Ah yes, Curtis Spiteri and his legendary 12.00 career GAA. 2003 regular season finale. Thornton was subbed at halftime to rest for the playoffs.
Kansas City used an emergency non-roster goalkeeper back in the early days. To the point that I don't think anyone can say with 100% certainty what number the goalkeeper used. Okay, it was 1999, the goalkeeper was Cesar Delgado. Here's my old Uniform jersey history page: http://www.ycjphoto.com/mls/wizards.html He actually has a Wikipedia page, but it only lists offensive stats! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Delgado_(soccer) His GAA was only 4, but for those of us that live it, he was worse than Spiteri. Kansas City would've done better finding someone in a local rec league. To this day I'm still unsure of how they found Delgado - and I've asked. MLS and SKC now say he wore #30 it's possible. When we were tracking that in the early aughts, there was some thought he wore #0. I guess the most likely person that would actually know is Rick Yeatts who was the Burn team photographer of that era. It's also possible that someone finally found the match lineup sheet for that game - which had gone missing at some point. Remember that Dallas was a league owned team before HSG took over, and a lot of records weren't completely centralized in New York. A shocking amount of the early league history is "missing". When people like Rick Lawes and I finally go away, it may be forever gone. I know most of the early team photogs. Most are gone now and have little attachment to soccer or MLS, and those in MLS now don't know who those people were. EDIT: It was the ********ing season opener: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/spo...-bad-but-better-the-next-year/article4103123/ I actually saw Tony Meola play goal for Kansas City in the preseason. They came and played the Raleigh Capital XPress. Then I saw Meola get his face busted in against Mexico in San Diego in a Nike US Cup doubleheader (Bolivia/Guatemala may have been the other game). Then he blew his knew out in a one touch pickup game at practice and missed the entire season. I forget what happened to Snitko, but it was right before the season started. Postgame article https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-03-27-9903270023-story.html
I wish I hadn't lost the old MLS Lineup Database file that was on my old hard drive when it cratered. Might have more stats available there. The MLS website itself is usually unnavigable.
FWIW I have the data files from the MLS roster number site John Pershing used to run (it hasn't been updated since about 2012) and Delgado isn't listed in the KC list. But as a pool keeper that might be why.
I don't think he was a pool keeper. I'm pretty sure he was a preseason roster filler who got a chance when Meola and Snitko got hurt in short order and Newman had to put someone in net. As it comes back to me, I think he was signed to a contract, but as contracts aren't guaranteed the first week, he was immediately waived when David Winner became available. The reason why he might not have shown up on Pershing's site - which I'm unaware of - is probably because he didn't have a number that anyone could say with certainty.
Its a site I stumbled on years ago that had (at least for the Rapids) a pretty accurate track of all roster numbers for the first 16-17 years of MLS. After he stopped updating it I asked him for the Rapids files to eventually update them and list them on my blog, which I never got around to. He sent me all the files. I don't know if the site is still up (the link is bookmarked on my other computer) but I'll check tonight.,
The site is still up but the parent directory is missing. Here's the KC page: http://persingspieces.com/homepage/kcw1996-2011.html
Interesting. It's also incomplete. While some of the differences from my page make sense, like omitting the players who had issued numbers, but never played, as well as player who used alternate numbers (Burns and Lowe were forced into changing for the Copa Merconorte which required players to be numbered 1-23), some other players - not just Delgado - are flat out missing.
My favorite MLS mini-career was McKinley Tennyson, who scored a goal for the Galaxy in the 2002 playoffs, but never played in an MLS regular season game.
Ciaran O'Brien for me. Came in as a substitute for the Rapids vs LA Galaxy and absolutely demolished Carlos Ruiz with one of the worst tackles in MLS history. Managed to get a SFP red from Abbey Okulaja, which was NOT easy to do. This was the same game where Abel Xavier got sent off for abusive language.
I recall that the Wizards let Winner go at some point in that season and he suited up as a backup for a few games for the San Jose Clash. He never got in a game and I doubt he shows up in anybody's database.
It wasn't a one-game career, but Caleb Porter's short rookie season was memorable for at least a small segment of old San Jose fans, long before he emerged in the coaching biz. His first appearance was vs. KC at Arrowhead in one of those ESPN2 hot Saturday afternoon games with nobody there. He ran on as a sub like a bat out of hell and gave someone a hard tackle and immediately got a yellow card. Soon after that he got a start in a home game and got a red card in the first half, and on the old pre-BigSoccer email listserv he got the nickname Caleb "Red Card" Porter. Not too clever, but to the point. He didn't make it to July.
Our favorite short career player in Unionland would be the infamous Toni Stahl. Stahl was highly regarded in the 2010 draft, and there were some who considered him a steal in the 2nd round. Peter Nowak started him in the Union's first ever game at Seattle and Toni proceeded to incur two yellow cards by the 37th minute of the game. He never saw the field again! In fact he was in so much disfavor, he was sent on loan to Harrisburg and saw exactly one more appearance in 2010. He then found his way to a short USL career with Ft. Lauderdale.
The favorite for DC United is Thor Lee. He played in 2 games in 1996. He was the first to score on DC United. It was an own goal but it was a goal. His shirt is now highly treasured.
What? No love for George Gelnovatch? Delgado may have been the worst, but Vuk Rasovic holds a special place in the hearts of Wizards fans. It was at the tail end of the extreme poverty era of HSG ownership and the team had no scouts. Curt Johnson and Bob Gansler were left with video tapes and personal recommendations. Vuk Rasovic was signed based on highlight tapes. Fans wondered what was going on when the big off-season signing wasn't playing. He finally got his chance on the field and only lasted 45 minutes. He never saw the light of day again. He was slow as hell and terrible.
Yes, he scored the first goal in Crew history. I was there. In keeping with the spirit of this thread, the final was 4-0 Crew.
While Ciaran O'Brian is clearly the pinnacle of single-game wonders for the Rapids, we also have to give a shout out to Joe Nasco who had 4 appearances. Well, really 3 appearances and 34 seconds thanks to his infamous red card.