including Wrexham, Wales



The areas with the most clubs:
12 - London
8 - Greater Manchester
6 - Lancashire
6 - West Midlands
5 - South Yorkshire


Counties With No Clubs:
Northumberland, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Rutland, Surrey, West Sussex, Isle of Wight, and Cornwall

2008 - Major League Soccer's Tallest Players

For reasons unknown to me, one of the most visited posts to date on The Best Eleven is the Tallest Players in the Premiership post. Well, MLS has it's fair share of tall players too. Here is the list of the players 6 ft 3 and taller on the '08 MLS rosters.

198 cm - 6 ft 6
Jon Conway (NY), Greg Sutton (TOR)

196 cm - 6 ft 5
Bobby Burling (CHV), Andy Iro (CLB), Erik Kronberg (KC)

193 cm - 6 ft 4
Bakary Soumare (CHI), Nick Noble (CHI), Jim Curtin (CHV), Brad Guzan (CHV), Lance Parker (CHV), Chad Marshall (CLB), Pat Onstad (HOU), Chris Seitz (RSL), David Horst (RSL), Eric Brunner (NY), Andrew Boyens (TOR)

191 cm - 6 ft 3
Atiba Harris (CHV), Justin Braun (CHV), Ezra Hendrickson (CLB), Kenny Schoeni (CLB), Alex Yi (DAL), Kenny Cooper (DAL), Dario Sala (DAL), Jeff Curtin (DC), Abel Xavier (LA), Alan Gordon (LA), Shalrie Joseph (NE), Khano Smith (NE), Rob Valentino (NE), Zach Thornton (NY), Kenny Deuchar (RSL), Preston Burpo (SJ), Brian Edwards (TOR), Danny Dichio (TOR),


By Team:

1 - Chicago Fire
6 - Chivas USA
0 - Colorado Rapids
4 - Columbus Crew
1 - DC United
3 - FC Dallas
1 - Houston Dynamo
1 - Kansas City Wizards
2 - LA Galaxy
3 - New England Revolution
3 - New York Red Bulls
4 - Real Salt Lake
1 - San Jose Earthquakes
4 - Toronto FC

Colorado almost made the list, Bouna Coundoul and Mike Petke are listed at 6 ft 2.


By Position:
13 - GK
12 - DF
3 - MF
6 - FW

Bakary Soumare, Shalrie Joseph, and Khano Smith are the trio of tallest midfielders.

African Players in the Top European Leagues

These days, it seems like almost every club match in Europe features African players playing in key roles. It's obvious that Africa is a hotbed of soccer talent in the modern game and I wanted to find out more about the players that are currently playing in the top leagues in Europe. Here's what I found:


African Players in Each League:

114 - France Ligue 1
51 - English Premier League
31 - Portuguese Liga
28 - German Bundesliga
27 - Dutch Eredevisie
16 - Spain La Liga
10 - Italy Serie A


African Countries with 10 or more Players in Top European Leagues:

34 - Senegal
32 - Cameroon
29 - Morocco
28 - Nigeria
26 - Ivory Coast
23 - Ghana
19 - Mali
13 - Algeria
10 - Tunisia


African Countries with 2 or less players in Top European Leagues:

2 - Togo, Zambia, Kenya, Equitorial Guinea, Benin
1 - Burundi, Gabon, Namibia, Zimbabwe


Clubs With the Most African Players by League:

11 - France: Nice and Metz
6 - Germany: Hamburg
5 - England: Newcastle and Portsmouth
5 - Portugal: Académica and Boavista
4 - Holland: Heracles Almelo
3 - Spain: Sevilla
2 - Italy: Parma and Udinese


Most Represented Nations in each League:

France - 20 from Senegal
Holland - 13 from Morocco
England - 8 from Nigeria
Portugal - 6 from Angola and Cape Verde
Germany - 5 from South Africa
Spain - 4 from Cameroon
Italy - 2 from Ghana and Nigeria


By Position:

MF - 106 - 38%
FW - 90 - 32%
DF - 75 - 27%
GK - 8 - 3%

MLS Expansion Map and Facts

It was actually kind of fun making the MLS roster maps, so I figured I'd continue with my merry map making. Although it looks kind of like a CDC disease outbreak map, it's actually a map of the most talked about potential MLS expansion cities and their proximity to current (and soon to be current) MLS teams.


