An MLS History Project, 2011: A Coronation and Other Beautiful Things

Why LA won MLS Cup 2011, in a photo.

The Los Angeles defeated the Houston Dynamo 1-0 in the 2011 MLS Cup, and the whole thing looked like a coronation. Given that they won their second consecutive Supporters’ Shield that season, it’s possible that was the best Galaxy team of all-time – and, with Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Omar Gonzalez and, later Robbie Keane in the line-up, it was certainly their most (recent) famous team. With no disrespect intended to Calen Carr, the image at right speaks Encyclopedia Britannica-level volumes about the match-up. As such, I’m going to bury the final and talk about the biggest, bestest news about the 2011 Major League Soccer season.

The Portland Timbers joined MLS that season and, lo, the sun shined a little brighter, the grey skies cleared up, and the bar got raised a little higher for supporters’ groups across the nation. Before anyone’s undies get in a bunch, yes, other supporters’ groups existed before then – for instance Barra Brava and…the other one was up, running and pretty impressive, even at Year 2, when I lived in Washington, D.C. - and, honestly, those groups deserve a ton of credit for building their supporters’ culture from (literally) nothing. The fact still remains that the Timbers do a better-than-average job of making the Timbers feel like the best-loved team in MLS.

Oh, and the Vancouver Whitecaps joined the same season. Back to the Timbers…

By the time 2011 rolled around, MLS had expanded from the baseline 10 teams from 2001 to 18 teams – if with detours that saw one expansion team (the Chicago Fire) live and another (the Miami Fusion) die, the latter with one of the MLS original franchises (the Tampa Bay Mutiny; see my short history of a rough season). Because both team salary budgets and salary adjustment mechanisms proliferated as the league grew, MLS doesn’t really have a one-cut template for what expansion looks like. First things first, yank the Houston Dynamo all the way out of the sample, because they just relocated a dynamite fucking team and never had to go through the loss/pimple-filled adolescence common among expansion teams in most professional sports. Outside that odd duck, the experience of expansion teams coming into MLS has varied. To give examples, the teams that came up from a USL team used to have a generally more reliable experience – e.g., the Seattle Sounders, who hit the ground running and never stopped – than the teams that (if memory serves) sprang to existence through the magic of a (usually) billionaires’ money – e.g., Toronto FC, who took over a half decade to find its feet. MLS’s “big money era” (aka, now) changed that equation – see your Atlanta United FCs and your Los Angeles FCs – though it’s entirely fair to ask for how long (I’ve seen enough once-good/great teams get swallowed and never emerge from either end – e.g., Houston and the New England Revolution).

Both the Timbers and the Whitecaps came up from the USL. They both went through the expansion draft and they both joined the league after the rule allowing teams to sign up to three DPs came into effect (my notes on that/the 2010 season). Vancouver signed two DPs to Portland’s one, and they took different approaches with their signings. The ‘Caps loaded up in offense, signing Eric Hassli from Switzerland’s FC Zurich and a guy named Mustapha Jarju from Belgium’s R.A.E.C. Mons. They did all right with Hassli (10g, 2a), but Jarju started just five games and played in only 10 before…moving on. A couple other players – Camilo Sanvezzo and Davide Chumiento, neither of them DPs – gave Vancouver bigger numbers. Camilo actually wound up being the star of their lousy inaugural (12g, 3a; Chumiento flirted with the neutrals a bit with some slick play (and a couple goals, and nine assists), but Vancouver also cobbled together a badly-balanced team, one that was top-heavy, without playing nearly top-heavy enough. Not even the steadying presence of one of the best all-time stories in U.S. Soccer history, Jay DeMerit, could keep them from bleeding goals at the back (they finished third-worst for goals allowed, but still finished a single nose higher than (yet) an(other) abysmal New England team).

