2005 Major League Soccer season

2005 Major League Soccer season

Season	2005
MLS Cup	Los Angeles Galaxy
Supporters' Shield	S.J. Earthquakes
Top goalscorer	Taylor Twellman N.E. Revolution Goals: 17
Biggest home win	CHV 5-1 RSL DCU 5-1 RSL
Biggest away win	CLB 0-4 KCW
Highest scoring	NY 5-4 NE
Longest winning run	N.E. Revolution Games: 6 (04/09 - 05/14) S.J. Earthquakes Games: 6 (08/20 - 09/21)
Longest unbeaten run	S.J. Earthquakes Games: 14 (07/20/2005)
Longest losing run	Real Salt Lake Games: 10 (08/10 - 10/05)
Highest attendance	Los Angeles Galaxy Season: 387,256 Game Avg.: 24,204
Lowest attendance	K.C. Wizards Season: 155,060 Game Avg.: 9,691
Average attendance	MLS Season: 2,900,716 Game Avg.: 15,108
← 2004 season 2006 season →

The 2005 Major League Soccer season was the tenth season of MLS, which began on April 2, 2005, and concluded on November 13, 2005 with a second MLS Cup victory for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Changes from 2004 Season

• At the previous MLS Cup, two new expansion franchises were announced to start play in 2005, Real Salt Lake (based at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah) and Club Deportivo Chivas USA (based at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California).
• Although there are more teams in the west than those in the east, the Kansas City Wizards moved to the Eastern Conference.

2005 in Summary

The New England Revolution and FC Dallas began the year as the league's dominant teams, especially when Dallas acquired Carlos Ruiz in a trade after Landon Donovan returned from a disappointing stint with Bayer Leverkusen and wanted to play with his hometown Los Angeles Galaxy. Injuries and inconsistent play slowed FC Dallas down as the season wore on, and the 2001 and 2003 MLS Cup champion San Jose Earthquakes eventually won the regular-season Supporters' Shield with the third-best record in the league's 10-year history. FC Dallas opened its new stadium, Pizza Hut Park, in August, although it did not operate at full capacity until November. As he did at the Home Depot Center, Ruiz scored the first two goals in the new stadium in a 2-2 tie against the MetroStars.

Expansion franchises Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA struggled in their first season, making playoff qualification a routine matter for the other four Western Conference teams. Chivas USA proved a disappointment in terms of consistent attendance, but its derbies against Los Angeles added excitement and intensity to the calendar, even though the Galaxy won all five (four regular season and one U.S. Open Cup) meetings. Real Salt Lake finished second in the league in attendance.

The MetroStars fired head coach Bob Bradley late in the season and qualified for the playoffs with a 2-0 win over Chivas USA on the final day of the season. Their campaign was boosted by former French international Youri Djorkaeff, who proved one of the league's most successful international signings and took over as MetroStars captain.

In the playoffs, Western Conference No. 4 seed Los Angeles knocked off rival San Jose behind inspired play from former Earthquake Donovan. Colorado edged Dallas on penalty kicks after a classic overtime that saw each team score in overtime and Ruiz hit the post with a penalty kick. In the Eastern Conference, New England rallied from a 2-0 aggregate deficit with three goals in the game's final 25 minutes to beat the MetroStars in snowy Gillette Stadium. Defending champion D.C. United crashed out after a 4-0 home loss to the Chicago Fire.

In the conference finals, Donovan scored twice to lead the Galaxy past Colorado, and an early Clint Dempsey goal carried New England into the final. Fire players thought they had tied the game in stoppage time, but a linesman's controversial offside call (proven correct by video replay) denied them the equalizer.

For the second time in four years, Los Angeles beat New England 1-0 in overtime to win MLS Cup. Maligned Guatemalan forward Pando Ramirez, whose only goal on the season came on a penalty kick that hit the post and went in off Joe Cannon's back, scored the game's only goal before a sellout crowd at Pizza Hut Park.

