Hey Crab Man!

Introducing Darnell De Guzman.

Superliga Overall Team Records

These are the overall records for each team that's competed in the Superliga tournament. All ties in the knockout stages have been counted as wins and losses for the teams involved based on the results of the penalty kick shootout.

Team             W   L   T   GF   GA   DF  PTS   PPG  
America          1   2   0    3    4   -1    3   1.00
Atlante          2   2   0    5    7   -2    6   1.50
Chicago          4   4   0    8   10   -2   12   1.50
Chivas USA       2   4   3    8   10   -2    9   1.00
Dallas           0   1   2    7    8   -1    2   0.67
DC United        1   5   1    6   12   -6    4   0.57
Guadalajara      3   2   1    6    6    0   10   1.67
Houston          7   4   2   20   10   10   23   1.77
Kansas City      0   1   2    2    4   -2    2   0.67
Los Angeles      3   2   0   12    9    3    9   1.80
Morelia          3   2   3   14   10    4   12   1.50
New England     10   2   2   18   11    7   32   2.29
Pachuca          4   6   2   11   17   -6   14   1.17
Puebla           2   2   0    6    4    2    6   1.50
Pumas UNAM       0   2   1    2    4   -2    1   0.33
San Luis         1   1   1    4    3    1    4   1.33
Santos           1   4   2    8   11   -3    5   0.71
Tigres           4   1   0    9    8    1   12   2.40

Superliga Team Appearance Records

Appearances

Rk Team          App
1  Chivas USA     3
   Houston        3
   New England    3
   Pachuca        3
5  Chicago        2
   DC United      2
   Guadalajara    2
   Morelia        2
   Santos         2

Title Game Appearances

Rk Team          App
1  New England    2
2  Houston        1
   Pachuca        1
   Chicago        1
   Morelia        1
   Los Angeles    1
   Tigres         1

Championships

Rk Team          App
1  New England    1
   Pachuca        1
   Morelia        1
   Tigres         1

Superliga Goal Scoring Records

Last year I compiled a list of everyone who had scored more than one Superliga goal. Since the Superliga site is nearly impossible to get useful stats from, I decided to expand things a bit this year.

9/2/10 Update: With his brace in the final, Morelia's Miguel Sabah wrote his name into the record books, climbing into a tie for most career goals and most goals in a single tournament. Also of note -- Kevin Alston became the 100th player to score in the history of the Superliga.

Career Goals Scored

Rank Player               Gls
 1   Landon Donovan       4
     Luis Gabriel Rey     4
     Miguel Sabah         4
 4   Kenny Mansally       3
     Alan Gordon          3
     Ante Razov           3
     Armando Pulido       3
     Arturo Alvarez       3
     Kheli Dube           3
     Rafael Márquez Lugo  3
     Shalrie Joseph       3
     Stuart Holden        3

Goals - Single Tournament

Rank Player               Gls  Year
 1   Landon Donovan       4    2007
     Miguel Sabah         4    2010
 3   Alan Gordon          3    2007
     Ante Razov           3    2007
     Armando Pulido       3    2009
     Arturo Alvarez       3    2007
     Shalrie Joseph       3    2008
     Stuart Holden        3    2008

Tournaments Scored In

Rank Player               Tournaments
 1   Luis Gabriel Rey     2 (2008/2010)
     Kenny Mansally       2 (2009/2010)
     Kheli Dube           2 (2008/2009)
     Rafael Márquez Lugo  2 (2007/2010)
     Dwayne De Rosario    2 (2007/2008)
     Giancarlo Maldonado  2 (2008/2010)
     Joseph Ngwenya       2 (2007/2010)
     Nate Jaqua           2 (2007/2008)

Other Interesting Facts
Three players have scored for two different teams - Luis Gabriel Rey, Rafael Márquez Lugo and Giancarlo Maldonado. Maldonado also holds the distinction of being the only player to score for both an MLS team (Chivas USA in 2010) and a Mexican team (Atlante in 2008)

Is Arabe Unido the Dirtiest Team in the CONCACAF Champions League?

Over the last two years I've developed an overwhelming hatred of Panama's Arabe Unido. The strategy in their 2009-10 home leg against Houston consisted of two-footed tackles and overall hackery. This year's performance against Real Salt Lake alternated between thuggery and the worst display of "ow my spleen" time-wasting I've ever seen. If E/R was still running we might have seen a number of their players on gurneys as extras. With nine yellow and one red card in just two games this year, it made me wonder if they were the dirtiest team in the CONCACAF Champions League.

In order to study this I combed through last year's discipline stats. While Arabe Unido had the most red cards of any team in the 2009-2010 edition of the tournament, they weren't even in the top five as far as yellow cards per game. After factoring out the teams that only played twice, these teams rose to the top:

             YC/G  RC/G
Pachuca      3.70  0.00
Houston      3.17  0.17
Toluca       3.00  0.00
Cruz Azul    2.90  0.10
DC United    2.63  0.25
Columbus     2.38  0.13
Arabe Unido  2.30  0.30

So three Mexican teams, three American teams and then Arabe Unido. Perhaps there's something about playing American teams that brings out the worst in Arabe.

ReAL Epic Failure

Three stinking minutes. All Real Salt Lake had to do was hold out for another three minutes last night and they would have become the first American team to beat a Mexican team in Mexico during an official competition. Instead they managed to give up three goals from the 87th minute onward and go on to lose 5-4 to Cruz Azul. They even managed to score a goal of their own in there to level at 4-4 and managed to screw that up as well.

Un-frickin-believable.

Well That Didn't Take Long

Less than 24 hours after I opined that a Mexican team had to lose at some point in the CONCACAF Champions League, Toronto FC managed to shock Cruz Azul 2-1 at BMO Field. By defeating last year's runners-up Toronto FC became the first MLS team to beat a Mexican team in the 2+ years of the Champions League. The last time an MLS team defeated a Mexican team in a CONCACAF tournament was April of 2008 when DC United beat Pachuca in the semifinals of the old Champions Cup.