An Open Letter to Colin Clarke

I'm sorry for ever doubting you could beat the LA Galaxy in your CONCACAF Champions League series. I realize that you coached the Puerto Rico Islanders to the semifinals of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League. I know you drew with Saprissa, Columbus and Cruz Azul in the group stage of last year's tournament, coming within five minutes of beating Cruz Azul and giving up Saprissa's equalizer in the 89th minute. It just wasn't enough to convince me this year would be the same.

To be fair the Islanders are at the bottom of the USL Conference within the USSF D2 league, and were just 1-4-4 on the road this season coming into their game with the Galaxy. But your Islanders beat the Galaxy anyway, pasting them 4-1 at the Home Depot Center. Four away goals more or less seals the deal unless a cataclysm of biblical proportions happens in the second leg in Bayamon.

So I apologize. I will never doubt you again. Please come coach the Chicago Fire.

Love, PhantomTollbooth

MLS Attendance: Best Seasons

Historically this category has been owned by the Galaxy. More than half of the 20 best seasons belong to the team from Los Angeles. If you look closely, there's some proof that TFKA Metro hasn't always been inept at getting people to come see soccer. With their new home in Harrison opening next year, it will be interesting to see if they might be able to get their attendance back into this lofty company.

   year team         home avg
1  2009 Seattle      30,897
2  1996 Los Angeles  28,916
3  2008 Los Angeles  26,009
4  2007 Los Angeles  24,252
5  2005 Los Angeles  24,204
6  1996 New York     23,898
7  2004 Los Angeles  23,809
8  2003 Los Angeles  21,983
9  1998 Los Angeles  21,784
10 2001 DC           21,518
11 1997 New England  21,423
12 2007 DC           20,967
13 2006 Los Angeles  20,814
14 2001 New York     20,806
15 2002 Colorado     20,690
16 1997 Los Angeles  20,626
17 2009 Los Angeles  20,416
18 2000 Los Angeles  20,400
19 2009 Toronto      20,344
20 2007 Toronto      20,130

Looking at the numbers in regards to how far above the league average each team was, Seattle's inaugural season is absolutely shocking. Not only did they set the record for average attendance, but they almost doubled up the league average. This absolutely shatters the previous mark. Also interesting in my mind is that Toronto has averaged over 20,000 fans each year, but still can't make the top 20 list.

   year team         diff in %
1  2009 Seattle      92.66
2  1996 Los Angeles  66.12
3  2005 Los Angeles  60.20
4  2008 Los Angeles  58.01
5  2004 Los Angeles  53.02
6  1998 Los Angeles  52.21
7  2000 Los Angeles  48.30
8  2003 Los Angeles  47.56
9  1997 New England  46.54
10 2007 Los Angeles  44.62
11 2001 DC           43.83
12 1997 Los Angeles  41.09
13 2001 New York     39.07
14 1996 New York     37.29
15 2000 DC           35.07
16 2006 Los Angeles  34.25
17 1998 New England  34.07
18 2002 Colorado     30.77
19 2000 New York     28.10
20 2006 Chivas USA   27.96

Crew, Sounders to Enter 2010 Champions League

With Chicago's defeat of Chivas USA on Thursday, the Columbus Crew wrapped up the 2009 Supporter's Shield. This feat automatically qualified them for next year's CONCACAF Champions League. Earlier this year, the Seattle Sounders grabbed a slot when they defeated DC United for the US Open Cup Title.

The rest of the field will consist of the MLS Cup Winners and runner up, unless the Crew or Sounders are one of those teams. In that case, the slots will be filled by the team with the most points in the 2009 regular season that hasn't already claimed a spot. At his point, that would be one of Houston, Los Angeles, Chivas USA or the Fire, all of whom are knotted at 45 points going into the last weekend of the season.

MLS Attendance - Percent of Tickets Sold

One of the folks who commented on the Expansion's Effect on MLS Attendance post pointed out that the Sounders have been seen by over 20% of the people attending a game this year. Another person thought that David Beckham's Flying Circus had probably beaten that mark. (This is in fact true.)

However it turns out that neither of these sides hold the record for the largest percentage of tickets sold to see a given team in a season. That record is currently held by the 1996 Los Angeles Galaxy.

  year team     home    away  tm ttl league ttl % sold
1 1996 LA    462,650 346,210 808,860 2,785,001  29.04
2 2004 DC    258,484 355,289 613,773 2,333,797  26.30
3 1997 LA    330,015 248,179 578,194 2,339,019  24.72
4 2004 LA    357,137 217,411 574,548 2,333,797  24.62
5 1996 Metro 382,360 295,952 678,312 2,785,001  24.36
6 1997 NE    342,762 221,566 564,328 2,339,019  24.13
7 2003 LA    329,752 209,091 538,843 2,234,747  24.11
8 2007 LA    363,782 420,525 784,307 3,270,210  23.98
  2005 LA    387,256 308,241 695,497 2,900,716  23.98
10 1997 DC   267,171 287,944 555,115 2,339,019  23.73

For those wondering, if the season ended today Seattle would end up with the 23rd best mark.

The Great Galaxy Purge

So how weak was the 2008 Los Angeles Galaxy roster? Bruce Arena certainly doesn't seem to think much of it. So far this offseason he has already waived six players that saw significant minutes last season:

                 GM Minutes 
Ely Allen        12 848 
Alvaro Pires     19 1253 
Brandon McDonald 16 1036 
Mike Randolph    20 1468 
Troy Roberts     17 1316 
Steve Cronin     22 1935 

If you factor in the trade of Ante Jazic, retirements of Greg Vanney and Joey Franchino, and likely transfer of David Beckham, the Galaxy will likely start the year with only five players who appeared in at least half of their games last season. Truly amazing for a non-expansion team.

The 2009 PPC

The 2009 Phony Preseason Cup... er Pan-Pacific Championship kicks off tonight. The four team tournament does in fact feature two champions. The Suwon Blue Wings won the Korean League last year, and Shandong Luneng are the reigning champions of China.

The other two team are Japanese side Oita Trinita and the Los Angeles Galaxy. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea to include the Galaxy when they were planning the tournament -- MLS had to be banking that the star power of David Beckham and Landon Donovan would open marketing doors in Asia. However since both of them are currently on loan in Europe you have to think some enterprising vendor is selling "My parents went to the PPC and all they saw was this lousy Ely Allen" shirts in the Home Depot Center parking lot.

Ummm... is this the same Los Angeles?

MLSnet recently published an article about Leo Bautista, a Venezuelan defender who is on trial with the Los Angeles Galaxy. It's a cute little article about how he's enjoying his time in the States and how nice it is in Los Angeles. However I really wonder if the author embellished some of the quotes. At the end of the article Bautista says:

"I'm very happy I came here," he said. "If I told you my country was similar to this, I'd be lying. The streets are clean, people respect laws ... it's just spectacular. I would stay here. I've fallen in love with the city."

Is he staying in the same Los Angeles we see in the news? I can only see a few reasons why he would have said this:

1. Writer embellishment
2. Faulty translation from Spanish to English
3. Venezuela = Thunderdome.

So Beckham's Washed Up, Huh?

When David Beckham joined the Galaxy two years ago, many folks said he was washed up/cashing one last check/joining a retirement league/etc. Of course this must be true, I mean Fabio Capello keeps calling him into the England squad, and he's scored two goals in two games for Milan, including this free kick bomb:





Not bad for someone who can't play any more....