West: RSL LA (Beckham cannot be counted on for a repeat of last year) Portland Seattle Chivas (bit of a limb, but I'm gonna go with it) East: Red Bulls KC Toronto Philly DC United (I am a DeRo fan, so my bias is showing)
last year RSL missed more player games to injuries in the single season than ALL of their previous seasons COMBINED. even if you dont include all the games morales missed (basically the whole season except the first month and last couple weeks), the team still would have far exceeded the next closest season in terms of player games missed due to injury. that doesnt even include the huge number of games missed because of international callups; beckerman, alvaro saborio, will johnson as well as arturo alvarez and jean alexandre (both of which played a huge number of minutes due to all the injuries) missed many games because of those callups. plus RSL had an inordinate amount of suspensions. the fact that they managed to finish 3rd after all the crap they went through is a testament to the amount of depth they had last year. it wasnt at all a "fading" away, it was just a twilight zone type of season. they still have one of the best starting XI's in the league and if they stay healthy they will definitely be one of the top 3 teams in the league. the XI of Rimando, Wingert, Borchers, Olave, Beltran, Johnson, Beckerman, Morales, Grabavoy, Espindola and Sabo is tough to match outside of LA. Borchers (30), Morales (32), Olave (30) and Rimando (32) are the only players that are 30 years or older as well so its not like the roster is retirement home age either. i think they can definitely put up at least as many points as last season (especially with fewer CCL games to worry about), but LA is far and away the favorite for SS and I dont think anyone will come close to them.
My favorites in the east are: Sporting Kansas City,New York Red Bull,Houston Dynamo,Dc United,Chicago Fire. My favorites in the west are: Seattle Sounders,Portland Timbers,LA Galaxy,Fc Dallas,Real Salt Lake.
Lost Bobby Burling to the expansion draft and traded Bobby Convey to SKC. Not exactly a huge dump of talent. Burling was an adequate defender, but, would not have seen as much action in 2011if Ike Opara had not gone down to injury. Opara is apparently back healthy, and we also added Honduran Intl. centerback Victor Bernadez. So, huge upgrade at CB for the Quakes. Convey had one good season out of three, and managed just 3 goals and about a dozen? assists in that time. Added to our midfield are the speedy Marvin Chavez from FC Dallas, Colombian playmaker Tressor Moreno, and some muscle in Jean Alexandre from RSL. Also re-signed Simon Dawkins from Spurs. Dawkins had his 2011 season interrupted by surgery last year, but, finished the year strong. Simon should hit the ground running in 2012. Up front the Quakes have the top scorer the last two seasons in Wondo, and hopefully with a healthy, focused Lenhart along side him, a good striker tandem. Goalie position is solid with Busch and future Nats. goalie David Bingham. Nice talent haul by the Quakes in the off-season, the question is whether Yallop can get it all working together by the start of the season. If so the Quakes will definitely be in the hunt.
There's so much parity in the league, that we can make a case for every team being "in the hunt" as far as the playoffs go. It is true that the top 5 teams in the West in 2010 were the top 5 teams in the West in 2011. Would I be surprised if the top 5 teams in the West in 2012 were again LA, RSL, Seattle, Dallas, and Colorado? Not really, but that's boring. A lot of people have a team like Portland jumping Colorado. But let's not forget that Colorado should start out with a healthy combo or Cummings and Casey up top. That's pretty darn good. They've brought in some interesting midfielders, and have some good defenders. Plus I'm a big Pareja fan. I think Colorado may be the team in the West flying most under the radar. When it comes to San Jose a lot of us need to see it to believe it.
