This idea came into my mind as the merit of the Suupporters' Shield has been under intense debate since its creation, mainly due to the fact that MLS have been playing un-balanced schedule since inception. (Though a balanced schedule will be played in 2010, un-balanced schedule will most likely return thereafter, as the league expands) Thus, I've worked out the alternate MLS Standings base on the number of Season Series won, where we can really see which teams really out-perform the others in a fairer manner, without the potentially bias effects of un-balanced schedules. Just some ground rules: 1) As with the usual points system, 3 were awarded for a season series won, 1 each for a split series, 0 for a loss. 2) A season series would be won by a team who: - earned more points than their opponents from the games in the season series (similar to the "1st-to-5" concept) - scored more goals in case of equal points earned, - otherwise the series would be considered split. (away goals rule don't apply, - for '96-99, FT wins would worth more than SO wins. 3) In case of 2/more teams tied on season series points, usual MLS tie-breakers such as head-to-head, GD, GS would apply. Without further ado, let's see who would have won the Shield / Runners-up, base on Season Series won. (The more detailed standings for past / current seasons will be published soon) Alternate Shield Winners / Runners-up, base on Season Series won: '96: LAG, TPB (LAG won series vs TPB for SS) '97: KCW, FCD (FCD won series vs DCU for #2) '98: DCU, LAG (DCU won series vs LAG for SS) '99: DCU, CLB '00: TPB, NYRB '01: MIA, CHI '02: LAG, SJE (LAG won series vs SJE for SS) '03: NYRB,CHI '04: LAG, SJE '05: SJE, NER (NER won series vs DCU for #2) '06: CHI, DCU (CHI won 3-way tie-breaker for SS, DCU then won series vs HOU for #2) '07: HOU, DCU (DCU won series vs CHV for #2) '08: HOU, CLB '09: SEA, HOU are the current leaders Highlights: 1. LAG would have been the most successful team so far with 3 Shields, followed by DCU/HOU with 2 each. 2. SEA, the current leaders of 2009, could very well be the first ever expansion side to win it... 3. Long-suffering NYRB fans would have been able to celebrate their 1st "major" title with the 2003 Shield!! More later...
Alternate Spoon Winners/Runners-up base on Season Series: '96: COL, NER (COL lost season series to NER for spoon) '97: NER, SJE (NER lost season series to SJE for spoon) '98: MIA, NER '99:NYRB, MIA '00: DCU, SJE (SJE lost season series to CLB for 2nd-fr-bottom) '01: TPB, COL '02: DCU, KCW '03: FCD, LAG '04:NYRB, FCD (FCD lost season series to COL for 2nd-fr-bottom) '05: RSL, CHV '06: CLB, LAG (LAG lost season series to COL for 2nd-fr-bottom) '07: RSL, TFC '08: TFC, LAG '09: SJE, NYRB are the current "leaders" DCU, NYRB & RSL each have 2 Spoons to show, while LAG have the most number (3) of "runners-up" finishes,
No worries, just take DCU's win in '99 for instance. In that season, against 11 other teams, they managed to clinch the Season Series against 8 of them, lost just 1 (vs SJE), and splitted the remaining 2 (vs COL & FCD). That gave them 8(wins) x 3(pts per win) + 2(pts per tie) = 26 "points" to top the "Season Series Standings" that season. The calculation then went on for the rest of the teams for every season...
Interesting idea, but scrap the whole GD/goals scored thing. If we beat you once and you beat us once, that's a split, regardless of goals scored. Counting a split as a series won because of an extra goal fouls the whole thing, IMHO, and makes the whole thing MORE unbalanced that the schedule. Plus, in addition to not being accurate, it's unfair to teams who legitimately won their season series. One team can go 2-0 vs. someone and get a "win" and another can go 1-1 and get a "win" if they scored more goals. And those are ranked the same? If they are, then the whole system is invalid and unbalanced. At least on the schedule they count the most important things consistently: wins, draws, and points. If you do that, then I'd be OK with it.
To me the SS is consolation award and a choke case at best, (look at DCU in 06 and 07 when they won SS, they choked in the playoffs) so unless you intent is to lose in the playoffs i guess the SS is for you and not a league championship.
SS is a major trophy and get you berth to CCL. I think it needs to be replaced by regular season E. conf and W. conf Champs. Get both of them berth to CCL.