The Timbers signed just one DP for the 2011 season, Diego Chara. I had no goddamn idea what to make of Chara when Portland signed him – was he a No. 10? a stabilizing box-to-box guy? – and I can’t recall how long it took me to realize his upside. Hell, I don’t even know what the people who signed him had in their heads when they did it, but holy shit, did he pan out. Fans around the league will probably remember when Diego Valeri signed for Portland and rightly call it a turning point, but Chara still has to rank among the most consequential and best DP signings in MLS history; he’s a large reason the Timbers have never had, for example, a New-England-2011-bad season. Even after looking at the Timbers’ players from the 2011 season, I’m not 100% sure I can reconstruct where Portland played him, or how they used him, but I can’t bring myself to believe they signed him as a play-maker. Now, if they did, that invalidates this entire argument, but, if Portland went out and shopped for the spinal fluid in their spine, they struck gold with Chara.

Portland would finish higher than Vancouver in 2011 (something that’s held down the years and that turns this comment into a punchline), and that was as simple as calling better players out of the Expansion Draft and building a more balanced team. For one, the ‘Caps went for several past-due options – e.g., John Thorrington (from Chicago, but with how many skips?), Peter Vanegas (from the Galaxy), Atiba Harris, Shea Salinas, and how the hell was Michael Nanchoff (from DC) still rattling around the league by then (answer: barely, but enough to have someone offer him a contract)?

It’s not that Portland stuck a perfect landing – e.g., Mike Chabala (from Houston?), Jeremy Hall (from the New York Red Bulls), Eric Alexander (from…shit, FC Dallas?) and Adam Moffat (borrowed temporarily from oblivion) all came into the line-up and left it to quiet grumbling – but they did land their leading scorer for the 2011 season in Kenny Cooper (8g, 2a), as well as regular starters like Eric Brunner (Columbus), Rodney Wallace (…RBNY?), Sal Zizzo (shit…Chivas USA?) for a middling season. If they found gold in the Expansion Draft, it was Jack Jewsbury. The man who Timbers fans came to call “Captain Jack” by the end of that first season came from the Kansas City Wizards teams from the 2000s, where he learned the dark arts of keeping a team rigidly organized from some of the greatest killjoys in MLS history (e.g., Kerry Zavagnin, Peter Vermes, Jimmy Conrad and Diego Gutierrez). That didn’t pay off so much during Portland’s inaugural season, when they finished on the wrong half in terms of goals allowed (5th overall) but he made up for that by scoring seven goals and assisting on eight. The Timbers didn’t make the playoffs in 2011 – the defense killed them, which says something about what they got out of Brunner - but they came within seven points in the tougher Western Conference, and they finished just three points off the Red Bulls, who claimed the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Going the other way, they finished 14 points over the Whitecaps, and above a bunch of teams that knew former glory – e.g., DC United, San Jose, even New England. I'll continue to note how each successive class of expansion played out going forward. I have a suspicion that it changed a bit...

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s expand to the state of the league as a whole – starting with the 2011 Form Guide. First, and broadly, the defining median for making or missing the playoffs involved teams who drew a lot, but without losing a lot: New York (16 draws) and the Philadelphia Union (15) qualified for the post-season over the Chicago Fire despite drawing as many games as they did (16). The difference was, literally, winning a game or two more (both New York and Philly had gently U-shaped seasons). It must have been neck-and-neck down the stretch, what with the last five who earned playoff spots finishing on 49, 49, 48, 47, and 46 points. Chicago, to their credit, kept the race interesting by going 7-2-1 down the stretch (only to die on 43 points).

Things looked fairly obvious on either side of that line. To start with, the Colorado Rapids showed the way to defy gravity – e.g., by putting together a 5-2-3 record here and a 4-3-3 record there (down the stretch, in fact). Falling short of that, as well as the high-draw/low-loss formula noted above, proved surprisingly easy to do for teams like New England, DC, Toronto, San Jose and Vancouver (who had the most losses for the season). Getting to the space between the Colorado Rapids and missing the playoffs took a couple forms. For Columbus, it involved slowing to 3-6-1 down the stretch (meaning they hit the playoffs cold…ish), which let Philly pip them to the last playoff spot without a play-in by going 3-5-2. The Red Bulls had the same late general shape to its season – e.g., decent start, bad middle, decent ending – and that was playoff quality for 2011. Moving on to the bigger picture, Seattle stirred itself from its annual early-season slumber to go 7-2-1 over their last 10, while both Dallas and RSL picked up points early and wilted down the stretch. Sporting Kansas City, who had finally rebranded and moved to Livestrong Park (now…Child’s Mercy? Mercy for Children? Children of Mercy? Whatever) that season, followed Seattle’s path, only they died harder and rose less swiftly. Not by much, mind, and it’s probably irrelevant…

