Fifteen games in, with 19 to go and we are sitting in 8th place on points, zero points out of a playoff spot. We are in 8th place on PPG with 1.27 (-0.02) PPG with the 7th place team at 1.27 (RSL). The current trend is ~44 (0) pts for a playoff spot, our last result gives us 19 pts (+1). We need to average 1.32 PPG (+0.02) to get to 44. Last Three Games: 1W, 2T – 5 pts (1.67 PPG) (-0.67) – Moving Up Next Three Games: - Three Wins - outstanding - Two wins - outstanding - One win, two ties - moving up - One win, one tie – keeping up - One win - losing ground - Three ties - losing ground http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/SanJose.html - No Update, site does not show points for our last tie Chance of Playoffs: 40.2% (+6.7%) Wooden Spoon: 0.8% (+0.2%) -- Cincinnati = 11 pts (0.73 PPG)
It might be better to be seeded 6th than 5th. The site says top seeded teams always play at home. Would you rather have a chance at playing your second game at home or be guaranteed your first two games are away and 3rd game is at home (IF you make it that far).
How does 6th seed ever get a home game in this format? From MLS site: "The playoffs will now consist of a fixed-bracket, single-elimination format with the higher seed hosting every match."
The only possible home game as the 6th seed is if the 7th seed beats the 2nd seed... that seems unlikely and not worth trying to game the seeding to try for. But finishing 6th might be better than 5th or 4th if the #1 seed is much better than the 2nd seed. Going based on PPG, in the east right now Philly is 1 and Atlanta is 2... I think most would rather face the former. Given how Atlanta are rising up the table they might be 1st by the end of the season, but as of now the 1 seed looks more beatable. In the west, LAFC is 1 and Houston is 2 (Seattle or the Galaxy could catch them). LAFC seems unlikely to give up the top spot, and they have easily been the best team in the league, on pace to break points records. So the 6 seed in the west really might have a better shot than the 5 or 4 seed. The winner of 4 v 5 has to go to LAFC, and they will have that first round bye to prepare for that game.
They should change it so that seed 1 always plays the lowest seeded team in the second round. That way the highest seeded teams always play at home and seed 1 presumably has an even greater advantage (as it should be).
It is unlikely but the 5th seed has a 0.0% chance of playing at home in the second round. At least the sixth seed has a chance. Winning two games in a row on the road including a game against potentially the supporters shield winner seems incredibly unlikely.
I guess the justification for this format is that it’s incredibly simple and fast. It values regular season results by giving a big advantage to the first seed and to a lesser extent advantages to seeds 2-4. Seeds 5-7 is a hard knock life and I’m sure fans of the 5th seed team will complain if they perceive the 6th seed has a better chance than they do. But if you want any sure advantage in the playoffs then make sure to seed 1-4. With all the variables and randomness of a tournament they probably decided keeping it simple is better than adding complexity to try to make it more fair for the lower seeded teams and who can predict how it’s going to work itself out anyway.
OK, first seeded team gets a bye in the first round 2nd Seed play 7th Seed 3rd Seed play 6th Seed 4th Seed play 5th Seed. Now commence your comments
SJ in March: 0-4-0, -12 goal differentialSJ since March: 6-2-4, +10 goal differential— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) June 27, 2019 Well, would you look at that... 📈 Stock rising in the Bay. #VamosSJ pic.twitter.com/qW4fi1NgbK— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) June 27, 2019
2011 wasn't a wooden spoon season (which 2000 was), so I'm giving the nod to 2001 as the greatest turnaround so far, but yeah - it was a big turnaround in 2012.
Not sure where to put this so I'll put it here.... San Jose Earthquakes reach midway point of MLS season in high gear
At this time last year we reached the bottom of the western conference table- where we stayed for the rest of the season. The only question remaining was if we were going to win the spoon or not.
Pretty cool, this thread can not be a joke now! Go Quakes! I know I've already mentioned this multiple times... but Quakes have a winning record for the first time in *forever* (look it up if you don't know)... positive GD... some good players due to return from international duty or injury... at least 2 new recruits coming in from transfer windows...
Also, the Quakes just moved up in the ESPN power rankings from 14th to 7th! That is a huge jump that rarely happens.
That's the kind of huge jump that happens when someone wasn't actually bothering to pay attention to the Quakes so they kept them relatively low even though they have been playing well, and they have now finally caught on to the buzz...
I don’t want to jump the gun nor do I want to jinx anything but does anyone think at this point, the Quakes can win the MLS CUP? I was living in Europe in both 2001 & 2003 so I can't really go by those trophies but I remember the 2005 season. AEG had imploded the team and we were left with maybe a total of 7-8 players around May-June. Then I believe Alexi left and Dom made the most of his existing left over players and actually turned a depleted team into a great winner. I see similarities between this team and that one but not sure if it’s still too soon to tell. I must say though, the Quakes are now playing just as good as anyone across the league.
Are you sure we lost a bunch of players before the season ended? We won the Supporters Shield and went undefeated at home in 2005. Then the team moved. Or I'll put it this way, I don't remember who left but the leftovers were great, as you actually point out. If LAFC trips against somebody else (anybody can have a bad game or two) that would certainly help the Quakes. 2012 still kills me. We went undefeated in the regular season against all the other Western Conference contenders (RSL, Sounders, LA) and won the first leg against LA before losing to a triple-headed-DP team. And what happens if Bernardez doesn't pull his hamstring, or Opara scores to keep the Quakes alive until PKs? Sigh. But hey, it's 2019 and hope flourishes once more! Can they win MLS Cup? Sure!
The roster was very depleted in the offseason, but was fine during the season. The only major loss during the season was that Troy Dayak suffered his career-ending injury early on. A big number of offseason and early-season acquisitions were very important--Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis, Danny Califf, Mark Chung, Alejandro Moreno, Ronald Cerritos (returning), Wade Barrett (returning).
To consider the Quakes a championship contender I'd like to see them rack up some more road wins. Only one so far this year. Several ties are respectable results but in Seattle and DC they came from blown leads. They're either going to need to win road games in the playoffs, or finish high enough to play at home in the playoffs, which will require some good regular season results on the road.