Thanks for Nothing MLSsoccer.com

MLS revamped their web site to coincide with the start of the season, and to say that this was a debacle is a disservice to debacles. When the commissioner has to address how terribly broken the league's web site is during an interview with Sports Illustrated, that's failure on an epic scale.

I won't bore you with the list of all the things that went wrong Fake Sigi has already done a great job explaining that. The thing MLS doesn't seem to understand is that since things are still broken now five games into the season is that they are preventing people like me from giving them free publicity. I use their stats and player profile pages a considerable amount in my blogging. You still can't search the alumni database for a given player. There is still no way to get more than the top four leaders in any statistical category for any year. There's no way to get the career leaders in any category that I can see.

At some point I'll start blogging again... if I can ever get some source material to back things up with.

Herculez Unchained

Stop me if you've heard this one before. An American player heads overseas to a league considered superior to MLS. He settles in immediately, scoring goals and turning heads in the process.

The only thing is, I'm not talking about Landon Donovan.

Herculez Gomez formerly of the Kansas City Wizards, Colorado Rapids and Los Angeles Galaxy transferred to Puebla in Mexico this offseason and the change has done him a world of good. Gomez went goalless in 26 appearances with the Wizards last year, and scored just three in 25 games the year before. So far this year Gomez has already scored five goals in just eight appearances for La Franja.


Here he is opening the scoring for Puebla just last week.

US - El Salvador: Ties to MLS

When the United States takes on El Salvador two hours from now, four faces familiar to MLS fans could take the field. Three players on the roster currently ply their trade in MLS:

• Alfredo Pacheco (New York Red Bulls)
• Arturo Alvarez (San Jose Earthquakes)
• Ramon Sanchez (San Jose Earthquakes)

A fourth, Eliseo Quintanilla played in 27 games for DC United between 2002 and 2003.

MLS Alumni on the Move

A couple of MLS alums have found new teams. After regaining his scoring touch in Paraguay, Carlos Ruiz has moved from Apertura champs Olimpia to Mexican club Puebla. One of the best strikers in league history, Ruiz still ranks 8th on the all-time MLS goal scoring list.

Puebla recently lost another former FC Dallas player when Ramon Nunez moved to Cruz Azul. Nunez logged almost 4,500 minutes in MLS, scoring 14 goals and 12 assists in 79 appearances between 2004 and 2007.

On another continent, former Minnesota Thunder, New York Red Bulls and DC United player Francis "Grandpa" Doe has signed on with Egyptian powers Al Ahly. Doe scored four goals in 23 appearances spread over three seasons in MLS.

The USL/MLS Overlap - 2009 Edition

Last year I put together a listing of the USL1 players that had appeared in MLS games. With the lower number of roster spots available in MLS this season, I expected there to be quite a few more MLS alums in USl1, but that's not the case - in fact there is one fewer.

This year's leaders -- the Carolina Railhawks and Puerto Rico Islanders with eight former MLS players apiece.

Austin Aztex
Kyle Brown 24
Sam Reynolds 2
David Winner 23

Carolina Railhawks
John Cunliffe 27
Gavin Glinton 67
Luke Kreamalmeyer 6
Amir Lowery 2
Daniel Paladini 8
Brian Plotkin 23
Mark Schulte 19
Jack Stewart 39

Charleston Battery
Nelson Akwari 78
Stephen Armstrong 77
Tyler Hemming 7
Dusty Hudok 12
Jamie Watson 39
John Wilson 32

Cleveland City Stars
Pato Aguilera 19
Ibrahim Kante 2
Arsene Oka 1
Troy Roberts 61
Israel Sesay 3 (on loan)

Miami FC
Connaly Edozien 9
Facundo Erpen 87
Diego Serna 124

Minnesota Thunder
Rod Dyachecnko 42
Julius James 15
Quavas Kirk 43
Andrew Peterson 2
Melvin Tarley 12

Montreal Impact
Adam Braz 13
Roberto Brown 13
Felix Brillant 19
Stephen deRoux 10
Srdjan Djekanovic 8
Matt Jordan 117
David Testo 16

Puerto Rico Islanders
Nicholas Addlery 11
Bill Gaudette 17
Dan Gargan 49
Domenic Mediate 37
Fabrice Noel 18
Osei Telesford 2
Kyle Veris 18
Petter Villegas 117

Rochester Rhinos
John Ball 11
Andrew Gregor 23
Tiger Fitzpatrick 18
Ty Harden 28
Scott Vallow 4

Portland Timbers
Steve Cronin 28
David Hayes 18
Stephen Keel 10
Cameron Knowles 4
Ryan Pore 58
Keith Savage 6
Scot Thompson 1

Vancouver Whitecaps
Justin Moose 8
Jay Nolly 8
Jeff Parke 132
Marco Reda 8

If you're interested in last year's list, you can view it here and here.

Trinidad & Tobago's MLS Players

A number of players on the Trinidad and Tobago roster for tonight's game with the United States have played in Major League Soccer. The most notable is Stern John. Fondly remembered by fans of the Columbus Crew, he scored 52 goals in just 65 appearances for the team.

Other MLS alums on the roster include:

• Cornell Glen, who played for five teams in just three years. From 2004-2006 he appeared in 45 games, scoring 12 goals.
• Toronto FC rookie Julius James who has made 12 league appearances for John Carver's side this season.
• Avery John who played 6,500 minutes in 75 appearances for the New England Revolution.
• Keyeno Thomas, whose lackluster MLS career consisted of 12 appearances for the Colorado Rapids in 2000.

Cuban Defectors Redux

Another tournament, another defection. The Washington Post is reporting that two members of the Cuban National Team defected prior to Saturday's World Cup qualifier. That brings this year's grand total to nine.

