I've been working on breaking down some stats from MLS seasons past, however they're a little bit tough to deal with because of the shall we say 'fluid' nature of MLS from year to year. Because I don't feel like trying to look it up at this point, could someone remind me pre-2000 what the deal was with points for a win and shoot out wins? Was it 3pts for a win? 2pts for a SOW? 4pts for a win? I'm forgetting and would just really appreciate the help.
Probably got that from the PDL/USL. I think if a team scores 3/4 goals or more or wins by 3/4 goals or more they get four points for the win. I'm not sure if thats just PDL or all of the USL's.
The USL doesn't do that any more, last year was the first year without "bonus points." They just have two 10-minute halves of golden goal OT, and an OT loss or win is the same as a loss or win in regulation. And, while FIFA was sort of thinking out loud about such things (i.e., Blatter was running his mouth again), there wasn't an official FIFA experiment.
NASL used 6 pts for a win & 1 point per goal (winner or loser) for first three goals. I forget what the shootout points were, though.
I love hearing about how great the NASL was because of its international caliber players, and how pure the USL is because it's not SEM and has more more of a European club feel, only to find out how wacky some of their rules were and are.
Don't forget about the 35 yard line. Wasn't it like the blue line in hockey? You could only be offsides if you passed it. They also used it for the shoot-outs.