In 2001, the Miami Fusion won the Supporters' Shield on the backs of Best XI performances from Carlos Llamosa, Pablo Mastroeni, Preki, and Diego Serna. By the next season, the team no longer existed.
One former Miami player who saw a few minutes that season is still building on one of the most illustrious careers in MLS history. Since '01, Kyle Beckerman has won an MLS Cup, competed in another, reached a CONCACAF Champions League final and has been named an MLS All-Star five times.
This past Saturday, the 31-year-old Beckerman moved up to No. 4 on the all-time list of minutes played for an outfield player, passing Tyrone Marshall. By the end of the season, he should pass another former Fusion teammate Mastroeni (more on him below) for No. 2 all-time, only needing 1,147 minutes.
If he maintains his current average of 2,162 minutes per season since 2003, he'll move past Steve Ralston for No. 1 by the end of 2016. And he might have some familiar company making history with him.
Nick Rimando – another teammate of Beckerman's in Miami – has played the second-most minutes of any goalkeeper (and third-most of any player), and should be able to get to No. 1 considering he's only 34. He needs less than 6,000 minutes to pass Kevin Hartman, which could happen around the same time Beckerman is passing Ralston.
Other Notes:
• Seattle have been fouled an astounding 50 times in their first two games of the season. This is the most any team has been fouled in consecutive games since 2010. It also shatters the Sounders' old record of being fouled 41 times in consecutive games in June 2009.
• When Mastroeni took the field on Saturday at Red Bull Arena, he became the 15th current MLS head coach who played in MLS as a player. He also became the eighth to both play for the US national team at a World Cup and coach an MLS game.
• The Red Bulls and Sporting Kansas City broke a recent trend when they drew their home games on Saturday. Since the 2010 season, each of the previous seasons Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup winners have won at least one of their first two games. These teams will look to win their first games of the season on Saturday.
