Ummm... isn't that exactly why they hope they can win at home, because it's harder to score away? If it wasn't, then teams wouldn't bunker down away and there'd be no need for the away goals rule. Chicken and egg here. Ever hear of sample size? Jesus, statistics should be a mandatory class in everyone's education. Basing a conclusion off of seven events. My head esplode! Not only that, but a guy gave you the official home field percentage from 2007 just a few posts before yours.
What about the "wind-chill" factor? If you take this in to consideration, it evens it out at least. That being said, Chicago should at least get the same consideration of Toronto. If Al Gore is right this won't be a factor in a few years as we will all be on fire.
In soccer, HFA is worth about .4 goals: http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/2008/04/mls-vs-epl-home-field-advantage.html Maybe slightly bigger than other sports, but some huge qualitative difference.
LOL. You Canadians are funny. Chicago and Toronto both have average wind speeds right around 12mph/20kph in March and April.
Attendance is the greatest problem perhaps, very true, lots of people don't have the money to go 3 weeks in a row to a game but would be able to do 3 games in 6 weeks and so on...
i'm not denying that its harder to score away. it just isn't uefa's motivation in the away goals rule.
What I dont like aboubt the schedule is the diffrent amount of games played. Why is there teams that have played two games less than others? If you play 7 games each week it should be possible for every team to have the same amount of games. Right now its often confusing which team really leads the table.
I realize some of this is venue-availability driven, but such an unbalanced mismash of home and away games does little to help build fan interest, imo. Not just for the reason you state, but the reverse of not playing at home for a long time. A consistent two-weekly home game (or as near as possible) is the best way to help build consistent fan interest in a team.
The concept of "games in hand" pops up in basically every soccer league in the world. Whenever you have teams competing in multiple competitions, sometimes in ground-sharing arrangements, building new stadiums, etc., you have some issues like this. Now, last season's setup in which the Galaxy had a completely back-loaded schedule because of Beckham was a farce. But a team having a couple games in hand? Not a big deal at all.
Does every team in Europe play at home every other game, or do they go on 3 game road trips too? I really don't know. I'm just wondering.If they play multiple games on the road in a row then they aren't any different from MLS.
They usually alternate home and away, but obviously it's not mathmatically possible to play every other team home and away without having a few dates when a team plays two games in a row home or away. As for scheduling three games in a row away, I don't think that ever happens in England at least, other than in exceptional circumstances like a team's stadium being rebuilt and not ready at the start of the season etc. And of course postponents due to weather or a cup run could conceivably mean it occurs as well.
Key phrase here. It happens here as well, especially the stadium issue. If all 14 teams controlled their own stadiums, and were primary tenants, then the "road trip" may not be as big of an issue. But they don't and it is. Tough. Everyone gets their 15 home games and 15 away games eventually. Assuming those slated to get stadiums by the WC do (or round abouts), things will be just rosy here with Philly, Houston, SJ, KC and NY (and maybe others) finally being able to control their schedule. It'll help. Does that mean that the Schedule Gods (or, as BSers seem to call them, Idiots) will erase the Road Trip? Eh...who knows, but I doubt it. Road Trips don't seem to have hurt other sports here in the States. But, why should MLS model anything and everything on Europe or anywhere else for that matter? That's a different argument, I suppose though.
BTW, after starting out 10-0-3, home teams have went 4-8-3 since then in MLS play. That brings the overall total for home teams to 14-8-6. If you disregard the ties that means that home teams have won 64% and road teams have won 36%. Getting very close to the home and road winning percentages of the NBA and NFL.
Make that 4-9-3 after last nights result, and 14-9-6 overall. By contrast, in the NBA playoffs so far, the home team has won 15 of the 19 games. That includes a freakish Rockets/Utah series in which the road team has won all 3 of the games. In the other 7 series combined, there has been but a single road victory. And the Rockets failure to win the games at home was due in very large part to the fact that Rafer Alston, their best point guard was injured prior to the series and missed both games. He came back for game 3 and the Rockets promptly won on the road. In a league in which the Wizards lose by 30 on the road, and then go home and beat the same team by 36 just 3 days later, it's ridiculous to hear the claim that it's that much harder to win on the road in soccer than it is in sports like basketball. Bottom line is that the statistics clearly rebuff the thread starter.
