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This little tour of Major League Soccer’s past has put a couple personal mythologies to the sword. The relevant one here: I always thought MLS hit a low-water mark for total goals scored during a season in the early 2000s and then, over time, gradually raised to some unknown, higher, happier, equilibrium. And when the goals average for MLS plunged from 51.0 goals/season in 2000 to 43.25 in 2001, and then continued down to 42.1 (2002) and 39.2 (2004), I nodded sagely at the trend line and cursed the parity and mediocre teams that brought it about.
Then the 2007 season delivered just 39.8 goals/season. As for 2009? 38.1, the lowest recorded so far. I’m still a little paranoid about my methodology (which, here, means basic math), but it matches the eye-test: Dallas topped the league with 51 goals over the all season, but most teams stalled in the low 40s. There’s a reason I mention this, because I’ve seen it a couple times now (and maybe this is blazingly obvious to everyone else): low-scoring seasons tend to end in dog fights. And in every sense of the word.
As current fans know, MLS has hyped “Decision Day” into formal, annual “event,” an appetizer for the playoffs, if you will (man, I should use "if you will" more often), only losing means you have to sit and watch someone else eat the entrée. I don’t know what inspired that branding, but 2009 could very well have planted the seed. The competition on the final day of that season was close and bloody…
At the top of the table, the Columbus Crew won its second consecutive Supporters’ Shield (for the record, the Shield is, and will always be the Official Conifers & Citrus Benchmark for Excellence), but, because they went 2-3-0 over their last five games while their closest competition went 2-1-2 (Houston Dynamo) and 3-1-1 (Los Angeles Galaxy), they held on by finger nails (aka, four more in goal differential) [Note: I just discovered some bad numbers in the "official" 2009 standings - e.g., they show some teams playing 31 games in 2009, even 32- and, while I'll continue to use their data, file that reality away for future reference.] The story looked very much the same at the lower end of the playoff race. When the 30th day of the 30-game season rolled around, players on a minimum of six teams jumped at the referee’s starting whistle, knowing it could be the last time they’d hear the famous call to action until the 2010 season. To piece things together from the potshards..:
To start with the team that screwed themselves hardest*, Dallas had the best chance going in; all they had to do was win, and that was even with the New England Revolution (another team on the bubble), winning their personal Game 30 (goal differential would have carried Dallas through); instead they lost to Seattle away, and that ends one story. Toronto FC was in a similar spot – i.e., they could have ended on 42 points, just like New England – but they had a crater of a goal differential (-9, when all’s said and done), that would have likely rendered any win they managed irrelevant [Note: Toronto lost its Game 30 0-5 to the New York Red Bulls, so it was like -4 going in, but still.] DC United, for their part, could only manage a 2-2 draw against the Kansas City Wizards (please, please, get to their name change; so awful), but any kind of a win would have put them through as well. How many teams have I covered…one…two, three…yes, now four. OK, moving on…
The real action happened in the Western Conference, when the two final teams in the swinging mixer, Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids, met on “Decision Day” with everything on the line – and I mean that down to goal-differential. Colorado had a one-win, one-draw advantage over RSL going in and, because they carried a +4 goal differential into the game against RSL's +5, any Colorado win would see the Rapids into the playoffs over RSL. (*Against the note on Dallas above, the Rapids had a pretty damn clear look at a path to the Promised Land.)
And I guess that’s the punchline: RSL beat Colorado 3-0 in Utah on the final day of the season and, they not only made the playoffs, they won the 2009 MLS Cup. RSL finished last in the West – though, notably, with a +8 goal differential (file away for continuous future reference). In another fun bit of symmetry, they mirrored what the New York Red Bulls’ did in 2008 by running the table against the entire Eastern Conference, starting with the strongest team in the conference – e.g., Supporters’ Shield-winning Columbus.
Real Salt Lake won the first game at the (I haven’t mentioned this yet, have I?) newly-opened Rio Tinto Stadium, 1-0. After struggling since their founding (2005), RSL had managed to turn their home into a fortress: they went 9-1-5 at home during 2009 (and went on to establish a, frankly ridiculous home record for the next couple seasons). Their road record, on the other hand…jesus christ and hide the children, wound up at 2-11-2, dragging their overall record to an underwhelming 11-12-7. So, when the time came for RSL came to carry that 1-0 win over two-time Shield-winning Columbus and with that record? And then Guillermo Barros Schelotto put Columbus up 2-0 in the first half? How the hell was that series not over?