I disagree the SS is More of consolation more than anything a pacifier for the eurominded soccer fanns who claim they support MLS, (really they just want MLS to be Like europe). with the exception of a couple times, rarely you have the so called Best team( in regular season play) win the MLS Cup in the Same year... Oh yeah the CCL, really a berth, thats about it, i dont see the real excitement about that because, the following CCL berth is for the next season not this season. winning the US Open Cupis not as meaningful especially if thats the only dent accomplishment achieved last season(DCU-'08) But couldnt make the playoffs, which could have got you a decnt shot at a Championship... to me it would be another dissapppointment if DCU cannot make the playoffs this year, regardless what other trophies they win.
I agrre with You(DCU1996) that the conference regular season champions should have better value more than the "mythical" SS, that the europoser want people to be...
This is what your defending? You want a lesser team to sneak away with a trophy while the hardest working team is a second thought? Maybe MLS would be better off starting the playoffs in March and foregoing the regular season altogether.
The season doesnt end at Game # 30, you make the playoffs especially if you won the SS you have to step your game up its win or go home. The season ends when the MLS Cup is crowned. always been like that bruh. when you make the playoffs its a whole new ball game, each team in the playoffs have a shot at the championship. so what u mean lesser??? maybe you dont get it
it's really pointless talking about it without looking at the whole league design. If we have single table balanced schedule - then regular season winner is the champion. Not even need to have playoffs. It'll be lame to have playoffs. If we have two tables, unbalanced between the tables, then need to have playoffs and the MLS Cup. When we have unbalanced schedule between tables, it's not fair to say 1st in one table is better than 2nd in the other table. Thus playoffs and the Cup. I think we should have two tables, balanced within each table. For example: - 12 clubs in each table(conference). - Home/Away within the table, and 1 game out of table. This way we have very legit regular season Conference Champions from each table. (we at least have pretty good balanced schedule within a conference) This is big accomplishment, give them big trophy, give them berth to CCL, give them incentives in playoffs, ect (home field advantage, etc) It basically replace current single SS. Then, inter-conference playoffs to determine MLS Cup champion. W4 at E1, W3 at E2, E4 at W1, E3 at W2. This way we have flavor of single table and reward regular season, and also have very good reason to have playoffs and the cup. Think about this way, W. Conference = EPL, E. Conference = LaLiga. MLS Cup = Champions League.
Yes I'm aware of the cliches and concept. I think what you don't get is the playoff seeding concept. That is where "greater" teams meet "lesser" teams. On the thread concept, it's a nice compromise but I'd still prefer the balanced schedule.
Single table balanced schedule limit the number of clubs in the league to 16 or 18 at the max for MLS.
And last but not least, the up-to-date 'Series Standing' for 2009, as at Sep-24 (including the mid-week COL-SJE game on 23rd): (Note that for the convenience of tracking, the standing cover all series played so far, including those in-progress. It will be updated every week, with the outcome of every game affecting the standing in varying degrees. ) =========== =========== Highlights: 1. SEA is on to something very special this season. If they do win it, it will be the best ever finish managed by an expansion team. Currently the best finish was 3rd by none other than HOU themselves in '06, while CHI finish 4th in '98. 2. Isn't it a surprise that NYRB is not the bottom team here (yet)? SJE is in danger of ending-up bottom, as they lost their 1st game of the season series to NYRB 1-4 back in May-8 (the return game will be on Oct-3). 3. CLB's position (#4) is surprisingly a bit lower for now, given that their series with NER have not began yet (2 games on 10/10 & 10/25). 4. Other than CLB-NER pair, every other team have played each other at least once.
Well, if you look at the Official MLS Rules & the rules of most MLS rivalry cups, those series where teams earned equal points against each other were indeed further tie-broken using sub-rules such as G/D, Goals Scored, etc (in one sequence or another). Simply put, in a 2-game series, if TeamA first beat TeamB 2-0 then lost 0-1, the series should be considered won by TeamA with an aggregate score of 2-1. Ignoring this simple fact would be simply ignorant, isn't it? Not all wins are equal ("3-0" > "2-0" > "1-0", etc...), and not all season series need to be won in just one way (both "outright" or "tie-break" should be acceptable), agree?
You have a balanced schedule each team plays the same amount of of regular season games and the required minimum matchups with your conference.