2004 Major League Soccer season

2004 Major League Soccer season

Season	2004
MLS Cup	D.C. United
Supporters' Shield	Columbus Crew
Top goalscorer	Brian Ching San Jose Earthquakes Goals: 12 Eddie Johnson Dallas Burn Goals: 12
Biggest home win	NE 6-1 COL
Biggest away win	LA 0-3 NY DAL 0-3 NE CHI 0-3 COL
Highest scoring	SJ 5-5 NY
Longest winning run	Columbus Crew Games: 4 (05/15 - 06/06) Columbus Crew Games: 4 (09/04 - 09/25)
Longest unbeaten run	Columbus Crew Games: 18 (07/03/2004)
Longest losing run	Dallas Burn Games: 4 (05/08 - 05/29)
Highest attendance	Los Angeles Galaxy Season: 357,137 Game Avg.: 23,809
Lowest attendance	Dallas Burn Season: 136,319 Game Avg.: 9,088
Average attendance	MLS Season: 2,333,797 Game Avg.: 15,559
← 2003 season 2005 season →

This is a summary of the 2004 Major League Soccer season, which culminated with D.C. United winning its fourth MLS Cup championship.

The biggest news in the beginning of the season was the signing of 14-year-old prodigy Freddy Adu, who made his debut as a substitute in United's season opener and scored his first goal several games later against the rival MetroStars. Adu contributed as a substitute on DC's championship team, scoring five goals as the youngest player in North American sports history.

The season saw the emergence of forwards Brian Ching (San Jose) and Eddie Johnson (Dallas) as formidable forwards, not only for their MLS teams, but for the United States national team as well. The two shared Golden Boot honors.

The Columbus Crew emerged as a dominant team in the second half of the regular season, running off an MLS-record 18-game unbeaten streak en route to the Supporters' Shield title, won after finishing level on points with Kansas City.

In the playoffs, however, the Crew were taken down by the New England Revolution, who ended the Crew's streak in the opening leg, and goalkeeper Matt Reis, who saved two penalty kicks in the second leg. United cruised past the rival MetroStars (and league MVP Amado Guevara) 4-0 on aggregate in the other Eastern Conference semifinal.

In the Western Conference, Kansas City rallied from a 2-0 first-leg deficit for a dramatic 3-0 win in stoppage time over the defending MLS Cup champion San Jose Earthquakes in their conference semifinal. The Los Angeles Galaxy used a 2-0 home victory in the second leg to overcome the Colorado Rapids and goalie Joe Cannon, who had led the Rapids to a 1-0 victory in the opener.

In the conference finals, Kansas City used two goals from unsung forward Davy Arnaud, who enjoyed a breakout season, to beat the Galaxy and return to the final for the first time since 2000. DC United and New England hooked up in the Eastern Conference final in one of the best games in MLS playoff history. Playing at home, D.C. United took three different leads, only to see New England recover each time to tie the match 3-3 in a game full of highlight-reel goals. The match was finally decided by the first conventional shootout in MLS history, with Nick Rimando saving the first 'sudden death' penalty from Rookie of the Year Clint Dempsey to send DC to the championship.

In the second consecutive final held at the Home Depot Center, DC rebounded from an early Jose Burciaga goal by scoring three goals in eight minutes, including two from Alecko Eskandarian to take a 3-1 lead. In the second half, Dema Kovalenko became the first player to be sent off in an MLS Cup final after knocking a shot off the goal line with his hand. Although Josh Wolff converted the penalty kick, DC United held on with only 10 men to win its fourth championship in the nine-year history of MLS.

Play-off Bracket

	Conference Semifinals						Conference Finals					MLS Cup 2004
		Columbus Crew	0	1
		New England Revolution (wins 2-1 agg.)	1	1
								New England Revolution	3
	Eastern Conference
								DC United (wins 4-3 on PK's)	3*
		DC United (wins 4-0 agg.)	2	2
		MetroStars	0	0
													DC United	3
													Kansas City Wizards	2
		Kansas City Wizards (wins 3-2 agg.)	0	3
		San Jose Earthquakes	2	0
								Kansas City Wizards	2
	Western Conference
								Los Angeles Galaxy	0
		Los Angeles Galaxy (wins 2-1 agg.)	0	2
		Colorado Rapids	1	0