The answer was the kind of team goal that would make this RSL team one of the best in MLS for the next 3-4 seasons, plus Frankie Hejduk gifting them a penalty kick (put away by Oregon State University’s own Robbie Findley – Oregon, represent!), followed by a goal by Andy Williams that I’m just going to go ahead and call a metaphor for Real Salt Lake’s crazy unlikely 2009 MLS Cup. On the one hand, sure, Schelotto’s first goal was a fluke, but the rest of Columbus’ season was not, because Shield. Williams’ goal, meanwhile, was just the next fluke in a succession of them. RSL had no business winning MLS Cup that season, but they did. It wasn’t because there were a bad team, either. To make a very direct contrast, the Red Bulls wound up being the worst team in MLS in 2009, and that’s after reaching MLS Cup in 2008. Bones, people. It’s all about having good bones: RSL had better ones.
For all the talk of chance and flukiness above, RSL had one already-clear advantage over the next two games. Both the Eastern Conference Semifinals – against the Chicago Fire - and MLS Cup – against LA - would end in penalty kicks. And here’s a key phrase on that:
“Salt Lake won the ensuing penalty shootout 5–4 after seven rounds, relying on three saves by goalkeeper Nick Rimando.”
When push ultimately came to shove in the MLS Cup final – tied 1-1 after extra time - the Galaxy’s Josh Saunders saved as many shots as Rimando; Landon Donovan launched his PK over the cross-bar and that wound up being the difference. And, for what it’s worth, MLS kept delivering on one glorious level: as happened in the 1996 final, some American rando scored the game-winning goal (Robbie Russell).
To back-track a little, this was a blood-bath of a final: RSL’s Javier Morales left early with a torn meniscus and Will Johnson left at the half, unable to overcome food poisoning; for LA, their starting ‘keeper Donovan Ricketts (#RCTID) had his hand broken in the second half (on a totally legitimate challenge; see the highlights). It took another battle to get Findley’s equalizer over the line (Mike Magee’s opener was elegant by comparison), and that sent the game to extra-time (where RSL did better, reportedly), then penalty kicks. And…shit, I already spoiled the outcome above – RSL won! – but, no matter how you slice it, going from last in the West/last in the league to “East Conference Champion” to MLS Cup winner is a crazy journey…
…but not that much crazier than the Galaxy reaching an MLS Cup after several serious wilderness seasons.
I want to start this discussion with, what I believe is a useful contrast. The 2005 LA Galaxy team came out of last place in its conference to win MLS Cup in 2005 (my notes on that season), and/but against an eternally hapless (or just defensively unsound; more meandering notes on that) once-in-a-generation New England Revolution team. The Galaxy…well, they fucking died in the seasons that followed – e.g., 2006 (when they finished 5th), 2007 (5th again), 2008 (6th that time, but equally out of the playoffs in each of those seasons) – and that’s a massive tell on the state of a team – e.g., are they slouching toward a Ruud-Gullitt/Alexi-Lalas-fueled demise, or are they a team of destiny – e.g., RSL would be the first MLS team to come within a heartbreaking whisker of winning the CONCACAF Champions’ League either the next season or the one after.
By the time 2009 rolled around, LA had sorted out its shit –and that was primarily on the defensive end, an area of profound concern between 2007 and, especially, 2008 seasons. In a case of “God bless the draft,” the Galaxy landed themselves a competent defense when Omar Gonzalez and A. J. DeLaGarza joined the fold – both as rookies, I think – and then added Ricketts at ‘keeper. They had ample attacking talent from the season before (e.g., Donovan, Edson Buddle and Beckham), so landing that defense completed the Galaxy. They, too, would stick at or near the top of the league for several seasons to come. Balance is good.
Another team underlines what LA got right. Confident that they’d drafted a pair of gems, Kansas City threw Michael Harrington and Matt Besler to the lions, starting them for nearly every game of the 2009 season. While KC didn’t land so far outside of average (42 goal allowed), they didn’t have anything close to LA’s attacking talent (e.g., Josh Wolff came back and did all right (11g, 0a), while Claudio Lopez and Davy Arnaud (5g, 2a), but it fell off something awful after that. On the other hand, the deeper story is obvious: LA allowed 11 fewer goals than KC, as clear proof as you like that they called in better rookies. Having Bruce Arena for a coach didn’t hurt either.