…especially considering that the two teams who vied for MLS Cup either hit their stride late – e.g., Houston won eight of its last 12 games – or, like LA, they played the good stuff all season. And then added Robbie Keane to the roster toward the end. With that, one team rolled into the playoffs while another one strolled.

And, holy shit, where are my manners? I haven’t even covered the handful of changes that rippled through the season in 2011 (though “ripple” is accurate in terms of magnitude). First of all, MLS kept a balanced schedule (against what I said in the 2010 post), with every team in the league playing all the others twice, home and away. That produced a 34-game season. The playoffs featured 10 teams – because of course it did – with the top three teams in each conference qualifying directly, followed by the next four teams with the highest points total. Unlike previous seasons, MLS threw those last four teams into a wild-card play-in, a one-off, winner-line-up-for-a-whuppin’-next-round game. Colorado lined up against Columbus and New York against Dallas and, in both cases, the teams in a funk lost (do you see? I had to keep the Form Guide stuff above? I had to!). The next round – still rather mysteriously the only two-legged series in the playoffs – played out on a similar logic: the hotter, Eastern Conference champs, SKC, knocked off Colorado; the same happened between Houston and Philly, and even LA and New York; the team most on form won every time and, no, good fundamentals never hurts and each of the winning teams had them. Sticking with the script, Seattle ran RSL ragged in the second leg of their Western Conference semifinal, even after losing the first leg 3-0 (thanks to this peach of a goal, for one ). For what it’s worth, I call what RSL managed in that series a triumph of a well-built team. As I keep noting, that edition of RSL sticks around for a while, because they always had this in them.

The conference finals pitted Houston against KC and LA against RSL. I did try to find highlights of those games, but all the video I found seems to think time started in 2012 (on the plus side, I found the image up top through those searches and that could have been the goddamn post with the caption, “how LA won MLS Cup 2011”). I would have loved to see how the Galaxy put three past an RSL team that posted strong numbers for 2011; the same goes for Houston winning 2-0 over KC, especially with Houston’s Brad Davis limping off before half in that game. Davis was massive for the Dynamo that season, an assist juggernaut who hit double digits for the third season running, and chipping in five goals to boot. I mean, I can see Houston beating SKC on the strength of their late-season upswing, and also with a defense with Bobby Boswell and Geoff Cameron at the heart of it, but, if you look at that team with 16 assists taken out of the equation? I mean, how did they win anything after Davis went down?

Maybe that’s why LA ran over Houston in MLS Cup 2011 – because, judging by the highlights, that’s what they did. The stats show a close one and it probably was, even if Robbie Keane’s goal should have counted (they called it offside, I call bullshit; judge for yourself, just know I’m positively drunken when it comes to the offside rule). Landon Donovan scored the winner 72 minutes in, but LA carved up Houston over and over. With a defense that ranked somewhere in the top five all-time (probably second; they allowed 28 over 34 games in the regular season), LA had the back-stop to let a rejuvenated, refocused David Beckham (2g, 15a and, finally, 25 starts), Keane and Donovan run riot. And they did. They had a great pivot-man in Juninho to transition from defense to attack, plus Mike Magee as a fourth or fifth option (Adam Cristman was another) in the attack. It was a lot to cope with…

On the other hand, look at Houston’s 2011 MLS Cup Final line-up and tell me how they got there, because I’ve got nothing. The midfield was Luiz Camargo, Adam Moffat (reclaimed from Portland, I guess), Danny Cruz and Corey Ashe, a unit you’d stack against…uh, absolutely no one post MLS-1.0. And having Calen Carr (who I really like in his present role, but…c’mon) run off an aging, half-present Brian Ching? With that midfield behind it and that Galaxy defense in front of it? This game was over before it started; everyone was just waiting on LA to score. Except Houston, obviously, who was waiting on them to fail…

And…yes, that’s the story of how the 2011 season went down, if with some (or a lot of) gaps. Time to pick through the teams a little and, this time, I do mean a little: I’ve got to tighten these buggers up for the 20+ team era. As always, the stats for each team is embedded in its name below.

