An MLS History Project, 2005: Expansion 1.0 (& Reliable Players)

Charles Ponzi, who knew a little light-foot to boot...

[Ed. – I understand that nearly all the statistical information about goals for/against in what’s below is more revealing than revelatory; I mean, what else would a mid-table team do, but post mid-table numbers?]

The average goals scored in Major League Soccer was 39.2 in 2004, the lowest in league history to that point. Also, you do know what I mean by that phrase, “the average goals scored”? Basically, I wanted to establish the baseline for goals scored for and against in a given season (it’s the same number, obviously…noted because it took me a couple passes), so I can see where each team’s goals for and against landed around that average.

Also, taking suggestions for better phrasing of the concept because I hate that one. Moving on.

By the end of the 2005 MLS season, the average goals scored would rise to a lofty 45.9. Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA joined MLS at the beginning of the year. This wasn’t the reason I started fixating on averages, but, well, it paid off here.

As noted in every post in this series since 2001 (and here’s 2002, 2003, and 2004), a combination of defenses tightening up across MLS and - hear me out – the retirement/decline among the first generation of Marquee players (explained in the 1996 post), conspired to make scoring goals in MLS harder. [Ed. – Did that same process help the American attacking talent that fed the U.S. Men’s Team by giving them more reps and more time to sort out what worked on the field?] This resulted in most teams in the league staying fairly tight against the average on both sides – e.g., goals for and against – through those years and that created a league that was highly competitive (amongst the teams), but that, on the worst Saturdays (aka, late July and August) moved one to think, surely, there is more to life. On the one hand, no team could run away with the title; on the other, the regular season looked like a cartoon reel of the most evil goal-less draws that Hell could engineer. And you had to stare at the hideous gridiron lines for half the season. [Ed. – Honestly, your eyes adjusted, and pretty quickly; it just looked like shit.]

An MLS History Project, 2004: Parity Used to Mean Something, Dammit!

Brought to you glue. Or a rigid/low salary cap.

“One of the few teams with only one or two identities over its history in MLS. The big picture wasn’t much different back in 2002 – solid, reliably made the playoffs, only without going anywhere – but they’re also always unearthing talent that would later explode – e.g., Irishman Robbie O’Brien and, especially, Eddie Johnson.”

That’s my commentary on the Dallas Burn/FC Dallas in the 2002 post in this series. I quote it here in order to do two things to my bottom: first, give it a little “attaboy/good hustle” pat for recalling the two next big things for Dallas – e.g., O’Brien and (especially) Johnson. That’s one cheek (left, right, your call): the other gets a soothing massage, because I wrote that about Dallas’ identity – i.e., “solid, reliably made the playoffs, only without going anywhere” – immediately before Dallas missed the playoffs…uh, two straight seasons after 2002. And, by one account I’m choosing to trust, 2003 was their worst in league history.

I still think that “identity” for Dallas rings true, but that’s the point of all this: it’s not just remembering some names and faces, but also reconnecting to narratives, aka, the short arcs in Major League Soccer history. With 24 years behind us, I have loose identities for every team in MLS at this point – well, except Nashville SC, and Inter Miami CF, which is odd, because FC Cincinnati absolutely has an identity (and it’s bad) – and I think I can back up most of them. On the other hand, I’m learning where, for instance, I’ve got the right player and team, but I’m some number of years off (say, the San Jose Earthquake’s Ronnie Ekelund, who I would have placed later in their life-span), or when I forgot when each team hit whatever peak it had. Which brings me back to the Dallas Burn, now FC Dallas (and does the latter name really improve on the former?)

Whatever you call them (I’m leaning Burn), Dallas had a flaming shit-show of a season in 2003. They barely missed, however, in 2004 finishing just two points behind the (champions!) San Jose Earthquakes in the West. Still, that 36-point finish in '04 put them above not just the league-worst Chicago Fire than season, but also above a New England Revolution team that would scare the holy shit out of the DC United team that went on to win MLS Cup in 2004. In an alternate universe where MLS continued the playoff rules they used in 2002 (link above), Dallas would have made the 2004 MLS playoffs instead of New England, thus delaying the first known Rimando-ing in MLS history, and for who knows how long? (I’ve carried details from this game in my head – e.g., Taylor Twellman’s finish, Steve Ralston’s in-game PK bouncing in off Nick Rimando’s back – but the mini-documentary puts those details in their place within a freakin' incredible game. More to the point, Rimando and PKs go way back.))