To return to a question I haven’t asked yet (preamble legend!), how did a 2009-marginal team like Real Salt Lake push its way past a series of scrums to lift MLS Cup at the end of the season? An answer – my answer – comes in two parts, and with two teams as stand-ins: DC United and the Chicago Fire (listed in order of importance, for what it’s worth). With DC, the Form Guide is the starting point. The more I looked at how each team built its record in 2009, the more DC offered a model for a failed season. Like just about every team they battled for those final two playoff spots (to clarify, I’m calling the Revs’ up for grabs), DC never really got going in 2009 – e.g., they never got beyond two wins in a row and they (like, say, Toronto) only did that twice. It doesn’t matter what caused it – e.g., tricky match-ups, injuries (e.g., does that explain Chivas USA’s awful middle stretch) – because they all combined to create what RSL need most: a slow-moving pack that ended by setting a low bar for getting into the playoffs. It didn’t take consistently excellence to make the 2009 post-season – e.g., both Chicago and Chivas racked up enough points early to survive playing just as untriumphantly as DC, Toronto and RSL.
The commonality that Chicago shared with the rest of the league was a familiar one – i.e., what I keep calling a “hydra-headed attack,” even though the phrase implies the opposite of what I intend. “Scoring by committee” probably works better, but only if use the word “committee” in the corporate/governance manner of calling together a group of people who don't do much by design. I landed on the Fire as a quality exemplar based on who scored how many for them in 2009. Here’s their top 5: Brian McBride, 7g, 2a; Chris Rolfe, 6g, 1a; Cuauhtemoc Blanco, 5g, 8a; Marco Pappa, 5g, 4a; and Patrick Nyarko, 4g, 2a. That was a fairly common pattern across MLS – it applies even to Columbus, for example – and all a team needed to get away with scoring that anemic was field a solid defense. With Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave playing behind Kyle Beckerman, RSL did that. They also scored four more goals than Chicago, and two more than Columbus – thanks to a solid year by Findley (12g, 4a). When the pack is that tight, just having a forward who hits, say, five more goals than forwards on other teams gets you out of the pack.
I have one more team that I want to highlight – and to hold up as another, subtle shift in the multiple ways a team can operate/exist as in MLS. The Seattle Sounders ended their inaugural campaign at 3rd in the West, and in 4th place overall. Moreover, they tied Houston for the best defensive record in the league (if with three other teams just two goals allowed behind), and they managed to scrape the underside of league average for goals scored. The Sounders pulled that off by building a great team for their Year One. They added quality foreign players – e.g., Sweden’s Freddie Ljungberg (2g, 9a), Fredy Montero (12g, 7a), and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (who stayed healthy) – to a core of proven MLS veterans – e.g., Brad Evans, Tyrone Marshall, even Nate Jaqua – and carried over some quality from its USL predecessor – e.g., Osvaldo Alonso. As I march toward the present, I’m going to confirm the awful possibility that the Seattle Sounders have simply never had a bad season in MLS. Credit the scouting, credit the front office: either way, that’s one hell of an accomplishment for an expansion team in any sport.
All right, that’s it for the narrative. I’ll close by ticking through each of the teams that competed in MLS in 2009 – and it should be shorter for this post, given how much I covered several teams in the above. Once again, in the order in which they finished and with each team’s stats embedded in its name:
Columbus Crew (13-7-10, 49 pts., 41 gf, 31 ga (+10); 1st in East; Supporters’ Shield)
The forwards they had for 2009 either weren’t ready (see: Garey, Jason and Lenhart, Steven), or they didn’t get enough minues (see: Moreno, Alejandro). Chad Marshall also didn’t get that many minutes, forcing them to rotate on defense quite a bit.
Los Angeles Galaxy (12-6-12, 48 pts., 36gf, 31ga (+5); 1st in West)
Covered well enough above, but calling in Gregg Berhalter to pair with Omar was just one of the smart moves they made.
Houston Dynamo (13-8-9, 48 pts.; 42gf, 35ga (+7); 2nd in West)
Brad Davis had a career season (5g, 12a), but they lost Dwayne DeRosario to Toronto and that left Davis feeding a Chicago-style committee for goals. The spine remained strong – e.g., they added Geoff Cameron to a unit that already had Richard Mulrooney, Bobby Boswell and Ricardo Clark.
Seattle Sounders (12-7-11, 47 pts., 38 gf, 29 ga (+9); 3rd in West)
Covered sufficiently above.
Chicago Fire (11-7-12, 45 pts., 39 gf, 34 ga (+5); 2nd in East)
Covered sufficiently above for where they ended up.