Red Dots = Possible Expansion Cities
Grey Dots = Current MLS Cities


Click to Enlarge


Here are a few facts about the various expansion candidates.

I've listed the 'Metro' populations

St Louis
TV Market: 21
Population: 2,801,033
Nearest Team: KC Wizards, 250 miles, 4 hour drive

New York Second Team
TV Market: 1
Population: 18,818,536
Nearest Team: NYRB, 30 miles, 1 hour drive

Atlanta
TV Market: 9
Population: 5,138,233
Nearest Team: DC United, 638 miles, 10 hour drive

Phoenix
TV Market: 13
Population: 4,039,182
Nearest Team: LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, 380 miles, 7 hour drive

Miami
TV Market: 16
Population: 5,463,857
Nearest Team: DC United, 1,054 miles, 16 hour drive

Portland
TV Market: 23
Population: 2,337,565
Nearest Team: Seattle, 174 miles, 3 hour drive

San Diego
TV Market: 27
Population: 2,941,454
Nearest Team: LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, 112 miles, 2 hour drive

Vancouver
TV Market: 3 in Canada
Population: 2,249,725
Nearest Team: Seattle, 141 miles, 2 1/2 hour drive

Montreal
TV Market: 2 in Canada
Population: 3,635,571
Nearest Team: Toronto FC, 348 miles, 6 hour drive

Las Vegas
TV Market: 43
Population: 1,777,539
Nearest Team: LA Galaxy and Chivas USA, 282 miles, 5 hour drive

Detroit
TV Market: 11
Population: 5,410,014
Nearest Team: Columbus Crew, 200 miles, 2 1/2 hour drive

I realise Detroit hasn't really been in the mix, but with their history as a solid sports town with a large metro population and their driving proximity to Chicago, Toronto, and Columbus, I believe that, at least hypothetically, they should be a solid contender. In the end it all comes down to who has the money and the support though.


I seems that St Louis is very close to being next in line, which I believe is a good choice with the soccer traditions in that area and their proximity to Chicago and KC. Who do you think should be next in line? How many teams should the league expand to?

Olympic Soccer Facts

I've always found the Olympics interesting and in soccer the games have historically been very unpredictable. There are many nations that have never played a World Cup game, but have qualified for the Olympics, and the traditional soccer powers don't always do as well in the Games. Here are some details about Olympic Soccer.



Up until and including the Seoul 1988 Olympics, the event essentially used full national teams without restrictions. Since the 1992 games in Barcelona the event has been a U23 event. Since the Atlanta games in 1996, nations are also allowed to pick 3 "wild card" players that are over the age of 23.


Number of Qualification Spots per Continent - Beijing 2008:

4 - Europe
4 - Asia
3 - Africa
2 - North America
2 - South America
1 - Oceania

China automatically gets one of the Asia spots

Final Four Nations in Recent Olympic Games:
Gold medal winners in Bold

2004: Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Iraq
2000: Cameroon, Spain, Chile, USA
1996: Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal
1992: Spain, Poland, Ghana, Australia
1988: USSR, Brazil, West Germany, Italy
1984: France, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Italy
1980: Czechoslovakia, West Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia
1976: East Germany, Poland, USSR, Brazil



Soccer "Powers" that have appeared in past Olympics:
Listed by current FIFA rankings

192 - Afghanistan - 1948
171 - Chinese Taipei - 1960
165 - Malaysia - 1972
161 - Netherlands Antilles - 1952
157 - Burma (Myanmar) - 1972
127 - El Salvador - 1968
107 - Sudan - 1972
103 - Syria - 1980


Between 1952 and 1972, Hungary was without question the powerhouse of Olympic soccer. They picked up 3 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal out of that stretch of 6 olympic games.

Since 1980, only Brazil, Argentina, and Spain have won at least 2 medals of any color.

Cameroon and Nigeria make it 2 African nations with Gold Medal wins in the last 3 Olympic competitions.


