This series will look to the future of the United States Men’s National Team. It will examine MLS and Americans abroad to attempt to determine a path for the future. While preconceived notions may exist, we will objectively look at the development of MLS to determine whether enough is being done to develop the players of tomorrow.

The plan for this article was to take the average age of the starting elevens for MLS and the four other leagues. While this will still be done, I believe that it is prudent to first discuss MLS in some detail. This discussion was always going to take place, I just feel for various reasons that it makes sense to go over MLS first without comparison from other leagues.



The reasons are mainly that the MLS is in mid-season, so the composition of their starting lineup is not what it may be at the end of the season. And this season is more complicated because of the World Cup. Twenty one players missed time with their clubs because of international commitments. Then if you factor in injuries, suspensions, and squad rotation you notice a MLS lineup is not fully realized yet. Over the course of a full season these factors will even out enough to give a club a noticeable starting eleven. But that is not the case yet.

Before I discuss what is the average age of a MLS club’s starting eleven, I want to discuss each team’s starters and their average age. This will be done because not all clubs have a clear cut starting eleven as discussed. So we need to determine if one player should be included in the starting eleven or not and so on. To do this we will go through each team and go through the problems that arise, if any.

I am doing this in an attempt to show how I viewed a club’s starting eleven. To show that this club’s average age of their starting eleven may be younger by the end of the season. Or the opposite.

When I started to go through this process, I had two tenants I tried to keep too. One was to keep to the most prevalent formation that a team used. Two was to use the eleven players with the most starts. Though these are rules I set out, there are some exceptions for the nineteen clubs. Since this is mid season, this will be redone at the end of the season. Players that are included as starters now, may not be by the end of the season. As of now only league games are being included. Cups will be factored in at a later date.

Chicago Fire—27.4 (average age of starting eleven)

Chicago is already the first team we run into difficulty with. At left back this season, Chicago has started Gonzalo Segares and Greg Cochrane an equal number of times. It was clear at the beginning of the season that Segares was the starting LB for the Fire, but injury allowed Cochrane to start just as often so far this season. So how do we count the LB position for Chicago? The Fire average eleven age would be 27.7 without including Cochrane as a starter. But should we include both Segares and Cochran? If we were to consider both the starting LB (so take the average age of the two) the Fire’s starting eleven’s age would be 27.4. Which number should we count? Though I think it is clear that Segares is the starter (which will likely be clear by season end), at this point in the season they are both included in the eleven.

Chivas–28.1

Injuries are going to keep popping up as problems for us. In the case of Chivas, those injuries are to Bobby Burling and the much longer term injury to Martin Rivero. Rivero joined Chivas in April and after a few games started to establish himself as a starting midfielder for the club. Then he tore his ACL. Injuries are a part of the game though and teams have to adapt to losing players. Rivero is not included in the average age of Chivas starters. I made this decision because of his long term injury. By the end of the season (and this has already happened), Rivero will be surpassed by other players in number of starts. Burling on the other hand is supposed to be a short term injury. He still has the second most starts at center back for Chivas (behind Bocanegra). But what do we do with Eriq Zavaleta, who only has two less starts than Burling and will pass him the longer Burling is out? Burling is clearly the starter and Zavaleta is only stepping in because of injury. I did count Zavaleta as a starter with Burling though (they were averaged as one of the CBs) because at this point he is essentially a starter by the team. It will be interesting to see if Zavaleta is still at starter at the end of the season.

Colorado Rapids–26.6

Colorado has eight players that are clearly starters for the club. Each of these players have started at least 16 of 23 games. After that it becomes a bit tougher to determine because of the squad rotation used by the Rapids. Take for instance, Vicente Sanchez. Through injury and suspension Sanchez has missed a large chunk of the season. Aside from the eight starters, there are five other players who have more starts than Sanchez. Does that make those five players a starter and not Sanchez? No, clearly Sanchez is an important piece for the Rapids and a starter. So there is a ninth starter. For the last two we run into trouble. There are six other players who have made between nine and twelve starts. So who is not a starter? Three players who will not, despite having more or as many starts as Sanchez are Dillon Serna, Kamani Hill, and Jared Watts. They have featured plenty, but I believe they are clearly rotation players. While they will not be included here, they could be important in a later article, especially the 20 year old Serna to show how much playing time a young player gets (he averages 61 mpg and could be a clear starter by the end of the season). Colorado will be an interesting team to visit at the end of the season to see if they have a more consistent starting eleven.

Columbus Crew–26.3

Columbus was one of the easier teams to determine a starting eleven. The Crew have eleven players that have played 13 of their 23 league games. The one player who was close to causing trouble was Ethan Finlay, who has started ten games for the club. By the end of the season Finlay could clearly be in the starting eleven, but as of now he has only worked his way into the lineup because of the MCL sprain suffered by Héctor Jiménez. If Finlay can continue his recent form then Gregg Berhalter will have a tough time removing him from the lineup and could be a starter for the Crew.

D.C. United–28.5

United is another team that has a straightforward eleven. One player who could be in the starting eleven by the end of the season, especially if Jeff Parke’s injury is persistent, is Steve Birnbaum who has made all nine of his starts in Parke’s absence. The two other players who are near starters for United are Chris Korb and Luis Silva, both who have started consistently lately but are number 12 and 13 in starts for the club. Korb seems to be more of a rotation player as his versatility to play either full back position allow him to give both starters breathers when needed. Silva has worked himself back into the lineup lately, getting starts for the club starting in June. He will be one to look for by the end of the season to make his way into the eleven.

FC Dallas–27.6

Dallas is the only club to have two goalies who have started an equal number of games. First Chris Seitz started in place of an injured Raul Fernandez and now Fernandez starts in place of an injured Seitz. But this is negligible because the two keepers are only a year apart. Injuries are trouble in other spots for Dallas though. Hendry Thomas was a key member before his injury in May. Then Thomas started his come back from injury and tore his ACL. Thomas will be included in the average starting eleven calculation. Why am I including Thomas? Thomas has started nine games before his injury, only two less than Michel and three less than Adam Moffat. I do not think that either have established themselves enough yet in Thomas’ absence. Mauro Diaz is in the same vein as Thomas. Thomas can be expected to be moved out of the starting eleven by the end of the season.

Houston Dynamo–27.7

Houston has been a fairly consistent team in selecting their starting eleven. The only question is how do new signings DaMarcus Beasley and Luis Garrido count. They were signed to be starters for the Dynamo but only have two starts under their belt as of this point in the season. For that reason, they are not included in the initial average age. They will likely be included at the end of the season but at this point they do not have enough games under their belt.

We will overview the remaining clubs on Tuesday. If there are any questions about the six clubs reviewed today or the remaining clubs on Tuesday, please let me know.