I can see no acceptable excuse for anything otherwise. It's been fun but we can no longer reward failure.
Speaking of that. Does anyone know the latest point in a season that a team has gone from first place overall to missing the playoffs?
Roger, will work on it, though it may take some time... In the meanwhile, perhaps scaryice may already have something on this too?
Alright, here you go: "The list of teams that has gone from first place overall to missing the playoffs in each season." Season Team(s) Last Point as Leaders Eventual Records Remarks 1996-2000 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2001 Tampa Bay Game 3: 2-0-1 04-02-21 (12th/12) Won Wooden Spoon!! 2002 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2003 Columbus Game 4: 2-1-0 10-08-12 (08th/10) Missed Playoffs as 5th/5 teams in the East. 2004 Chicago Game 5: 2-2-1 (3rd) 08-09-13 (10th/10) Won Wooden Spoon 2005 Columbus Game 1: 1-0-0 11-05-16 (10th/12) Missed Playoffs as 6th/6 teams in the East. 2006 K.C. Game 6: 4-1-1 10-08-14 (11th/12) Missed Playoffs as 5th/6 teams in the East. 2007 Colorado Game 2: 1-1-0 (3rd) 09-08-13 (10th/13) Missed Playoffs as out of Top-8 Overall. 2008 Colorado Game 1: 1-0-0 11-05-14 (09th/14) Missed Playoffs as out of Top-8 Overall. 2009 N/A N/A N/A N/A 2010 K.C. Game 2: 2-0-0 11-06-13 (09th/16) Missed Playoffs as out of Top-8 Overall. 2011 Vancouver Game 1: 1-0-0 06-10-18 (18th/18) Won Wooden Spoon!! 2012 Portland Game 1: 1-0-0 08-10-16 (17th/19) Missed Playoffs as 8th/9 teams in the West. 2013* RSL Game 21: 11-4-6 TBC (Season IP) Through Aug-12, 2013: Still Overall Leaders. 2013* Montreal Game 17: 09-4-4 TBC (Season IP) Through Aug-12, 2013: 4th/10 in the East, 7th/19 Overall. 2013* Dallas Game 13: 08-3-2 TBC (Season IP) Through Aug-12, 2013: 7th/9 in the West, 12th/19 Overall. Notes: 1. As of now, the present record for "the latest point in a season that a team has gone from first place overall to missing the playoffs" would be Game 6, by K.C. in 2006. 2. '01 Tampa, '04 Chicago and '11 Vancouver were the only Overall Leaders that have gone from first to last and won the Wooden Spoon!! 3. In 2013, 3 teams (RSL, Montreal & Dallas) have took turn to lead at various points of the season (where standings were normalized to equal number of games played for each team). 4. Through Aug-12, Dallas are out of playoffs picture. If things stands at the end of the season, Dallas will set a new record for missing out despite leading at Game 13 (more than double of the current record)... 5. On the other hand, if Montreal are to miss out as well, the record will be extended to Game 17, almost triple of the current record!!
Through Aug-19, 2013, after the only game between the SS Winners & Runners-up of 2012 (in which S.J. won 1-0), Dallas are now pushed down to 8th/9 in the West, & 14th/19 Overall. They are now in Grave Danger of becoming the FIRST team to lead the SS Race after 10 games, yet miss the playoffs in the end...
Thanks for digging up all the stats. As of this morning FCD are now 8th/9 in the West and 14th/19 overall.
I read this today, "Chris Wondolowski's goal in the 55th minute gave the San Jose Earthquakes a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City that pulled them even with FC Dallas for seventh place in the Western Conference, just three points out of the playoff tier. " Sounds optimistic for SJ that they're only 3 points out of the playoffs. Wait, so are we. And we have a game in hand on them. Oh, but SH is still our coach, Watson is still available for him to substitute in at stupid times, and Seattle is ahead of us and has 2 games in hand on us.
The thing is, San Jose has the best home record in the league. If they could perform even half as well on the road they'd be a lock for a playoff spot, if not a high seed. While we're on the same number of points, can the same really be said of Dallas?
Finally, a long-awaited 1st win in 11 games, bringing them to (surprisingly) within 6 points of West & SS Leaders RSL, with a game in hand... http://www.mlssoccer.com/standings The Playoffs and SS Dreams are still alive!!
I watched the big Seattle v Portland game. Good game, especially for a 1-0 game. Except for a patch in the second half, there was lots of good ball movement and scoring chances. Anyone ever watch non-FCD MLS games and wonder how our games look in comparison? Our FO should look at a Chris Seitz trade to Seattle. Gspurning looked awful - flailing at and missing crosses, spills, bad communication with his defense. The worst performance I've ever seen by a GK in a shutout. I don't understand why some clubs water their grass fields during halftime. I really don't understand why Seattle watered their fake grass field during halftime.
They do it so the ball will move faster along the field surface - it will skip and slide more than the ball catching and rolling and slowing down .
Not to jinx it or anything (I write this at the halftime of the Vancouver/Chivas game with Chivas leading 2-0), but with FCD taking the weekend off the best possible results may have occurred with Portland, Colorado, San Jose and now - possibly - Vancouver all losing. San Jose is probably out of it barring an unlikely run, but the other 4 teams seem most likely to be battling for the last 2 spots, so all in all a good weekend so far. (Come on Chivas for another 45!)
well, I kind of jinxed it as Vancouver comes back to tie, but still, they probably fully expected all 3 points at home v. Chihvas so no bad overall
Should we really REALLY want to win Saturday if making the playoffs means another five (5) years of SH ?
In this league as implausible as it sounds FC Dallas could go on a tear, get hot and win MLS Cup. They almost did it a few years ago. If that happens Hyndman deserves a parade. You could even make a case for how it happens with the additions of Diaz, Eric, Luccin getting healthy, Ferreira showing a spark and maybe the Incident lighting a fire under Cooper. Being a FC Dallas / Burn fan is hard because more likely is the opposite but Lucy is still holding the football and I need to kick it.