For some interesting discussions regarding the US team selection, check out these posts at Soccer By Ives and Soccer Insider.

La Liga - Unique Internationals

This is post number 3 about unique internationals in the world's top leagues. The idea is to identify International players that are the only one from their represented country playing in each league. Here is the list for Spain's La Liga.



Eiður Guðjohnsen - Iceland

Juan Arango - Venezuela

Branko Ilič - Slovenia

Aleksandr Kerzhakov - Russia

Julian de Guzmán - Canada

Dudu Aouate - Israel

Vladimir Manchev - Bulgaria

Shota Arveladze - Georgia

Mohammed Tchité - Republic of the Congo

Dady - Cape Verde

Tom De Mul - Belgium

Jaroslav Plašil - Czech


Previous Unique International Posts:
EPL
German Bundesliga

MLS Roster Maps

These maps show the home states and countries for all of the players currently on MLS rosters. I will be posting roster maps for all of the individual MLS teams in seperate posts. I was a geography minor in college and I figured it was time to put what I learned to use. (For the very first time, many years later)




Click to Enlarge





Click to Enlarge


I'll be taking a look at these maps again in a couple of weeks when the team rosters are a bit more concrete. I'll update any changes and additions at that time.

MLS Individual Team Roster Maps:
Chicago Fire, Chivas USA, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, DC United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, Toronto FC

Best Bending Free Kicks

The list starts with a kick from a Japanese High School Championship game, and ends with two very well known free kicks, the David Beckham vs Greece kick in injury time and the seemingly impossible bend of the Roberto Carlos kick vs France.


Player from a Japanese High School Championship Game
The kick is around the 45 second mark


Marcos Assunção - Real Betis


Mikael Nilsson - IFK Goteberg


Dwayne DeRosario - San Jose Earthquakes
Best View at the 56 second mark


Ronaldinho - Brazil
"Golaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzoooooo!!!!!!"


Juan Roman Riquelme - Boca Juniors


Alvaro Recoba - Inter Milan


David Beckham - England


Roberto Carlos - Brazil

World Clubs that Rely on Foreign Players

This is the follow up post to the World Clubs with Home Grown Players table. This table covers the opposite side of things, looking at the clubs in each league that rely most heavily on international talent to fill their rosters. (The percentage represents number of "foreign" players on each club)

%	Club	Country
92%	Arsenal FC	England
89%	Inter Milan	Italy
79%	Hearts	Scotland
74%	Roda JC	Holland
68%	Real Madrid	Spain
68%	Energie Cottbus	Germany
68%	C.S. Maritimo	Portugal
60%	FC Moscow	Russia
53%	DC United	USA
50%	AS Monaco	France
46%	Viborg FF	Denmark
46%	Viking FK	Norway
43%	Djurgården	Sweden
27%	Veracruz	Mexico
17%	Melbourne Victory	Australia
15%	JEF United	Japan
15%	Boca Juniors	Argentina
13%	Internacional	Brazil
9%	Suwon Bluewings	Korea

This really shows that England does have a bit of a problem fielding English players in the top flight, not that that wasn't already a well-known fact. The premiership was top of this foreign list and bottom of the home grown list.

I never realized it, but Argentina and Brazil hardly have any foreign players in their domestic leagues. I always assumed that the top talent in South America headed to those leagues, but apparently that's not the case. I guess if you're good enough you just go overseas anyways.

The MLS numbers were somewhat difficult to get a concrete number for since many of the final first team squads haven't been fully decided at this point in the preseason.

Any thoughts? Are foreign players taking opportunities away from home grown players, or are they making world leagues more competitive and entertaining?

Premiership - Unique Internationals

This is the second post about unique internationals in the world's top leagues. The idea is to identify International players that are the only one from their represented country playing in each league. Here is the list for the English Premier League.