Final standings

Eastern Conference	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
x - New England Revolution	32	17	7	8	55	37	18	59
x - D.C. United	32	16	10	6	58	37	21	54
x - Chicago Fire	32	15	13	4	49	50	-1	49
x - MetroStars	32	12	9	11	53	49	4	47
Kansas City Wizards	32	11	9	12	52	44	8	45
Columbus Crew	32	11	16	5	34	45	-11	38

Western Conference	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
s - San Jose Earthquakes	32	18	4	10	53	31	22	64
x - FC Dallas	32	13	10	9	52	44	8	48
x - Colorado Rapids	32	13	13	6	40	37	3	45
x - Los Angeles Galaxy	32	13	13	6	44	45	-1	45
Real Salt Lake	32	5	22	5	30	65	-35	20
Chivas USA	32	4	22	6	31	67	-36	18

The top four teams in each conference make the playoffs.
s = Supporters Shield
x = playoff berth

MLS Cup Playoffs

Bracket

	Conference Semifinals						Conference Finals					MLS Cup 2005
	E1	New England Revolution	0	3
	E4	MetroStars	1	1
							E1	New England Revolution	1
	Eastern Conference
							E3	Chicago Fire	0
	E3	Chicago Fire	0	4
	E2	D.C. United	0	0
												E1	New England Revolution	0
												W4	Los Angeles Galaxy	1
	W1	San Jose Earthquakes	1	1
	W4	Los Angeles Galaxy	3	1
							W4	Los Angeles Galaxy	2
	Western Conference
							W3	Colorado Rapids	0
	W3	Colorado Rapids	0	2(5)
	W2	FC Dallas	0	2(4)

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Conference Semifinals

October 22, 2005	New England Revolution	0–1	MetroStars	Giants Stadium East Rutherford, New Jersey Attendance: 10,003 Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela
	Joseph 43'	Report	Guevara  34' Stammler 41' Djorkaeff 74'

October 29, 2005	MetroStars	1–3	New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium Foxborough, Massachusetts Attendance: 9,581 Referee: Brian Hall
	Djorkaeff  59'	Report	Hednandez 31' Cancela  68' Noonan  73' Smith  83'

New England Revolution advance 3-2 on aggregate.

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October 21, 2005	D.C. United	0–0	Chicago Fire	Soldier Field Chicago, Illinois Attendance: 11,493 Referee: Brian Hall
	Kovalenko 28' Quaranta 31' Carroll 47'	Report	Brown 24'

October 30, 2005	Chicago Fire	4–0	D.C. United	RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. Attendance: 20,089 Referee: Kevin Stott
	Stewart  10' Guerrero  37' Guerrero  45+5' Segares 52' Marsch  67'	Report	Olsen 21' Gómez  55' Filomeno 71' Adu 80'

Chicago Fire advance 4-0 on aggregate.

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October 23, 2005	San Jose Earthquakes	1–3	Los Angeles Galaxy	Home Depot Center Carson, California Attendance: 17,466 Referee: Abiodun Okulaja
	Barrett 12' Clark 26' Robinson 63' Clark  68'	Report	Gomez  13' Nagamura 33' Donovan  39' Dunivant 68' Albright 71' Gomez 79' Donovan  87'

October 29, 2005	Los Angeles Galaxy	1–1	San Jose Earthquakes	Spartan Stadium San Jose, California Attendance: 17,824 Referee: Alex Prus
	Grabavoy  67'	Report	Ching  42' Gray 44' Clark 89'

Los Angeles Galaxy advance 4-2 on aggregate.

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October 22, 2005	FC Dallas	0–0	Colorado Rapids	INVESCO Field Denver, Colorado Attendance: 9,625 Referee: Michael Kennedy
	Jolley 65' O'Brien 74'	Report	Beckerman 29'

October 29, 2005	Colorado Rapids	2–2	FC Dallas	Pizza Hut Park Frisco, Texas Attendance: 10,104 Referee: Terry Vaughn
	Cunningham  19' Mastroeni 48' Nkong  58' Denton 68' Cannon 90+1' Kirovski 92' Kotschau  106'	Report	Rhine 57' Valakari 63' Ruíz  67' Gbandi 90+2' Ruiz  105'
		Penalties
	Mastroeni Kirovski Cunningham Cooke Philippe	5–4	Ruíz Núñez Pareja Vanney Miña

Colorado Rapids advance 5-4 on penalties (2-2 on aggregate).