Los Angeles Galaxy (19-5-10, 67 pts., 48gf, 28 ga (+20); 1st in West, Supporters' Shield)
Apart from the numbers the attack chipped in (e.g., Donovan, 12g, 3a; Chad Barrett, 7g, 5a; and Mike Magee, 5g, 0a), covered above.

Seattle Sounders (18-7-9, 63 pts., 56gf, 37ga (+19), 2nd in West)
The usual formula: a stable spine (e.g., Osvaldo Alonso, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Tyson Wahl), plus a couple useful second bananas (e.g., Brad Evans, Lamar Neagle, Alvaro Fernandez(?)), supporting star talent – e.g., Fredy Montero (12g, 9a) and Mauro Rosales (5g, 13a). They’ve never been bad, dammit…

Real Salt Lake (15-11-8, 53 pts., 44gf, 36 ga (+8), 3rd in West)
With the way Collen Warner, Robbie Russell, Chris Wingert Will Johnson, and Ned Grabavoy seemed to matter as much as Alvaro Saborio (11g, 2a) and Fabian Espindola (10g, 3a), I’ve always thought of the Jason-Kreis RSL team as one of the most democratic in league history.

FC Dallas (15-12-7, 52 pts., 42gf, 39ga (+3); 4th in West, play-in)
You can’t explain it beyond calling it a classic Dallas season – strong start, soft finish. What they hell, though, they finished 4th overall and handed Brek Shea a reputation-building season (11g, 4a, and it’s your dice from there on out).

Sporting Kansas City (13-9-12, 51 pts., 50gf, 40ga (+10), 1st in East, but…)
The first of several strong teams for SKC, built around a varied attack (Kei Kamara, 9g, 4a; Teal Bunbury, 9g, 3a; Omar Bravo, 9g, 2a; Graham Zusi, 5g, 7a, and C. J. Sapong, 5g, 5a), and the spine (Collin, Besler, Espinoza, Myers, Sinovic) that carried them for the next few seasons. Sorry to go on, but was this when I started hating them again?

Houston Dynamo (12-9-13, 49 pts., 45gf, 41ga (+4); 2nd in East)
Davis carried them, but Cameron lead the team for goals with 5g, 5a. Boswell matched him on goals, and wasn’t far off the forwards. Says a lot. Especially when Davis went down.

Colorado Rapids (12-9-13, 49 pts., 46 gf, 42 ga (+4); 5th in West, play-in)
They retained a decent, but not league-elite spine with Drew Moor, Marvell Wynne and Tyrone Marshall, but, with Omar Cummings and Conor Casey both falling off, Jeff Larentowicz lead them in scoring (7g, 1a), and that’s never a good sentence for any team.

Philadelphia Union (11-8-15, 48 pts., 44gf, 36ga (+8); 3rd in East)
I forgot how good Sebastian Le Toux was (11g, 9a), but it was a grab-bag from there (e.g., Carlos Ruiz, 6g, 0a; Danny Mwanga 5g, 4a; Justin Mapp, 3g, 4a), but the strength was the Danny Califf, Carlos Valdes, Sheanon Williams triangle. A good competitive team for the East in 2011.

