General question: Are MLS coaching records anywhere online? Specific question: Is John Ellinger the furthest sub-.500 coach in MLS history? I think he is, but since my access to career records is limited, the table below may be incomplete ... Furthest Sub-.500 Coaches in MLS, Career (W-L-T; shootouts counted as ties) 22 John Ellinger 9-31-9; RSL 05- 16 Bora Milutinovic 4-20-9; NY 98-99 15 Thomas Rongen 70-85-35; TB 96, NE 97-98, DC 99-01, Chv 05 11 Brian Quinn 21-32-23; SJ 97-99 10 Mike Jeffries 26-36-16; Dal 01-03 8 Fernando Clavijo 42-50-22; NE 00-02, Col 05- Current 2006 records: Clavijo 7-6-3; Ellinger 4-9-4
Here's something (through 2002): http://www.soccerhall.org/history/MLS_AllTimeCoachesRegistry.htm Also, I tried to pm you, but your inbox was full.
Mondelo: -14 I don't think anyone's close to Ellinger. The worst MLS team over 2 seasons is only 21 games under .500.
I would think points per game would be a better indicator of coaching success than winning percentage. A coach that draws a lot of games, while not necessarily exciting, could be more successful in PPG than one that has a higher win percentage with less draws.
http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/2006/05/worst-mls-teams-single-season-multiple.html Here's my blog post of worst teams over 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 seasons. So yeah, it's pretty unlikely.
Tangential question ... in your blog post of best teams, how much do things change if you add playoff games? (This is a bit unfair due to strength of schedule, but including them as regular games might still be better than ignoring them altogether.)
I really haven't even considered that. Like in baseball, and other sports here in the USA, the regular season stats are kept separate from the playoffs. Don't think it would change much though.