Chivas USA (13-11-6, 45 pts.; 34gf, 31ga (+3); 4th in West)
Mostly riding the same horses in the attack – e.g., Sacha Kljestan and Maykel Galindo – but with a guy named Eduardo Lillingston (8g, 0a) “spearheading” the attack. Zach Thornton showed up (think Brad Guzan must have left) and he had a baller season.
New England Revolution (11-10-9. 42 pts., 33gf, 37 ga (-4); 3rd in East)
With Taylor Twellman missing nearly the entire season (just two games), the Revs survived more than they thrived. The defense kept them alive, while Steve Ralston (7g, 7a) and Shalrie Joseph (8g, 8a) carried the offense with an assist from short-term forward Kheli Dube (8g, 0a).
Real Salt Lake (11-12-7, 40 pts., 43 gf, 35ga (+8); 5th in West, seeded East)
If I didn’t cover them in and among the above – even in the sense of using the rest of the league to explain them - I did something seriously wrong.
Colorado Rapids (10-10-10, 40 pts.; 42 gf, 38 ga (+4); 6th in West, no playoffs)
After seasons of indifference, the Rapids finally fielded a proper attack lead by Conor Casey (16g, 1a) and Omar Cummings (8g, 12a); and those two were a BLAST to watch. Despite Drew Moor being absent most of the season, and a Pablo Mastroeni/Nick LaBrocca midfield, the defense held up. It coulda been them that ran through the East, just as easily.
DC United (9-8-13, 40 pts., 43g, 44a (-1); 4th in East, no playoffs)
The attack was there (e.g., Luciano Emilio, 10g, 2a; Jaime Moreno (incredibly), 9g, 3a; Christian Gomez, 6g, 4a), but I can’t make the numbers for their defensive players work [NOTE: because the MLS archives are DODGY, people!], so I assume there’s something missing there, along with DC’s defense.
FC Dallas (11-13-6, 39 pts., 50 gf, 47ga (+3); 7th in West)
Having MLS’s second-worst defensive record for the year hurt them – a lot. They had a “real” attack, players with strengths (e.g., Jeff Cunningham, 17g, 8a, and Dave van den Bergh, 3g, 11a), plus some handy stand-ins (e.g., David Ferreira, 8g, 7a), and that just makes it sadder.
Toronto FC (10-11-9, 39 pts., 37gf, 46ga (-9), 5th in East)
Dwayne DeRosario managed a decent “Mr. Canada” act (11g, 6a), but the supporting cast didn’t come through (e.g., Amado Guevara, just 5g, 6a), so having a weak defense killed ‘em.
Kansas City Wizards (8-13-9, 33 pts., 33gf, 42ga (-9), 6th in East)
Short version: they didn’t have enough attacking talent – even with Josh Wolff (11g, 0a) – to overcome a shaky defense.
San Jose Earthquakes (7-14-9, 30 pts., 36gf, 50ga (-14); 8th in West)
Having the league’s worst defense is usually the kiss of death. So it proved to be here. They got some good assist numbers from Chris Leitch (of all people) and Shea Salinas, and Ryan Johnson gave them a decent return (11g, 2a), but the defense put a wall in their way.
New York Red Bulls (5-19-6, 21 pts., 27 gf, 47 ga (-20); 7th in East, last in MLS)
They attempted to do the same thing with Juan Pablo Angel that the Galaxy tried with Landon Donovan – e.g., leave him to carry the offense. It didn’t work. And their defense was terrible.
Before closing, yes, I’ll acknowledge that I stated that New York had “good bones” in my post on the 2008 season. Turns out they didn’t. When you’re grasping toward the present through a forgotten past and checking your work…
Until the next year/post, take care out there.
Then the 2007 season delivered just 39.8 goals/season. As for 2009? 38.1, the lowest recorded so far. I’m still a little paranoid about my methodology (which, here, means basic math), but it matches the eye-test: Dallas topped the league with 51 goals over the all season, but most teams stalled in the low 40s. There’s a reason I mention this, because I’ve seen it a couple times now (and maybe this is blazingly obvious to everyone else): low-scoring seasons tend to end in dog fights. And in every sense of the word.