Final standings

Eastern Conference	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
s - Columbus Crew	30	12	5	13	40	32	8	49
x - D.C. United	30	11	10	9	43	42	1	42
x - MetroStars	30	11	12	7	47	49	-2	40
x - New England Revolution	30	8	13	9	42	43	-1	33
Chicago Fire	30	8	13	9	36	44	-8	33

Western Conference	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
x - Kansas City Wizards	30	14	9	7	38	30	8	49
x - Los Angeles Galaxy	30	11	9	10	42	40	2	43
x - Colorado Rapids	30	10	9	11	29	32	-3	41
x - San Jose Earthquakes	30	9	10	11	41	35	6	38
Dallas Burn	30	10	14	6	34	45	-11	36

• The top four teams in each conference make the playoffs.

s = Supporters Shield
x = playoff berth

MLS Cup Playoffs

Conference Semifinals

October 23, 2004	Columbus Crew	0–1	New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium Foxborough, Massachusetts Attendance: 5,679 Referee: N/A
	Buddle 26' Fraser 35'	Report	Joseph 4' John  25' John 58' Heaps 82'

October 31, 2004	New England Revolution	1–1	Columbus Crew	Crew Stadium Columbus, Ohio Attendance: 15,224 Referee: Alex Prus
	Twellman  81'	Report	Martino 26' Hejduk 68' Buddle  90+2'

New England Revolution advance 2-1 on aggregate.

---

October 23, 2004	D.C. United	2–0	MetroStars	Giants Stadium East Rutherford, New Jersey Attendance: 11,161 Referee: Kevin Stott
	Kovalenko 50' Nelsen 62' Stewart  67' Gros 75' Eskandarian  88'	Report	Walker 68'

October 30, 2004	MetroStars	0–2	D.C. United	RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. Attendance: 15,763 Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela
	Flores 6' Guevara 18' Clark 45+1' Pope 88'	Report	Olsen 27' Namoff 35' Kovalenko 41' Nelsen 61' Moreno  85' Adu 86' Namoff  89'

DC United advance 4-0 on aggregate.

---

October 24, 2004	Kansas City Wizards	0–2	San Jose Earthquakes	Spartan Stadium San Jose, California Attendance: 8,659 Referee: Kevin Terry
	Simutenkov 41' Zotinca 59'	Report	Agoos 24' Mullan 38' De Rosario  40' Waibel  52'

October 30, 2004	San Jose Earthquakes	0–3	Kansas City Wizards	Arrowhead Stadium Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 10,022 Referee: Terry Vaugn
	Donovan 43'	Report	Stephenson  26' Jewsbury 45+1' Ching  48' (o.g.) Arnaud 56' Gutierrez 78' Jewsbury  90+2'

Kansas City Wizards advance 3-2 on aggregate.

---

October 22, 2004	Los Angeles Galaxy	0–1	Colorado Rapids	INVESCO Field Denver, Colorado Attendance: 8,028 Referee: Terry Vaughn
	Broome 66'	Report	Peguero  30' Kotschau 40' Mastroeni 76'

October 30, 2004	Colorado Rapids	0–2	Los Angeles Galaxy	Home Depot Center Carson, California Attendance: 20,026 Referee: Michael Kennedy
	Beckerman 42' Kotschau 52'	Report	Ruiz  30' Ruiz 42' Marshall  45+3' Kirovski 74' Hartman 76'

Los Angeles Galaxy advance 2-1 on aggregate.

---

Conference finals

November 5, 2004	Los Angeles Galaxy	0–2	Kansas City Wizards	Arrowhead Stadium Kansas City, Missouri Attendance: 11,931 Referee: Abiodun Okulaja
	Vagenas 26' Broome 72' Herzog 83'	Report	Arnaud  24'  68' Burciaga Jr. 41' Zotinca 72'

---

November 6, 2004	New England Revolution	3–3 (AET)	D.C. United	RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. Attendance: 21,201 Referee: Terry Vaughn
	Joseph 1' Twellman  17' Ralston  44' (pen.) John 55' Pierce 62' Noonan  85'	Report	Eskandarian  11' Moreno  21' Eskandarian 49' Namoff 58' Gomez  67' Olsen 87'
		Penalties
	Ralston Reis Twellman Heaps Joseph Dempsey	3–4	Olsen Quaranta Adu Eskandarian Moreno Carroll

DC United advance 4-3 on penalties (3-3 after extra time).

