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