Seeing as how you could almost field an entire team with this year's defections, it seemed like a good time to give a full list of those who have wandered away from their hotels to try their luck in MLS/USL. Here's the list as I understand it, annotated with where these players ended up.

2008
Full national team: Reinier Alcantara and Pedro Faife

Under-23 team: Yordany Alvarez and Yenier Bermudez signed with Guaynabo Fluminese FC in Puerto Rico. As near as I can tell their teammates Erlys Garcia Baro, Yendry Diaz, Jose Manuel Miranda, Loanni Prieto and Eder Roldan have not signed contracts with any teams.

2007
Lester More and Osvaldo Alonso both signed with the USL1 Charleston Battery. More made 12 appearances for the Battery in 2008, while Alonso scooped up this year's USL1 Rookie of the Year award.

2005
Maykel Galindo walked away from the team during the Gold Cup. I wrote about him in a previous post.

2002
Alberto Delgado and Rey Angel Martinez defected during the 2002 Gold Cup in Los Angeles. Both of them have had pretty decent careers. The pair signed with the Colorado Rapids, making 14 and eight appearances respectively in 2004. Delgado moved on to the USL1 Puerto Rico Islanders where he has featured over 30 times. Martinez latched on with the Rochester Raging Rhinos where he appeared in 60 games before switching to his current team, the USL1 Carolina Railhawks.

Mac Kandji: the next Ching... or the next Tarley?

This evening Macoumba Kandji made his debut with the New York Red Bulls, becoming the latest forward to jump from USL1 to Major League Soccer. Should Red Bulls fans expect a scoring explosion? Recent history suggests not.

A number of forwards have made the jump since 2002. The most successful of these is Brian Ching. Released after a year with the Galaxy, he played with the Seattle Sounders in 2002 and scored 16 goals in 25 games. He jumped back to MLS in 2003 where he has scored 59 goals in 114 appearances. During this time he's also become a member of the national team.

Other USL1 forwards have been less successful:

• Current Galaxy forward Alan Gordon co-led the A-League (the forerunner of USL1) in scoring in 2004 with 17 goals for the Portland Timbers. In MLS he has scored a grand total of 11 goals in the last three years.
• Melvin Tarley caught the eye of Real Salt Lake with his strong play in the 2005 US Open Cup, but scored only one goal in 12 MLS appearances.
• Gavin Glinton notched 11 goals for the Charleston Battery in 2006, good enough for fifth in the league. In MLS he has been a journeyman, scoring six goals in parts of five seasons for three different teams.
• While playing for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in 2003, Thiago Martins led the A-league in scoring with 22 goals, but he scored just six goals in 56 MLS games.

Will Kandji become the next Ching? It's difficult to tell since we are working with a limited sample size... but I would suggest against holding your breath.

The USL/MLS Overlap II: The Wrath of Khan

In a previous post I had researched the former Major League Soccer players that could be found on three USL1 teams - the Montreal Impact, Charleston Battery and Puerto Rico Islanders. Here's the rest of the league, broken down by team:

Atlanta Silverbacks
Scott Buete 21
David Hayes 18
Jerson Monteiro 5
Blake Camp 3
Justin Moore 2

Minnesota Thunder
Luchi Gonzalez 30
Mark Schulte 19
Melvin Tarley 12
Stephen deRoux 10
Tighe Dombrowski 4

Rochester Rhinos
Tenywa Bonseu 87
Andrew Gregor 23
Tiger Fitzpatrick 18
Alfonso Loera 15
John Ball 11
Luke Kreamalmeyer 6
Steve Guppy 5

Carolina Railhawks
Ronald Cerritos 224
David Stokes 24
Rey Martinez 8
Joey Worthen 3

Seattle Sounders
Taylor Graham 34
Josh Gardner 21
Leighton O'Brien 10
Nikolas Besagno 8
Roger Levesque 4
Danny Jackson 1

Portland Timbers
Chris Brown 208
Jamil Walker 77
Leonard Griffin 18
Byron Alvarez 8
Ray Burse, Jr. 6
Cameron Knowles 4
Chris Bagley 3
Arsene Oka 1
Scot Thompson 1

Vancouver Whitecaps
Nicholas Addlery 11
Justin Moose 8
Jay Nolly 8

Miami FC
Avery John 75
Eric Vasquez 23
Connaly Edozien 9
Willie Sims 9
Bruno Menezes 3
Sam Reynolds 2

Update: Added Luchi Gonzalez to Minnesota. He was listed as "Luis" on the USL site.

The USL/MLS overlap

With the fantastic results of Montreal and Puerto Rico in the CONCACAF Champions League and the highly entertaining US Open Cup final involving the Charleston Battery, some would argue that the gap between the USL and MLS is narrowing. This may be due (at least in part) to the influx of former MLS players into USL.

There are a number of players on these three teams with MLS experience, including two players with more than 100 appearances. (There are also a number of players that were drafted by MLS teams, but never played. Those players are not listed below)

Here are those players, listed in order of MLS appearances.

Charleston Battery
Nelson Akwari 78
Stephen Armstrong 77
Lazo Alavanja 58
John Wilson 32
Dusty Hudok 12
Marco Reda 8

Montreal Impact
Matt Jordan 117
Pato Aguilera 19
Felix Brillant 19
David Testo 16
Adam Braz 13
Roberto Brown 13

Puerto Rico Islanders
Petter Villegas 117
Fabrice Noel 18
Bill Gaudette 17
Alberto Delgado 14
Osei Telesford 2

(edit -- I missed Stephen Armstrong in the original list. Thanks for pointing that out Mike!)