An MLS History Project, 2002: Coming Back from the Dead to Become the Buffalo Bills

Not judging, just stating (but, yes, judging).

It’s easier to know something about every team in a league with fewer teams, obviously, but few things do the experience real justice quite like the numbers:

“Each team played a total of 28 matches in the regular season, which ran from March to September, facing teams within their conference four times and outside of their conference two times.”

After seeing the same names that often, how could you not put a face to every name? (Also, it was mostly names and faces; I don’t honestly recall how many games I could watch on a weekly basis back then, but I think you’d be surprised; more later.) That was true at the time, but, today, I couldn’t pick Rodrigo Faria out of a police line-up if he was wearing a shirt that said “Rodrigo Faria” on it. And that guy lead the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in scoring in 2002. The limits of going by memory…

If you go by the goals scored, 2002 wasn’t much to look at. For one, it was the lowest-scoring season in MLS history to date with just 42.1 goals for/against league wide (helpfully, the 2001 average came in at 43.25, the former league-low; less helpfully, 2000’s average was 51.0). I remember commentators, and probably the league, panicking about that a little, but can you blame them? MLS contracted from 12 teams down to 10 between 2001 and 2002 – and, apparently, drew up the papers to fold. If you love soccer already, you’ve already priced in low-scoring games, but, just for a minute, put yourself in the shoes of someone whose chosen career is pitching soccer to a country famously hostile to soccer. Now, as that person, how would you feel if the league you ran spent two seasons basically proving the point of everyone who hates that sport – e.g., that no one ever (fucking) scores. So, yes, I’m sympathetic to the situation.

How bad was it? MLS Cup runner-up, the New England Revolution, scored the most goals that season, 49 in all. They barely raised a low average, in other words. The Revs had a pretty damn strong team that season, obviously; a team doesn’t (barely) win the Eastern Conference and reach MLS Cup without outdoing its peers. That didn’t make it any less fitting that MLS Cup 2002* was decided by a single goal, scored in extra time – this would be the last “golden goal” in MLS history – and by a team that had relied on its defense more than I remembered (* That link takes you to the highlights, and they're fun, for the Jones/Franchino battle alone; also, seeing the winner again...and it's been years...it hurt). To pick up another thread to the ultimate, achingly-awaited triumph: when the Los Angeles Galaxy broke its MLS Cup duck, they borrowed the playbook from the 2000 Kansas City Wizards (and, for the record, Blazing Saddles has forever ruined me for any phrase that begins with “Kansas City”; WARNING, not PC, but very effective in its message), and brought in a ringer: Carlos Ruiz, a Guatemalan forward/diver/con-artist/street-genius. It was no surprise at all to see him score the winner; Ruiz had already scored over half the Galaxy’s goals during the regular season (seriously, 24 goals of 44 goals). To hang an analogy on it, the Galaxy was only able to win an MLS Cup by going from Scandal to Patty Smyth and Scandal.

Gold Cup Round Up: After Round One. Round One.

These are the results. And that's the ocean. Or one of the Great Lakes.

Now that I know I won't see all, or maybe even part of tomorrow night's, uh, second, first-round game between the United States and Haiti (or even the subsequent game that pits Honduras v. Panama), I've been trying to figure out what to with all that real estate I cleared in this space to cover the Gold Cup. A couple waves washed over me (some better than others, much like on a beach), I think I came up with something that can be useful, even absent direct observation of all the games under discussion.

Still, let the record show that I really do hope to catch a chunk or two of the U.S. v. Haiti game. It's just life that’s in the way. Again.

At any rate, the idea is that when I can't take in games, I'll at least do some research and put up a little framing for the tournament as it progresses. Call it being relevant, where I can't be authoritative, or even informative. (Then again, when the hell am I ever authoritative?) I plan on posting...something, no matter how loosey-goosey, after each round of games for all teams within this, uh, current, and ongoing, first round of the Gold Cup, e.g. the round-robin phase. Hence the awkward title, "After Round One, Round One," which, here, means the point in the first round of the Gold Cup when all the teams in all three groups has played, first, one game, then two games. When the latter happens, I'll subtitle the recap, "After Round One, Round Two." Get it?

Whatever happens with the mess above, tonight will take the form of so much spit-balling about the first round of results in the context of the first round of the Gold Cup. (Again, are we tracking? Sorry to use a legal term.) My only hope is that someone finds something useful down below.