Western Conference 1 Dallas 2 Los Angeles 3 Salt Lake 4 Seattle 5 Portland ------------- 6 Vancouver 7 Colorado 8 San Jose 9 Chivas USA Eastern Conference 1 New York 2 Toronto 3 Kansas City 4 Houston 5 Columbus ------------ 6 Chicago 7 Philadelphia 8 DC United 9 Montreal 10 New England
EAST 1. SKC 2/3. RBNY 2/3. CHI (depends on who's offense is hotter this year, but I think they'll wind up against one another in the playoffs anyhow) 4. HOU 5. DCU 6. CLB 7. PHI 8. TFC 9. MTL 10. NER WEST 1. LAG 2. RSL 3. SSFC 4. FCD 5. POR 6. COL 7. SJ 8. VAN 9. CHV
EASTERN CONF. Sporting Kansas City New York Red Bulls DC United Houston Dynamo Toronto FC -------- Chicago Fire Philadelphia Union Columbus Crew Montreal Impact New England Revolution WESTERN CONF. Los Angeles Galaxy Real Salt Lake Seattle Sounders FC Dallas Portland Timbers -------- San Jose Earthquakes Colorado Rapids Vancouver Whitecaps Chivas USA
LAG SEA RSL COL FCD --- POR The West is going to be a race, as always, especially for the last two spots. Posters here are definitely underestimating Colorado. FCD/Portland for the last spot is going to be brutal. Excellent additions of Boyd & Songo'o for Portland. SKC CHI NYRB DCU CLB --- HOU The East is also tough to call, as a number of teams could claim spots 2-5. SKC looks to repeat their success, and Chicago finished hot and will climb the table this year. NYRB, talented, brittle, and poorly managed, but should still make it. DCU poised to make a run at the East playoffs.
my picks eastern conference 1 New York 2 Kansas City 3 Houston 4 Toronto 5 DC western conference 1 LA 2 Seattle 3 Dallas 4 Salt Lake 5 Portland
WEST 1 - Los Angeles 2 - Seattle 3 - Dallas 4 - Real Salt Lake 5 - Portland ------------- Here is where I'm not sure. 6 - Colorado 7 - Vancouver 8 - Chivas USA 9 - San Jose EAST 1 - Kansas City 2 - Houston 3 - Philadelphia 4 - New York 5 - Columbus ------------ Again, not sure at all. 6 - Chicago 7 - DC 8 - Toronto 9 - Montreal 10 - New England
East 1. New York 2. Kansas City 3. Houston 4. DC United 5. Philadelphia West 1. LA 2. RSL 3. Seattle 4. FC Dallas 5. Portland
EAST 1. New York Red Bulls 2. Philadelphia Union 3. Columbus Crew 4. Houston Dynamo 5. Chicago Fire -------- -------- 6. Sporting Kansas City 7. Toronto FC 8. DC United 9. Montreal Impact 10. New England Revolution WEST 1. Los Angeles Galaxy 2. Seattle Sounders 3. Real Salt Lake 4. Portland Timbers 5. FC Dallas ---------- 6. Vancouver Whitecaps 7. San Jose Earthquakes 8. Chivas USA 9. Colorado Rapids
West 1. LA - Best team in MLS 2. FCD - No CCL distractions, plus return of Ferreira. Loss of John could move them down, though 3. Seattle - Too solid to drop farther, but still have several new players that will need to step up right away 4. RSL - Talented team, but have lost a lot of depth over the offseason 5. San Jose - My dark horse for the West. Solid additions could pay immediate dividends. 6. Colorado - Always adequate, but Pareja will have to put his stamp on the team to get them higher in the standings 7. Portland - Some good signings, but defense/gk is still suspect, and Boyd will have to carry the team with Valencia out 8. Vancover - Like a lot of their pick-ups, but still lacking at GK and midfield. A few injuries would doom this team 9. CUSA - Didn't do enough this offseason to improve and traded/waived some promising players for little in return East 1. SKC - Talented everywhere, but could see a dropoff during Olympics/WC Qualifiers when their offense is called up 2. DC - Building off a solid group of young talent, they've added depth everywhere on the field and look to be a contender if they can stay healthy 3. Chicago - Good offseason, but putting everything together could take time. Could move up if everything gels, but don't let last year's finish fool you. They still have a lot to work on 4. Philadelphia - Loss of Le Toux hurts, but losing Mondragon is bigger. Will have to rely on youth to carry the team, and that could be a disaster if they don't produce results 5. Columbus - Decent team that could move up if offense clicks or one of the above teams falter 6. NY - No starting goalkeeper and reliant on an aging backline means that Henry & Co. will have to outscore whoever they're playing. Lack of depth could be a big struggle as well 7. Toronto - They've gotten better on defense, but still have a lot to prove if they want to rise in the standings. 8. Houston - Still a solid team, but they will only be as good as their forwards and that's not very promising 9. Montreal - Expansion side looks decent on paper, but lacks a quality starting XI as of right now 10. NE - Outcome looks bleak for the second year in a row. No noticeable improvements anywhere will make for a long season