---

MLS Cup 2004

November 14, 2004	Kansas City Wizards	2–3	D.C. United	Home Depot Center Carson, California Attendance: 25,797 Referee: Michael Kennedy
	Burciaga Jr.  6' Gutierrez 33' Wolff  58' (pen.)	Report	Eskandarian  19'  23' Zotinca  26' (o.g.) Stewart 55' Kovalenko  57' Namoff 72' Olsen 89'

D.C. United wins the MLS Cup
Kansas City Wizards and D.C. United earn MLS berths to
CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2005.

Team Awards

• MLS Cup - D.C. United
• U.S. Open Cup - Kansas City Wizards
• MLS Supporters' Shield - Columbus Crew

Individual Awards

Award	Player	Club
Most Valuable Player	Amado Guevara	MetroStars
Scoring Champion	Amado Guevara (30) points	MetroStars
	Pat Noonan (30) points	New England Revolution
Defender of the Year	Robin Fraser	Columbus Crew
Goalkeeper of the Year	Joe Cannon	Colorado Rapids
Rookie of the Year	Clint Dempsey	New England Revolution
Coach of the Year	Greg Andrulis	Columbus Crew
Comeback Player of the Year	Brian Ching	San Jose Earthquakes
Goal of the Year	Dwayne De Rosario	San Jose Earthquakes
Fair Play Award	Eddie Pope	MetroStars
Humanitarian of the Year	Chris Henderson	Colorado Rapids

Top Goal Scorers

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Brian Ching	San Jose Earthquakes	12
	Eddie Johnson	Dallas Burn	12
2	Edson Buddle	Columbus Crew	11
	Pat Noonan	New England Revolution	11
	Damani Ralph	Chicago Fire	11
	Carlos Ruiz	Los Angeles Galaxy	11
3	Alecko Eskandarian	DC United	10
	Amado Guevara	MetroStars	10
	Josh Wolff	Kansas City Wizards	10
	John Wolyniec	MetroStars	10

Goal-Scoring Totals

Club	Overall Record	Goals For	Goals For Avg.	Goals Against	Goals Against Avg.
MetroStars	11-12-7	47	1.57 (1st)	49	1.63 (10th)
D.C. United	11-10-9	43	1.43 (2nd)	42	1.40 (6th)
Los Angeles Galaxy	11-9-10	42	1.40 (3rd)	40	1.33 (5th)
New England Revolution	8-13-9	42	1.40 (4th)	43	1.43 (7th)
San Jose Earthquakes	9-10-11	41	1.37 (5th)	35	1.17 (4th)
Columbus Crew	12-5-13	40	1.33 (6th)	32	1.07 (2nd)
Kansas City Wizards	14-9-7	38	1.27 (7th)	30	1.00 (1st)
Chicago Fire	8-13-9	36	1.20 (8th)	44	1.47 (8th)
Dallas Burn	10-14-6	34	1.13 (9th)	45	1.50 (9th)
Colorado Rapids	10-9-11	29	0.97 (10th)	32	1.07 (2nd)
Overall Totals		392	2.61

Team Attendance Totals

Club	Stadium	Games	Season	Game Avg.
Chicago Fire	Soldier Field	15	257,295	17,153
Colorado Rapids	INVESCO Field	15	212,925	14,195
Columbus Crew	Columbus Crew Stadium	15	253,079	16,872
MetroStars	Giants Stadium	15	257,923	17,195
Kansas City Wizards	Arrowhead Stadium	15	222,235	14,816
D.C. United	Robert F. Kennedy Stadium	15	258,484	17,232
New England Revolution	Gillette Stadium	15	183,385	12,226
Los Angeles Galaxy	Home Depot Center	15	357,137	23,809
San Jose Earthquakes	Spartan Stadium	15	195,015	13,001
Dallas Burn	Cotton Bowl	15	136,319	9,088
MLS Totals		150	2,333,797	15,559