METROS BY THE NUMBERS Some interesting stats about the MLS club
Sergio Galvan Rey has combined with Cornell Glen and Fabian Taylor to contribute 13 goals and four assists to the MetroStars' regular-season effort.
Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images
By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor
So, you thought you knew everything about the 2004 MetroStars and Major League Soccer? Well, you might learn something new from this special MetroStars By The Numbers piece:
Foreign bodies
Foreigners Cornell Glen (Trinidad & Tobago), Fabian Taylor (Jamaica) and Sergio Galvan Rey (Argentina/Colombia) were brought in to pump up the attack. Due to injuries, so-so form and World Cup commitments, no one stepped forward to become a regular. Interestingly, they did combine for 13 goals and four assists for 30 points over 2,720 total minutes, the equivalent of a full season. Combined the trio would have shared the MLS scoring title with Metros midfielder Amado Guevara and New England's Pat Noonan. Glen led the way with six goals and two assists, followed by Taylor (five goals, one assist) and Galvan Rey (two goals, one assist).
Not so good
Since last year's late-season swoon, the Metros are 11-16-9 under coach Bob Bradley, including the playoffs. Not exactly world beating numbers.
The Pope factor
No, not the Pope, but rather Eddie Pope. Did you wonder how the Metros fared when Pope was out of the lineup due to WC commitments or injuries? Well, he missed eight matches. The Metros were 3-4-1, scoring nine goals and allowing nine as well.
The Eddie Pope file:
* April 3 -- 3-1 away win over the Columbus Crew
* June 12 -- 3-1 road loss to the San Jose Earthquakes
* June 19 -- 2-1 home win over the Los Angeles Galaxy
* July 10 -- 2-0 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes
* Aug. 15 -- 1-0 home loss to the Dallas Burn
* Aug. 21 -- 1-0 away loss to the Colorado Rapids
* Sept. 4 -- 1-0 road loss to the Kansas City Wizards
* Oct. 9 -- 1-1 home draw with the Columbus Crew
The penalty-kick factor (Wolyniec)
John Wolyniec (10 goals) came so close to winning the MLS goal-scoring championship without having an opportunity to convert a penalty kick, yours truly wondered if the seven other players who broke double figures were aided by penalties. It wasn't really a major factor. If you subtract all the penalties from those players, San Jose Earthquakes striker Brian Ching, thanks to his 12 goals -- all from the field of play -- would have been the outright goal champ. Dallas Burn's Eddie Johnson finished with 12 goals, including one penalty conversion, for 11 field goals.
In case you're wondering, here's how the rest factored out: Noonan (11 goals, no penalties, 11 field goals); Columbus Crew's Edson Buddle (11 goals, no penalties, 11 field goals); Los Angeles Galaxy's Carlos Ruiz (11 goals, two penalties, nine field goals); D.C. United's Alecko Eskandarian (10 goals, no penalties, 10 field goals); Guevara (10 goals, six penalties, four field goals).
The penalty kick factor (Metros)
What goes around, comes around. Long-time Metros fans might remember how difficult and next to impossible it was for the team to convert a penalty kick in the early days. They converted only five penalties out of 15 opportunities through June, 1998. This season? They were perfect, putting away all their eight attempts in MLS play (Guevara was 6-for-6, and Mike Magee and Galvan Rey each scored on their try). While not in the official league stats, the Metros actually did miss a vital one -- by Magee in the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup loss at the Charleston Battery. Guevara was injured and did not play.
The first time
Guevara became the first Metro to win, or in this case, share the MLS scoring championship. He finished with 10 goals and 10 assists for 30 points, tying him with Noonan (11 goals and eight assists for 30 points).
Barely a cup of coffee
Defender Seth Stammler played all of one minute in his rookie season. He replaced Pablo Brenes in the 89th minute of the Metros' 2-1 home win over the Los Angeles Galaxy on June 19.
Up and down
The Metros led the league in scoring (47 goals) and allowed the most goals (49).
Wow, I didn't know that
Before you think that Guevara was fouled every other minute and turned into the pin-cushion of the league, guess again. In fact, he committed more fouls than suffered them. He was called for 58 fouls (fifth most in MLS) and suffered 53 of them, which didn't make the top 10. If you're interested, Dallas's Simo Valakari led everyone with 73 fouls committed while Kansas City's Davy Arnaud (nine goals. eight assists) was atop the fouls suffered list at 111 in 30 games, 22 more than his closest rival, San Jose's Richard Mulrooney (89 in 30 matches).
Counting the house (2004)
The Metros finished third in average attendance (17,195), an 8.6 increase from 15,822. The league had a slight jump -- 4.2 percent -- from 14,930 to 15,559.
Counting the house (playoffs)
The Metros haven't fared as well for home playoff games since 1996. They've attracted a total of 79,474 spectators for six games, which would just about fill Giants Stadium, the equivalent of a regular-season Jets or Giants games. For the record, the Metros have averaged 13,246 in the playoffs.
The Freddy factor
Depending on your vantage point, Freddy Adu had a promising or disappointing season for D.C. United. There is little doubt he made an improvement by the end of the season. Just ask the Metros, against whom he has registered two goals and two assists in four regular-season matches. He has three goals and one assist in 26 appearances against the rest of the league.
There is no question was a factor in attendance. Subtract United's road attendance (355,289 in 15 games for an average of 23,686, the league's average attendance would have been 14,655. That would have been a drop of 1.7 percent from 2003. Ouch!
Freddy deserves some some of award just for keeping the attendance respectable. Oh, never mind, he gets one every week in the league's highest paycheck. Adu, a rookie, earns $500,000 a season, the most of any player.
Michael Lewis can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com.