I've taken the average of the predictions so far using the posts which rank all 19 teams. Teams are followed by their average position in parentheses, then the number of 1st place votes and last place votes: Western Conference 1. LA (1.2, 11 first place votes) 2. SEA (2.571, 1 first place vote) 3. RSL (2.857, 1 first place vote) 4. FCD (4.0, 1 first place vote) 5. POR (5.0) -------------------- 6. VAN (6.429) 7. COL (7.071, 2 last place votes) 8. SJ (7.643, 4 last place votes) 9. CHV (8.214, 8 last place votes) Eastern Conference 1. SKC (1.87, 8 first place votes) 2. NY (2.86, 4 first place votes) 3. PHI (4.64, 2 first place votes, 1 last place vote) 4. HOU (4.857) 5. CHI (5.21) -------------------- 6. TOR (5.357) 7. DC (5.86) 8. CLB (6.00) 9. MON (8.786, 1 last place vote) 10. NE (9.57, 12 last place votes) Some quick notes - All 14 predictions had LA going either 1 or 2. - 9 out of 14 predictions had MON-NE going 9-10, with 2 more having MON 8th and NE 10th. - The top 2 and bottom 2 in the East seem to be locks, with the rest being a crap shoot. - The average position shows a boring playoff run in the West, with a clear hierarchy of teams. But who knows in MLS?
The West is clearly the more predictable conference, with an average standard deviation of 1.08 compared to the East's 1.80 Finishes Within 1 Standard Deviation LA 1-2 (the most predictable team) RSL/SEA 2-4 FCD 2-6 POR 4-6 VAN 5-8 COL 6-8 SJ 6-9 CHV 7-9 SKC 1-3 NY 1-5 PHI 2-8 (the least predictable team) CHI/HOU/TOR 3-7 CLB/DC 4-8 MON/NE 8-10
West LA SEATTLE RSL Portland Vancouver ---------------- Dal Col Chv SJ I think Vancouver may sneak in ahead of Dallas this year. East Kansas city New York Houston Chicago Toronto (finally) ---------------- Phi Mon DCU Clb NER LA or Seattle are a lock for the final.
Show's how little you know about Chivas USA, we've made some moves during the offseason and I can assure you that we will be ready come first kick, and to add to that we will make the playoffs this year. We miss the playoffs 2 seasons in a row and all of a sudden we are team that can't even sniff the playoffs? That's alright though, by the way we did some shopping down in south america picked up some nice talent. Don't worry you will find out soon enough what upgrades we have made once the season kicks off, one thing is clear this season will be different from last season.
Chivas has also lost quite a few players that got minutes last year. Valentin and Braun especially since they were young with promise. Nagamura and Boyens were also pretty established MLS regulars. And several fringe players like Mondaini, Umana, Elliott and Trujillo all gone. With the guys they brought in they'll probably just about break even. Best case scenario they could go from being a bad team to an average team. Unfortunately average doesn't get you far in the Western conference.
I find it funny that all of a sudden we are a bad team, go ahead and keep underestimating us it's alright we are use to it by now.
Your team finished second to last in your conference last year, so it's not as if CUSA being considered a bad team is anything new.
I'm trying not to let the Galaxy in me take over, but Chivas haven't gotten better while Vancouver and Portland have improved substantially. That on top of the Big 4 in the West all holding on to key players and adding depth. Can Chivas make the playoffs? Sure, but they need a couple of teams to falter.
This. Hell, the Revs made 5, maybe 6 changes to their projected starting lineup and they're still expected to come in dead last. When you're really bad one year, teams will expect you to be really bad the next year unless you make drastic changes.