I've never posted in the general USL forum before, let alone started a thread, but I thought I'd share a little project I worked on this week. I've been frustrated by attempting to interpret the USL standings when some teams have many games in hand over other teams. This makes their point totals incomparable. I need a way to see where each team stands (or stood) after a given number of games, rather than at a specific date. So I created it, in graphical form. In addition, I adjusted each team's point totals by subtracting the number of games played. This has the effect of showing a team going down when they lose a game, remaining level when they draw, and rising when they win, but with zero effect on their relative positions as of a given number of games. It makes it easier to distinguish results at a glance. It also has the effect of emphasizing the fact that teams with fewer games played are in a better position (visually higher) than teams who took more games to get to the same number of points. You can check it out here: https://joelrip.github.io/USLTracker/ Feedback enthusiastically accepted. Note that I'm having to manually copy results into it, so it won't update immediately after each game (more like once a week). Now if only I had direct access to the Opta stats....
Very interesting project. I like the idea behind it: clarifying standings based upon point totals when teams have played a different number of games.
Thanks! Still updating the data about weekly. I'd love ideas for improvement. https://joelrip.github.io/USLTracker/
I've now added what is (probably) the last real upgrade to my charts. After a bunch of math fun this weekend, I've upgraded the charts to show a "clinched playoffs" zone and a "mathematically eliminated" zone. Because really, the whole point of tracking standings in the regular season is to see who gets into the playoffs and in what position, right? I find this a lot of fun to look at. https://joelrip.github.io/StandingsTracker/ The charts really highlight the difference between the wide point spread in the Western conference (where T2 is out, Monarchs in, and SA on the edge of in) vs the Eastern conference (where the teams have played an average of one more game than in the Western conference, but only Toronto is definitively out). Actually, the difference between the conferences is more dramatic in MLS, where Toronto is blowing everyone out of the water in the East (the polar opposite of Toronto II), but the Western conference is super tightly packed. In any case, those light gray "cones of uncertainty" as I call them are going to collapse to a point pretty fast over the last few games. I find this almost as much fun to watch as an actual soccer game....
I've started this project back up again for the 2018 season. Updates approximately once a week. The charts will get more interesting as time passes and the teams differentiate more. http://joelriphagen.net/StandingsTracker/ Enjoy, and read the "About" if you're confused!