As current fans know, MLS has hyped “Decision Day” into formal, annual “event,” an appetizer for the playoffs, if you will (man, I should use "if you will" more often), only losing means you have to sit and watch someone else eat the entrée. I don’t know what inspired that branding, but 2009 could very well have planted the seed. The competition on the final day of that season was close and bloody…
At the top of the table, the Columbus Crew won its second consecutive Supporters’ Shield (for the record, the Shield is, and will always be the Official Conifers & Citrus Benchmark for Excellence), but, because they went 2-3-0 over their last five games while their closest competition went 2-1-2 (Houston Dynamo) and 3-1-1 (Los Angeles Galaxy), they held on by finger nails (aka, four more in goal differential) [Note: I just discovered some bad numbers in the "official" 2009 standings - e.g., they show some teams playing 31 games in 2009, even 32- and, while I'll continue to use their data, file that reality away for future reference.] The story looked very much the same at the lower end of the playoff race. When the 30th day of the 30-game season rolled around, players on a minimum of six teams jumped at the referee’s starting whistle, knowing it could be the last time they’d hear the famous call to action until the 2010 season. To piece things together from the potshards..:
To start with the team that screwed themselves hardest*, Dallas had the best chance going in; all they had to do was win, and that was even with the New England Revolution (another team on the bubble), winning their personal Game 30 (goal differential would have carried Dallas through); instead they lost to Seattle away, and that ends one story. Toronto FC was in a similar spot – i.e., they could have ended on 42 points, just like New England – but they had a crater of a goal differential (-9, when all’s said and done), that would have likely rendered any win they managed irrelevant [Note: Toronto lost its Game 30 0-5 to the New York Red Bulls, so it was like -4 going in, but still.] DC United, for their part, could only manage a 2-2 draw against the Kansas City Wizards (please, please, get to their name change; so awful), but any kind of a win would have put them through as well. How many teams have I covered…one…two, three…yes, now four. OK, moving on…
The real action happened in the Western Conference, when the two final teams in the swinging mixer, Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids, met on “Decision Day” with everything on the line – and I mean that down to goal-differential. Colorado had a one-win, one-draw advantage over RSL going in and, because they carried a +4 goal differential into the game against RSL's +5, any Colorado win would see the Rapids into the playoffs over RSL. (*Against the note on Dallas above, the Rapids had a pretty damn clear look at a path to the Promised Land.)
And I guess that’s the punchline: RSL beat Colorado 3-0 in Utah on the final day of the season and, they not only made the playoffs, they won the 2009 MLS Cup. RSL finished last in the West – though, notably, with a +8 goal differential (file away for continuous future reference). In another fun bit of symmetry, they mirrored what the New York Red Bulls’ did in 2008 by running the table against the entire Eastern Conference, starting with the strongest team in the conference – e.g., Supporters’ Shield-winning Columbus.
Real Salt Lake won the first game at the (I haven’t mentioned this yet, have I?) newly-opened Rio Tinto Stadium, 1-0. After struggling since their founding (2005), RSL had managed to turn their home into a fortress: they went 9-1-5 at home during 2009 (and went on to establish a, frankly ridiculous home record for the next couple seasons). Their road record, on the other hand…jesus christ and hide the children, wound up at 2-11-2, dragging their overall record to an underwhelming 11-12-7. So, when the time came for RSL came to carry that 1-0 win over two-time Shield-winning Columbus and with that record? And then Guillermo Barros Schelotto put Columbus up 2-0 in the first half? How the hell was that series not over?
The answer was the kind of team goal that would make this RSL team one of the best in MLS for the next 3-4 seasons, plus Frankie Hejduk gifting them a penalty kick (put away by Oregon State University’s own Robbie Findley – Oregon, represent!), followed by a goal by Andy Williams that I’m just going to go ahead and call a metaphor for Real Salt Lake’s crazy unlikely 2009 MLS Cup. On the one hand, sure, Schelotto’s first goal was a fluke, but the rest of Columbus’ season was not, because Shield. Williams’ goal, meanwhile, was just the next fluke in a succession of them. RSL had no business winning MLS Cup that season, but they did. It wasn’t because there were a bad team, either. To make a very direct contrast, the Red Bulls wound up being the worst team in MLS in 2009, and that’s after reaching MLS Cup in 2008. Bones, people. It’s all about having good bones: RSL had better ones.
For all the talk of chance and flukiness above, RSL had one already-clear advantage over the next two games. Both the Eastern Conference Semifinals – against the Chicago Fire - and MLS Cup – against LA - would end in penalty kicks. And here’s a key phrase on that:
“Salt Lake won the ensuing penalty shootout 5–4 after seven rounds, relying on three saves by goalkeeper Nick Rimando.”
