Saturday, April 14, 2007

Iron Men

Of the hundreds of players who competed in MLS in 1996, only eight are still standing. Well, actually, only eight have played in each and every season since then. They are:

Cobi Jones, Chris Armas, Jason Kreis, Jesse Marsch, Ante Razov, Jaime Moreno, Steve Ralston and Eddie Pope.

Cobi and Armas have already said they're done after this season, which leaves us to six players who could potentially be the last one standing. It'll be interesting to see who wins out as the remaining six players all have a strong case for being the last one.

If I had to bet right now, in April 2007, I'd put my money on Jesse Marsch and I told him as much this preseason. He's had fewer injury concerns over the last year than his teammate Ante and is still playing at a high level. However, a Chivas USA employee pointed out to me that Jesse Marsch plays a more physically demanding position and his body will take more of a beating than Ante's.

I asked Ante Razov this week about his own thoughts on the matter and if he was thinking about retirement yet and he said he wasn't, that as long as he was a productive member of his team he'd play.

Still, the field of six is strong and I guess it would have to be for these guys to have played as long as they have.

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