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Conference finals

November 5, 2005	Los Angeles Galaxy	2–0	Colorado Rapids	INVESCO Field Denver, Colorado Attendance: 12,789 Referee: Brian Hall
	Ihemelu 25' Donovan  28'  88' Marshall 71'	Report	Mastroeni 22'

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November 6, 2005	Chicago Fire	0–1	New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium Foxborough, Massachusetts Attendance: 18,118 Referee: Terry Vaughn
	Jaqua 27' Barrett 73' Marsch 80' Segares 83' Caballero 89' Herron  90+2'	Report	Dempsey  4'

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MLS Cup 2005

November 13, 2005	New England Revolution	0–1 (AET)	Los Angeles Galaxy	Pizza Hut Park Frisco, Texas Attendance: 21,193 Referee: Kevin Stott
	Hernandez 15' Franchino 22' Joseph 37' Riley 54' Heaps 76'	Report	Dunivant 33' Nagamura 56' Marshall 69' Gomez 78' Albright 81' Ramírez  105'

Conference champions New England Revolution and Los Angeles Galaxy
earn MLS berths to CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2006.

Team Awards

• MLS Cup: Los Angeles Galaxy
• U.S. Open Cup: Los Angeles Galaxy
• MLS Supporters' Shield: San Jose Earthquakes
• MLS Reserve Division: DC United

Individual Awards

Award	Player	Club
Most Valuable Player	Taylor Twellman	New England Revolution
Scoring Champion	Taylor Twellman (17) points	New England Revolution
Defender of the Year	Jimmy Conrad	Kansas City Wizards
Goalkeeper of the Year	Pat Onstad	San Jose Earthquakes
Rookie of the Year	Michael Parkhurst	New England Revolution
Coach of the Year	Dominic Kinnear	San Jose Earthquakes
Comeback Player of the Year	Chris Klein	Kansas City Wizards
Goal of the Year	Dwayne De Rosario	San Jose Earthquakes
Fair Play Award	Ronald Cerritos	San Jose Earthquakes
Humanitarian of the Year	Brian Kamler	Real Salt Lake

Top Goal Scorers

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Taylor Twellman	New England Revolution	17
2	Jaime Moreno	D.C. United	16
3	Jeff Cunningham	Colorado Rapids	12
	Landon Donovan	Los Angeles Galaxy	12
5	Christian Gomez	D.C. United	11
	Herculez Gomez	Los Angeles Galaxy	11
	Amado Guevara	MetroStars	11
	Carlos Ruiz	FC Dallas	11
9	Clint Dempsey	New England Revolution	10
	Youri Djorkaeff	MetroStars	10
	Josh Wolff	Kansas City Wizards	10

Goal-Scoring Totals

Club	Overall Record	Goals For	Goals For Avg.	Goals Against	Goals Against Avg.
D.C. United	16-10-6	58	1.81 (1st)	27	1.16 (2nd)
New England Revolution	17-7-8	55	1.72 (2nd)	37	1.16 (2nd)
MetroStars	12-9-11	53	1.66 (3rd)	49	1.53 (9th)
San Jose Earthquakes	18-4-10	53	1.66 (4th)	31	0.97 (1st)
FC Dallas	13-10-9	52	1.63 (5th)	44	1.38 (5th)
Kansas City Wizards	11-9-12	52	1.63 (6th)	44	1.38 (5th)
Chicago Fire	15-13-4	49	1.53 (7th)	50	1.56 (10th)
Los Angeles Galaxy	13-13-6	44	1.38 (8th)	45	1.41 (7th)
Colorado Rapids	13-13-6	40	1.25 (9th)	37	1.16 (2nd)
Columbus Crew	11-16-5	34	1.06 (10th)	45	1.41 (7th)
CD Chivas USA	4-22-6	31	0.97 (11th)	67	2.09 (12th)
Real Salt Lake	5-22-5	30	0.94 (12th)	65	2.03 (11th)
Overall Totals		551	2.87

Team Attendance Totals

Club	Stadium	Games	Season	Game Avg.
Chicago Fire	Soldier Field	16	275,811	17,238
Colorado Rapids	INVESCO Field	16	218,206	13,638
Columbus Crew	Columbus Crew Stadium	16	206,654	12,916
MetroStars	Giants Stadium	16	241,230	15,077
Kansas City Wizards	Arrowhead Stadium	16	155,060	9,691
D.C. United	Robert F. Kennedy Stadium	16	266,617	16,664
New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium	16	200,397	12,525
Los Angeles Galaxy	Home Depot Center	16	387,256	24,204
San Jose Earthquakes	Spartan Stadium	16	208,594	13,037
FC Dallas	Pizza Hut Park	16	179,021	11,189
CD Chivas USA	Home Depot Center	16	273,284	17,080
Real Salt Lake	Rice-Eccles Stadium	16	288,586	18,037
MLS Totals		192	2,900,716	15,108