Did the same thing in 2005? We were not undefeated this year at "home", only at Buck Shaw. We had that loss to Houston 1-0 very early in the season in San Francisco.
I understand what it represents, and am quite pleased that we recognize regular season excellence. And I have no issue whatsoever with having a mechanism to break a tie when rankings are needed, be it playoff seeding, CCL berths, whatever. But leaving a team off the trophy because of "style points" is pure, unmitigated bullshit.
Oh, yeah, sure, get me on a technicality . That Houston game doesn't count anyway because the Quakes hadn't yet perfected their "embarrassing" style of play by "a bunch of jokes". :--) http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/10/21/galaxys-gonzalez-blasts-quakes-style-embarrassing
Miami Fusion won the 2001 Supporters Shield in its 4th year of existence. I don't know if you can claim that the Quakes were undefeated at home since they lost to Houston at AT&T Park, technically a home game.
Dang, there go both of my claims. Nevermind! I didn't know Miami was an expansion team, though it seems that two years or whatever into the start of a new league should barely qualify as an "expansion" team.
Doh! OK, I'm officially retiring from contributing to Supporter's Shield trivia. "Early MLS" history is not my strong suit.
LA did it last year and San Jose didn't really do it this year. They were undefeated at Buck Shaw (and Stanford) but lost at AT&T Park, which counted as a home game for them. That's why you hear about Houston being only the 4th team ever to end the season undefeated at home, but no one is making that claim for San Jose.
Well I was right to admit I was wrong though, so they kind of cancel each other out, and therefore it doesn't actually count .
To update: as things stand, season 2012 could see 3 teams (S.J. & K.C. already and D.C. potentially) make the 60-point mark, which would be a first in league history. Previous best records were: 2011: 2 teams: L.A. 67 points, Seattle 63 points.2005: 1 team: San Jose 64 points.1998: 1 teams: L.A. 68 points.(NB: All teams were from the West, except K.C. of 2012) However, if SOs were counted as ties, more teams would have made the 60-point league as well: 1999: D.C. 60 points1998: D.C. 61 points1996: T.B. 61 points(NB: All teams were from the East)
Another potentially interesting observation: Since 2006, all SS winners have ended the season with 7 losses, except for '11 L.A. with 5. If previous seasons were counted (incl. '97 D.C. with 7 losses in regulation), the number of SS winners with 7 losses would be 8, out of 16 seasons. (i.e. 50%) Will '12 S.J. be the next addition to this collection of teams?
Interesting Trivia: http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/ussoccerplayers/2012/10/questions-the-gap-in-points.html
Keith Hickey: Are the 2012 Quakes the best Supporters' Shield winners ever? They picked up the trophy for the best regular season record, but where do the 2012 San Jose Earthquakes stack up against history? http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110...re-the-2012-quakes-the-best-supporters-shield Code: Year Team Pts Played W L D Pts p/g For Against GD For p/g Against p/g Avg. GD p/g 1996 TBM 58 32 20 12 - 1.81 66 51 15 2.06 1.59 0.47 1997 DCU 55 32 21 11 - 1.72 70 53 17 2.19 1.66 0.53 1998 LAG 68 32 24 8 - 2.13 85 44 41 2.66 1.38 1.28 1999 DCU 57 32 23 9 - 1.78 65 43 22 2.03 1.34 0.69 2000 KCW 57 32 16 7 9 1.78 47 29 18 1.47 0.91 0.56 2001 MIA 53 26 16 5 5 2.04 57 36 21 2.19 1.38 0.81 2002 LAG 51 28 16 9 3 1.82 44 33 11 1.57 1.18 0.39 2003 CHI 53 30 15 7 8 1.77 53 43 10 1.77 1.43 0.33 2004 COL 49 30 12 5 13 1.63 40 32 8 1.33 1.07 0.27 2005 SJE 64 32 18 4 10 2.00 53 31 22 1.66 0.97 0.69 2006 DCU 55 32 15 7 10 1.72 52 38 14 1.63 1.19 0.44 2007 DCU 55 30 16 7 7 1.83 56 34 22 1.87 1.13 0.73 2008 COL 57 30 17 7 6 1.90 50 36 14 1.67 1.20 0.47 2009 COL 49 30 13 7 10 1.63 41 31 10 1.37 1.03 0.33 2010 LAG 59 30 18 7 5 1.97 44 26 18 1.47 0.87 0.60 2011 LAG 67 34 19 5 10 1.97 48 28 20 1.41 0.82 0.59 2012 SJE 66 34 19 6 8 1.94 72 43 29 2.12 1.26 0.85
By numbers alone, 2012 San Jose didn't even get close to competing with the 1998 LA Galaxy. 70 points (if you count shootouts as draws to make an attempt at an apples to apples comparison) in 32 games, and 85 goals, 44 against for a goal differential of 41. Of course, MLS 1998 was radically different than MLS 2012.
Thats About 2.6 goals per game (and aprox 1.3 goals against per game)... , I don't have the numbers, but they should have a lot of combs that year, isn't it?
Just one, a 4-0 win over the Metrostars on 6-6-96. There was only one other game all year they scored four goals in - a 4-2 win over San Jose on 9-15-96. They spread their goals out remarkably evenly.
MLS: The Official "Comb" Watch https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/mls-the-official-comb-watch.1976476/