When push ultimately came to shove in the MLS Cup final – tied 1-1 after extra time - the Galaxy’s Josh Saunders saved as many shots as Rimando; Landon Donovan launched his PK over the cross-bar and that wound up being the difference. And, for what it’s worth, MLS kept delivering on one glorious level: as happened in the 1996 final, some American rando scored the game-winning goal (Robbie Russell).
To back-track a little, this was a blood-bath of a final: RSL’s Javier Morales left early with a torn meniscus and Will Johnson left at the half, unable to overcome food poisoning; for LA, their starting ‘keeper Donovan Ricketts (#RCTID) had his hand broken in the second half (on a totally legitimate challenge; see the highlights). It took another battle to get Findley’s equalizer over the line (Mike Magee’s opener was elegant by comparison), and that sent the game to extra-time (where RSL did better, reportedly), then penalty kicks. And…shit, I already spoiled the outcome above – RSL won! – but, no matter how you slice it, going from last in the West/last in the league to “East Conference Champion” to MLS Cup winner is a crazy journey…
…but not that much crazier than the Galaxy reaching an MLS Cup after several serious wilderness seasons.
I want to start this discussion with, what I believe is a useful contrast. The 2005 LA Galaxy team came out of last place in its conference to win MLS Cup in 2005 (my notes on that season), and/but against an eternally hapless (or just defensively unsound; more meandering notes on that) once-in-a-generation New England Revolution team. The Galaxy…well, they fucking died in the seasons that followed – e.g., 2006 (when they finished 5th), 2007 (5th again), 2008 (6th that time, but equally out of the playoffs in each of those seasons) – and that’s a massive tell on the state of a team – e.g., are they slouching toward a Ruud-Gullitt/Alexi-Lalas-fueled demise, or are they a team of destiny – e.g., RSL would be the first MLS team to come within a heartbreaking whisker of winning the CONCACAF Champions’ League either the next season or the one after.
By the time 2009 rolled around, LA had sorted out its shit –and that was primarily on the defensive end, an area of profound concern between 2007 and, especially, 2008 seasons. In a case of “God bless the draft,” the Galaxy landed themselves a competent defense when Omar Gonzalez and A. J. DeLaGarza joined the fold – both as rookies, I think – and then added Ricketts at ‘keeper. They had ample attacking talent from the season before (e.g., Donovan, Edson Buddle and Beckham), so landing that defense completed the Galaxy. They, too, would stick at or near the top of the league for several seasons to come. Balance is good.
Another team underlines what LA got right. Confident that they’d drafted a pair of gems, Kansas City threw Michael Harrington and Matt Besler to the lions, starting them for nearly every game of the 2009 season. While KC didn’t land so far outside of average (42 goal allowed), they didn’t have anything close to LA’s attacking talent (e.g., Josh Wolff came back and did all right (11g, 0a), while Claudio Lopez and Davy Arnaud (5g, 2a), but it fell off something awful after that. On the other hand, the deeper story is obvious: LA allowed 11 fewer goals than KC, as clear proof as you like that they called in better rookies. Having Bruce Arena for a coach didn’t hurt either.
To return to a question I haven’t asked yet (preamble legend!), how did a 2009-marginal team like Real Salt Lake push its way past a series of scrums to lift MLS Cup at the end of the season? An answer – my answer – comes in two parts, and with two teams as stand-ins: DC United and the Chicago Fire (listed in order of importance, for what it’s worth). With DC, the Form Guide is the starting point. The more I looked at how each team built its record in 2009, the more DC offered a model for a failed season. Like just about every team they battled for those final two playoff spots (to clarify, I’m calling the Revs’ up for grabs), DC never really got going in 2009 – e.g., they never got beyond two wins in a row and they (like, say, Toronto) only did that twice. It doesn’t matter what caused it – e.g., tricky match-ups, injuries (e.g., does that explain Chivas USA’s awful middle stretch) – because they all combined to create what RSL need most: a slow-moving pack that ended by setting a low bar for getting into the playoffs. It didn’t take consistently excellence to make the 2009 post-season – e.g., both Chicago and Chivas racked up enough points early to survive playing just as untriumphantly as DC, Toronto and RSL.