Alexandr Hleb - Belarus

Christopher Samba - Republic of the Congo

Gunnar Nielsen - Faroe Islands

Jason Roberts - Grenada

Andranik Teymourian - Iran

Hameur Bouazza - Algeria

Alexey Smertin - Russia

Benjani Mwaruwari - Zimbabwe

Emile Mpenza - Belgium

Zurab Khizanishvili - Georgia

Stelios Giannakopolous - Greece

Carlo Cudicini - Italy

Roque Santa Cruz - Paraguay

Ali Al-Habsi - Oman


Previous Unique International Posts:
German Bundesliga

World Clubs with Home Grown Players

With the recent controversy surrounding the apparently American born Jesus Padilla at "Mexican-born-only" Chivas, I thought I'd look into other clubs around the world who use players mostly from their home nations.

The other obvious club is Athletic Bilbao who only field players from the Basque region in Spain. Outside of those two I didn't know what to expect. Here's what I came up with. (The percentage indicates home grown talent on each squad)

%	Club	Country
100%	Chivas Guadalajara	Mexico
100%	Athletic Bilbao	Spain
100%	Gwangju Sangmu Phoenix	Korea
100%	Varteks	Croatia
100%	5 clubs: Sport Recife, Ipatinga, Coritiba, Goias, Portuguesa	Brazil
100%	Deportivo Saprissa	Costa Rica
98%	Club Atletico San Lorenzo de Almagro	Argentina
97%	Jubilo Iwata	Japan
95%	Central Coast Mariners FC	Australia
93%	FC Naftovyk Okhtyrka	Ukraine
93%	Lyngby Goldklub	Denmark
93%	SBV Exelsior	Holland
92%	Trelleborgs FF	Sweden
90%	Empoli	Italy
88%	Motherwell FC	Scotland
88%	Caen	France
82%	Houston Dynamo	USA
79%	Leixões	Portugal
70%	FC Tom' Tomsk	Russia
66%	Arminia Bielefeld	Germany
59%	Aston Villa	England

Of the bigger clubs in the world, São Paulo has the highest percentage of home grown talent that I found, with the entire squad being Brazilian except for Reasco, who is a DF from Ecuador.

Japan, Korea, and Australia's leagues have a very high percentage of home grown talent, with most of the outsiders being Brazilians. I didn't run the numbers, but I would guess that these three leagues use about 85%-90% home grown players.

As an MLS fan, it was interesting to see the Houston Dynamo so far down the list. It really shows how international the league is when the most "American" team in the entire league has nearly 20% international players. DC United is right around 50/50 with their current roster.

Now that I've done this list, I plan to take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum, and find the clubs using the least amount of home grown talent. In England, Arsenal is the club everyone talks about as being "foreign", it'll be interesting to see if they top the list of clubs with the highest percentage of foreign players.

Bundesliga - Unique Internationals

This is the first of a series of lists I plan to post about unique internationals in the world's top leagues. The idea is to find International players that are the only one from their home country playing in each league. I'll randomly start with the German Bundesliga, and in future posts, will cover more of the world's leagues.


Sahr Senesie - Sierra Leone

Shao Jiayi - China

Mohamed Zidan - Egypt

Collin Benjamin - Namibia

Petri Pasanen - Finland

Arturo Vidal - Chile

Anton Putsilo - Belarus

Oleksiy Byelik - Ukraine

Juvhel Tsoumou - Repuplic of the Congo

Carlos Augusto Zambrano - Peru

Anthar Yahia - Algeria

MLS - Most Capped International Players

This is a list of the most capped internationals playing in MLS, not including players from the USA and Canada. I have only included players with a minimum of 30 appearances for their country.

Player	Caps	Nation	Club
Claudio Suarez	178	Mexico	Chivas USA
Ezra Hendrickson	123	St. Vincent	Columbus Crew
David Beckham	99	England	LA Galaxy
Cuauhtemoc Blanco	97	Mexico	Chicago Fire
Indra Sahdan	82	Singapore	RSL (Trialist)
Duilio Davino	80	Mexico	FC Dallas
Raphael Wicky	75	Switzerland	Chivas USA
Jaime Moreno	72	Bolivia	DC United
Carlos Ruiz	72	Guatemala	LA Galaxy
Ivan Guerrero	69	Honduras	SJ Earthquakes
Avery John	61	Trinidad and Tobago	New England Revs
Tyrone Marshall	59	Jamaica	Toronto FC
Carl Robinson	45	Wales	Toronto FC
Marcelo Gallardo	44	Argentina	DC United
Maykel Galindo	35	Cuba	Chivas USA
Juan Pablo Angel	33	Colombia	New York Red Bulls

There's a lot of international experience playing in LA these days between Chivas USA and LA Galaxy, especially if you include the US and Canada internationals along with players like Abel Xavier, Atiba Harris, and Shavar Thomas.

