2005 Major League Soccer season

The 2005 Major League Soccer season was the tenth season of Major League Soccer. The season began on April 2, 2005, and concluded on November 13, 2005 with the first Supporters' Shield victory for the San Jose Earthquakes and 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).
• Because there were now more teams in the west than 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

Western Conference

Overall

MLS Cup Playoffs

Bracket

Conference Semifinals

New England Revolution v MetroStars

October 22, 2005

New England Revolution	0–1	MetroStars
Joseph  43'	Report	Guevara  34' Stammler  41' Djorkaeff  74'

Giants Stadium East Rutherford, New Jersey Attendance: 10,003 Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela

MetroStars v New England Revolution

October 29, 2005

MetroStars	1–3	New England Revolution
Djorkaeff  59'	Report	Hednandez  31' Cancela  68' Noonan  73' Smith  83'

Gillette Stadium Foxborough, Massachusetts Attendance: 9,581 Referee: Brian Hall

New England Revolution advance 3-2 on aggregate.

D.C. United v Chicago Fire

October 21, 2005

D.C. United	0–0	Chicago Fire
Kovalenko  28' Quaranta  31' Carroll  47'	Report	Brown  24'

Soldier Field Chicago Attendance: 11,493 Referee: Brian Hall

Chicago Fire v D.C. United

October 30, 2005

Chicago Fire	4–0	D.C. United
Stewart  10' Guerrero  37' Guerrero  45+5' Segares  52' Marsch  67'	Report	Olsen  21' Gómez  55' Filomeno  71' Adu  80'

RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. Attendance: 20,089 Referee: Kevin Stott

Chicago Fire advance 4-0 on aggregate.

San Jose Earthquakes v Los Angeles Galaxy

October 23, 2005

San Jose Earthquakes	1–3	Los Angeles Galaxy
Barrett  12' Clark  26' Robinson  63' Clark  68'	Report	Gomez  13' Nagamura  33' Donovan  39' Dunivant  68' Albright  71' Gomez  79' Donovan  87'

Home Depot Center Carson, California Attendance: 17,466 Referee: Abiodun Okulaja

Los Angeles Galaxy v San Jose Earthquakes

October 29, 2005

Los Angeles Galaxy	1–1	San Jose Earthquakes
Grabavoy  67'	Report	Ching  42' Gray  44' Clark  89'

Spartan Stadium San Jose, California Attendance: 17,824 Referee: Alex Prus

Los Angeles Galaxy advance 4-2 on aggregate.

FC Dallas v Colorado Rapids

October 22, 2005

FC Dallas	0–0	Colorado Rapids
Jolley  65' O'Brien  74'	Report	Beckerman  29'

INVESCO Field Denver, Colorado Attendance: 9,625 Referee: Michael Kennedy

Colorado Rapids v FC Dallas

October 29, 2005

Colorado Rapids	2–2	FC Dallas
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

Pizza Hut Park Frisco, Texas Attendance: 10,104 Referee: Terry Vaughn

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

Conference finals

Los Angeles Galaxy v Colorado Rapids

November 5, 2005

Los Angeles Galaxy	2–0	Colorado Rapids
Ihemelu  25' Donovan  28'  88' Marshall  71'	Report	Mastroeni  22'

INVESCO Field Denver, Colorado Attendance: 12,789 Referee: Brian Hall

Chicago Fire v New England Revolution

November 6, 2005

Chicago Fire	0–1	New England Revolution
Jaqua  27' Barrett  73' Marsch  80' Segares  83' Caballero  89' Herron  90+2'	Report	Dempsey  4'

Gillette Stadium Foxborough, Massachusetts Attendance: 18,118 Referee: Terry Vaughn

MLS Cup 2005

New England Revolution v Los Angeles Galaxy

November 13, 2005

New England Revolution	0–1 (AET)	Los Angeles Galaxy
Hernández  15' Franchino  22' Joseph  37' Riley  54' Heaps  76'	Report	Dunivant  33' Nagamura  56' Marshall  69' Gomez  78' Albright  81' Ramírez  105'

Pizza Hut Park Frisco, Texas Attendance: 21,193 Referee: Kevin Stott

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: D.C. 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

Rank	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

Team Attendance Totals

References