The commonality that Chicago shared with the rest of the league was a familiar one – i.e., what I keep calling a “hydra-headed attack,” even though the phrase implies the opposite of what I intend. “Scoring by committee” probably works better, but only if use the word “committee” in the corporate/governance manner of calling together a group of people who don't do much by design. I landed on the Fire as a quality exemplar based on who scored how many for them in 2009. Here’s their top 5: Brian McBride, 7g, 2a; Chris Rolfe, 6g, 1a; Cuauhtemoc Blanco, 5g, 8a; Marco Pappa, 5g, 4a; and Patrick Nyarko, 4g, 2a. That was a fairly common pattern across MLS – it applies even to Columbus, for example – and all a team needed to get away with scoring that anemic was field a solid defense. With Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave playing behind Kyle Beckerman, RSL did that. They also scored four more goals than Chicago, and two more than Columbus – thanks to a solid year by Findley (12g, 4a). When the pack is that tight, just having a forward who hits, say, five more goals than forwards on other teams gets you out of the pack.
I have one more team that I want to highlight – and to hold up as another, subtle shift in the multiple ways a team can operate/exist as in MLS. The Seattle Sounders ended their inaugural campaign at 3rd in the West, and in 4th place overall. Moreover, they tied Houston for the best defensive record in the league (if with three other teams just two goals allowed behind), and they managed to scrape the underside of league average for goals scored. The Sounders pulled that off by building a great team for their Year One. They added quality foreign players – e.g., Sweden’s Freddie Ljungberg (2g, 9a), Fredy Montero (12g, 7a), and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (who stayed healthy) – to a core of proven MLS veterans – e.g., Brad Evans, Tyrone Marshall, even Nate Jaqua – and carried over some quality from its USL predecessor – e.g., Osvaldo Alonso. As I march toward the present, I’m going to confirm the awful possibility that the Seattle Sounders have simply never had a bad season in MLS. Credit the scouting, credit the front office: either way, that’s one hell of an accomplishment for an expansion team in any sport.
All right, that’s it for the narrative. I’ll close by ticking through each of the teams that competed in MLS in 2009 – and it should be shorter for this post, given how much I covered several teams in the above. Once again, in the order in which they finished and with each team’s stats embedded in its name:
Columbus Crew (13-7-10, 49 pts., 41 gf, 31 ga (+10); 1st in East; Supporters’ Shield)
The forwards they had for 2009 either weren’t ready (see: Garey, Jason and Lenhart, Steven), or they didn’t get enough minues (see: Moreno, Alejandro). Chad Marshall also didn’t get that many minutes, forcing them to rotate on defense quite a bit.
Los Angeles Galaxy (12-6-12, 48 pts., 36gf, 31ga (+5); 1st in West)
Covered well enough above, but calling in Gregg Berhalter to pair with Omar was just one of the smart moves they made.
Houston Dynamo (13-8-9, 48 pts.; 42gf, 35ga (+7); 2nd in West)
Brad Davis had a career season (5g, 12a), but they lost Dwayne DeRosario to Toronto and that left Davis feeding a Chicago-style committee for goals. The spine remained strong – e.g., they added Geoff Cameron to a unit that already had Richard Mulrooney, Bobby Boswell and Ricardo Clark.
Seattle Sounders (12-7-11, 47 pts., 38 gf, 29 ga (+9); 3rd in West)
Covered sufficiently above.
Chicago Fire (11-7-12, 45 pts., 39 gf, 34 ga (+5); 2nd in East)
Covered sufficiently above for where they ended up.
Chivas USA (13-11-6, 45 pts.; 34gf, 31ga (+3); 4th in West)
Mostly riding the same horses in the attack – e.g., Sacha Kljestan and Maykel Galindo – but with a guy named Eduardo Lillingston (8g, 0a) “spearheading” the attack. Zach Thornton showed up (think Brad Guzan must have left) and he had a baller season.
New England Revolution (11-10-9. 42 pts., 33gf, 37 ga (-4); 3rd in East)
With Taylor Twellman missing nearly the entire season (just two games), the Revs survived more than they thrived. The defense kept them alive, while Steve Ralston (7g, 7a) and Shalrie Joseph (8g, 8a) carried the offense with an assist from short-term forward Kheli Dube (8g, 0a).
Real Salt Lake (11-12-7, 40 pts., 43 gf, 35ga (+8); 5th in West, seeded East)
If I didn’t cover them in and among the above – even in the sense of using the rest of the league to explain them - I did something seriously wrong.