The only non-US international experience for Colorado is Bouna Coundoul's, who recently made a couple of appearances with Senegal in the African Cup of Nations. The KC Wizards also missed having a player make the list, but they do have the fairly experienced Scott Sealy on their roster, who has 22 caps for Trinidad and Tobago. If Indra Sahdan makes the RSL roster, he'll actually be one of the most experienced internationals in MLS.

I would imagine this list will be growing in the next few years with MLS looking overseas more and more to fill out their rosters.

Southeast Asian Players to MLS?

With Singapore striker Indra Sahdan Daud currently on trial with Real Salt Lake, I thought it'd be interesting to see if there was any other talent in the Southeast Asian region that could make their way to MLS. I'll admit I know next to nothing about these players or the leagues they play in. I spent a few minutes looking through wikipedia and these are some of the players with similar credentials to Indra Sahdan Daud.

Thailand
Sarayoot Chaikamdee
Datsakorn Thonglao


Vietnam
Phan Thanh Bình
Le Cong Vinh

Indonesia
Bambang Pamungkas

Singapore
Mohamed Noh Alam Shah
Khairul Amri
Indra Sahdan Daud

Malaysia
Indra Putra Mahayuddin

If I had to guess, these players likely wouldn't make the cut in MLS, but without really knowing anything about them or the leagues they play in, it is just that, a guess. I personally hope that Indra Sahdan Daud and other talent from lesser known soccer regions make it to MLS in the future. It can only help the league grow worldwide. If any Southeast Asian soccer fans have anything to add, please feel free.

There are also some interesting Real Salt Lake viewpoints about Indra here and here.

Argentina - Players Playing Abroad

Between the earlier Brazilians Abroad post and the recent influx of Argentine players to MLS, I was curious to find out how many are currently plying their trade in leagues outside of South America. Here's the list:

41 - Mexico Primera División
39 - Spain La Liga
24 - Italy Serie A
15 - MLS
11 - France Ligue 1
10 - Portugal Liga
7 - EPL
7 - German Bundesliga
3 - Dutch Eredivisie

Although there are quite a few Argentines playing abroad, I was expecting more, especially in Europe. The clubs that do have them, tend to have them in bunches. Here are some of the top clubs with Argentinians on their squad lists:

7 - Inter Milan
6 - RCD Mallorca
5 - FC Porto
5 - Veracruz
4 - Real Madrid
4 - Real Salt Lake
4 - FC Girondins de Bordeaux

There are quite a few other clubs who have 3 and 4 Argentines on the squad list, mostly in Mexico and Spain. I found it interesting that there are more players from Argentina on Real Salt Lake than in the entire Dutch Eredivisie.

Major League Soccer - Celebrity Look A Likes

The idea for this post started with the almost cliche, Chad Barrett - Wayne Rooney comparison, and my plan was to find soccer players that look like other soccer players. However, with the help of my entertainment savvy wife, the post quickly spiraled into a celebrity look a like post. If you have any ideas for MLS or World soccer look a likes, I'd enjoy hearing them.



Chivas USA coach: Preki and Dennis Quaid




Columbus Crew's Frankie Hejduk and Fabio




Toronto FC's Danny Dichio and Imhotep from The Mummy




Houston Dynamo's Dwayne DeRosario and Sayid from Lost




Columbus Crew's Duncan Oughton and Desmond from Lost




RSL's Dema Kovalenko and Viggo Mortenson




LA Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas and Chuck Norris




Chivas USA's John Cunliffe and Beck




Chicago Fire's John Thorrington and Luke Wilson




Chicago Fire's Chad Barrett and Wayne Rooney




DC United's Ben Olsen and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine




Colorado's Mehdi Ballouchy and American Idol Justin Guarini