Columbus Crew (13-13-8, 47 pts., 43gf, 44ga (-1); 4th in East, play-in)
Andres Mendoza finally woke up (13g, 2a), so did Renteria (8g, 2a), with good second bananas in Robbie Rogers (2g, 7a) and Eddie Gaven (5g, 1a), had a sturdy, healthy defense in Julius James, Sebastian Miranda and Chad Marshall (that said, very quiet year in offense, 0g, 1a)

New York Red Bulls (10-8-16, 46 pts., 50gf, 44ga (+6); 5th in East, play-in)
As the goals-for numbers suggest, they had the best top 5 attackers in MLS (Thierry Henry, 14g, 4a; Luke Rodgers, 9g, 3a; Dane Richards, 7g, 7a; Joel Lindpere, 7g, ga; Juan Agudelo, 6g, 2a); defense mostly stayed healthy, lead by Tim Ream, but it wasn’t league-elite.

PLAYOFFS ABOVE, DAMNATION BELOW

Chicago Fire (9-9-16, 43 pts., 46gf, 45ga (+1); 6th in East)
Jesus Christ, when did Logan Pause retire? They had a stable, present back-line (e.g., Cory Gibbs, Jalil Anibaba, Gonzalo Segares), and solid years from Dom Oduro (12g, 2), Marco Pappa (8g, 2a), and Patrick Nyarko (1g, 9a), but winning two games over your first 24 does real damage.

Portland Timbers (11-14-9, 42 pts., 40 gf, 48 ga (-8); 6th in West)
I left two players (or more) players off of the Timbers notes above, so I’ll fix that and leave it alone. First, Darlington Nagbe always looks like the same player to me, even though his numbers vary more than I remember season to season. Ah, the ultimate conundrum. Kalif Alhassan, on the other hand, deserves special mention. He came up from the USL team and he really did show flashes now and again; he ended 2011 on six assists, which isn’t bad. More than anything else, he’s just one of those maddening, middling players who exist between two leagues. Tragic.

DC United (9-13-12, 39 pts., 49gf, 52 ga (-3); 7th in East)
They had a good, built/borrowed offense, right up there with the Red Bulls (e.g., Dwayne DeRosario, 13g, 7a; Charlie Davies, 11g, 1a; Chris Pontius, 7g, 5a; Josh “Still?” Wolff (5g, 7a), that was undone by a young, equally shitty defense (e.g., Ethan White, Daniel Woolard, Brandon McDonald, plus Perry Kitchen’s first season (lotsa starts)).

San Jose Earthquakes (8-12-14, 38 pts., 40gf, 45 ga (-5); 7th in West)
Another “Wondoful” season (16g, 3a), and with some decent pieces (Simon Dawkins, 6g, 2a (from 1/2 a season), Khari Stephenson, 5g, 4a, midfield dominance; plus Steve Beitashour got seven assists), but it gets to Bobby Burling real fast.

Chivas USA (8-14-12, 36 pts., 41gf, 43ga (-2); 8th in West)
They did the Colorado money-ball with the formerly successful approach – e.g., Juan Pablo Angel, Alejandro Moreno, Heath Pearce, Nick LaBrocca (who had a career season in attack; 8g), only without the odd stroke of genius (also this was Zarek Valentin’s rookie season; 24 appearances!).

Toronto FC (6-13-15, 33 pts., 36gf, 59 ga (-23); 8th in East)
The goals left with DeRosario and Danny Koevermans (8g, 1a) and Maicon Santos (6g, 1a) couldn’t replace them, not even with Nick Soolsma’s and Joao Plata’s help (both 3g, 5a). The instability, though, really stands out; no one started more than 26 games, most didn’t start 20.

Vancouver Whitecaps (6-18-10, 28 pts., 35gf, 55ga (-20); 9th in West)
Covered above, given how little they did.

New England Revolution (5-16-13, 28 pts., 38gf, 58ga (-20); 9th in East)
Shalrie Joseph talked about hating one season with the Revs and I bet it was this one. He carried them (8g, 1a), and for a second season, with Benny Feilhaber kicking in (4g, 7a), and not a whole let more. Their signings busted (e.g., Rajko Lekic and Mitlon Caraglio) busted and their key rookies (A.J Soares) defaulted. 2007 was a long way away at this point…

And that’s another season wrapped up. In case you’re wondering, yes, these are getting harder. Hope they’re getting better too. Till the next one…