Colorado Rapids (10-10-10, 40 pts.; 42 gf, 38 ga (+4); 6th in West, no playoffs)
After seasons of indifference, the Rapids finally fielded a proper attack lead by Conor Casey (16g, 1a) and Omar Cummings (8g, 12a); and those two were a BLAST to watch. Despite Drew Moor being absent most of the season, and a Pablo Mastroeni/Nick LaBrocca midfield, the defense held up. It coulda been them that ran through the East, just as easily.
DC United (9-8-13, 40 pts., 43g, 44a (-1); 4th in East, no playoffs)
The attack was there (e.g., Luciano Emilio, 10g, 2a; Jaime Moreno (incredibly), 9g, 3a; Christian Gomez, 6g, 4a), but I can’t make the numbers for their defensive players work [NOTE: because the MLS archives are DODGY, people!], so I assume there’s something missing there, along with DC’s defense.
FC Dallas (11-13-6, 39 pts., 50 gf, 47ga (+3); 7th in West)
Having MLS’s second-worst defensive record for the year hurt them – a lot. They had a “real” attack, players with strengths (e.g., Jeff Cunningham, 17g, 8a, and Dave van den Bergh, 3g, 11a), plus some handy stand-ins (e.g., David Ferreira, 8g, 7a), and that just makes it sadder.
Toronto FC (10-11-9, 39 pts., 37gf, 46ga (-9), 5th in East)
Dwayne DeRosario managed a decent “Mr. Canada” act (11g, 6a), but the supporting cast didn’t come through (e.g., Amado Guevara, just 5g, 6a), so having a weak defense killed ‘em.
Kansas City Wizards (8-13-9, 33 pts., 33gf, 42ga (-9), 6th in East)
Short version: they didn’t have enough attacking talent – even with Josh Wolff (11g, 0a) – to overcome a shaky defense.
San Jose Earthquakes (7-14-9, 30 pts., 36gf, 50ga (-14); 8th in West)
Having the league’s worst defense is usually the kiss of death. So it proved to be here. They got some good assist numbers from Chris Leitch (of all people) and Shea Salinas, and Ryan Johnson gave them a decent return (11g, 2a), but the defense put a wall in their way.
New York Red Bulls (5-19-6, 21 pts., 27 gf, 47 ga (-20); 7th in East, last in MLS)
They attempted to do the same thing with Juan Pablo Angel that the Galaxy tried with Landon Donovan – e.g., leave him to carry the offense. It didn’t work. And their defense was terrible.
Before closing, yes, I’ll acknowledge that I stated that New York had “good bones” in my post on the 2008 season. Turns out they didn’t. When you’re grasping toward the present through a forgotten past and checking your work…
Until the next year/post, take care out there.
Marco Papa finally makes an appearance...
ReplyDeleteLove these posts, the form guide is a decent glass brought which to view the historical context.
Having drifted away from the league in the late 2000's, it seems I missed out on some godawful soccer (thankfully).
It's funny because I have happy memories of both the 2008 and 2009 seasons - e.g. new teams won and they looked all right doing it. That said, the numbers don't lie...MLSSoccer.com, on the other hand...the 2009 standings are very clearly jacked.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're enjoying 'em! Gives me something to think about that isn't massively depressing...
What could you possibly mean? Perhaps
DeleteAlso, mukbang is a new term to me, but the concept is part of my life...
Really enjoying these MLS seasonal rundowns. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI find myself trying to recollect whether I paid any attention to the details of MLS play in the 2001-2010 era. I guess that the answer is no. And believe me, not because of Euro-snobbery. More because the USL Timbers were slowly having better and better seasons in our own little pond. The TA persona we know was really forged in the USL days, on the backs of very uneven quality teams and uneven ownership. Timbers players would occasionally go to MLS (Alan Gordan) or the WC (Brent Sancho), but in those days we measured our organizational progress against teams like the Rochester Rhinos and the Charleston Battery.
In my absent-minded way I paid some attention to players like Landon Donovan, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Beckham and Juan Pablo Ángel. Big-market guys who got a little bit of sports press. So I get alot from your detailed team analyses of these bygone years.
Yo! I split my time between the Timbers/USL and New England/MLS in those days, and probably did the total coverage thing to boot. Watching the Timbers "grow up" definitely felt bittersweet to me; the minor league make up for a lack of quality with a charming informality that I'll always miss. And there's something exotic about playing a team from upstate New York.
ReplyDeleteGiven the way I still split my time following this stuff (e.g., a little Cincinnati, a little more Portland), not much has changed. Glad you're enjoying them! T-minus...not long till the Timbers become part of the story!