Oh, I dunno. The playoffs are too small a sample to compare. If you take the two seasons (this year's NBA and last year's MLS) you get comparable percentages.
As the above poster said, those samples are too small. You need to take a statistics course before you start using them like you know what you are talking about. 19 is far too small, and 29 is not much better. I could flip a coin 20 times and come up with 12 heads and 8 tails and you wouldn't think that that was odd would you? But does that mean that the odds of a coin flip are 60% heads? Actually, for a little experiment, why don't you try that? Flip a coin 20 times and see if it comes up 10 heads and 10 tails. If by some queer chance it does (about 17.6% chance), then try it again, it most likely won't.
I've taken statistics before genius ........ which is why I already quoted information on the NBA, NFL and MLB earlier in this thread in post number 6, using full seasons as a basis. However, your numbers aren't necessarily great either as the NBA plays closer to 3 times as many regular season games than the NBA, meaning that MLS' numbers would tend to be more skewed than the definite trend of the NBA teams at home and flipping a coin and home field advantage are apples and oranges. You can't possibly be arguing that they are the same. Flipping a coin is PURE CHANCE, and an athletic contest is not. Therefore, flipping a coin 20 times isn't nearly a perfect fit with seeing 20 games of people actually out on a field contesting things head to head. The trend during the regular season and playoffs is clear ............. it's tough to win on the road in basketball. And hell, if you are saying that 29 isn't a good basis for making a determination, then I guess that you can throw out each teams home and away statistics in every soccer league, as most play a season of 30-38 games a year, including MLS at 30. Are you prepared to say that you can't make a fair determination of how an MLS team performs away and at home based upon their years worth of games? Again, we are now up to 17 out of 21 games having been won by the home team in the NBA. I am fairly certain that if you took the stats from the last 20 years in the NBA playoffs, they would fall in line with the general rule that 60-65% of the home team wins. Since you asked me to flip the coins, I'll give that to you as YOUR homework. I just want someone to bite the bullet and admit the obvious and documented truth: it isn't significantly harder to win on the road in soccer than it is in almost any other sport, which was the one of the basis' of the thread starters contentions as to why the schedule was so bad for the league.
I'm not sure how much of above was intended for me because most of what you're saying seems to be related to things others have said. And I shouldn't have said "take a statistics course". I should have said comprehend one. And no, even an entire MLS season for one team is not statistically significant. But when determining the champion you are actually taking into account all 210 games played, not just the 30 by one team. Like you said, sports are not pure chance games. But that doesn't change the problem of small sample size. It's a flawed analysis. But I can see that you're going to believer you're right regardless. And I've never debated that it isn't significantly harder to win on the road in soccer. As most studies have born out, the likelihood of a home win is about 60% in any sport.
Home teams are 24-14-10 after 7 weeks. (I didn't count the COR-RSL game last night). That means 61% of wins are by the home team. That's pretty much the same as the NBA and NFL.
Is that really a fair comparison? Seeing as how neither the NBA nor the NFL have draws? Perhaps home non-loss records might give a more accurate statistic...
I'm taking it as a percentage of wins. Home teams in MLS have 61% of the wins in the season. (24/38 wins) If you do it as home team non-loss percentage then MLS teams have a home non-loss percentage of 71% (34/48 games) but that makes no distinction between wins and ties. Right now the home teams have won 24 games, tied 10, and lost 14. Home teams would have that same 71% home non-loss percentage if they had only won 14 games, tied 24, and lost 14.
Home teams: 82 pts Road teams: 52 pts So home teams are taking 61.2% of the points, in addition to being 61% of the wins. So I think 61% will do.