Kelly, Comas, Nugent, van den Bergh

What to Brian Kelly, Eddie Pope, Mike Nugent, Sergio Galvan Rey, and Eric Brunner all have in common? If you say that they have played for Metro, you'd be wrong, because Brunner never appeared in a first-team match. But there is indeed one common link between the five and a bunch of others: they all led Metro in preseason scoring. We will start our look back in 2000, the first season we started to track complete preseason records.

2000: Brian Kelly, 4
Great things were expected for Brian Kelly when he scored four goals in Metro's first three preseason games. That did not translate into the regular season, as his fourth Metro season proved to be his last. He was traded to Los Angeles for Roy Myers in May, but did manage to score once prior to the trade.

2001: Alex Comas, 7
Comas' seven goals set the preseason record that still stands. They came against Iceland's Fylkir, Poland's Amica Wronki, Portugal's Benfica, the US Under-20 team, San Jose, and two against the Latin American Select. But the moustached Colombian crashed and burned in 2001, scoring just twice (once from the penalty spot) in league play before getting cut in June.

2002: Rodrigo Faria, 5
The preseason most remembered for the prowess of Byron Alvarez, who was signed after scoring four goals and proceeded to join the list of the worst Metros ever during the regular season. But it was not Alvarez who led the team in preseason scoring, but rather Faria, whose five were a precursor to the 14 he'd score in all competitions.

2003: Eddie Pope, Jaime Moreno, Derk Droze, 2
No front-runner in 2003. Pope's and Moreno's two matched their career Metro totals. Droze never even made the team.

2004: Mike Nugent, 3
On March 27, Nugent scored for the second straight preseason match to give him the lead with three goals. Three weeks later he retired at the age of 24.

2005: Sergio Galvan Rey, John Wolyniec, Lopez Ederson, 2
Well, at least SGR's 2005 was better than his 2004; he did manage to score eight goals in all competitions. Wolyniec got two in the regular season before departing to Columbus for Ante Razov (don't worry kids, he'd return soon after). Lopez Ederson? Who? We do know that he's Brazilian...

2006: Mike Magee, Thiago Martins, 4
Magee's four came off two braces, one versus DC, the other against Kansas City. Three of Martins' four came in a hat-trick versus DC. Magee's regular season total ended at three, and Martins played all of 11 scoreless minutes before going to Colorado for Jean-Philippe Peguero.

2007: Dave van den Bergh, 4
(Deleted ramblings about the circumstances that saw him traded to Dallas.) Scored two in 2007 and eight a year later, including the biggest goal in Metro history in the MLS Cup semifinals.

2008: Juan Pablo Angel, Eric Brunner, 2
The former scored 16 goals in all competitions and won his second straight club MVP award. The latter was cut without playing a single minute.

2009: ?
Just remember... Preseason success usually means jack squat.