The 2013 Table - Magic Numbers, Tragic Numbers & Other Fishy Figures [R]

Just to expand more details on the Season-on-Season Drop-Offs, both by Points and by Positions:
Largest Drop-offs each Season (By Points and Positions):

Season		By Points	Team		By Positions	Team	Remarks
96-97		-13	T.B.		-4	S.J.	T.B. – Made Playoffs as 2nd in the East, S.J. – Won Wooden Spoon
97-98		-17	K.C.		-9	K.C.	K.C. – Last in the West
98-99		-24	N.Y.		-6	N.Y.	N.Y. – Won Wooden Spoon
99-00		-27	D.C.		-10	D.C.	D.C. – Last in the East, as defending SS Winners
00-01		-34	T.B.		-8	T.B.	T.B. – Won Wooden Spoon
01-02		-16	CHI.		-5	CHI.	CHI. – Made Playoffs as 4th in the East
02-03		-20	DAL.		-8	L.A.	DAL. – Won Wooden Spoon, L.A. - Made Playoffs as 4th in the West
03-04		-20	CHI.		-9	CHI.	CHI. – Won Wooden Spoon, as defending SS Winners
04-05		-11	CLB.		-9	CLB.	CLB. – Last in the East, as defending SS Winners
05-06		-11	N.E.		-4	K.C.	N.E. - Made Playoffs as 2nd in the East
06-07		-8	DAL.		-3	DAL. & CHI.	Both DAL. & CHI. still made Playoffs
07-08		-18	D.C.		-9	D.C.	D.C. – Missed Playoffs, as defending SS Winners
08-09		-18	N.Y.		-7	K.C. & N.Y.	N.Y. won Wooden Spoon
09-10		-18	D.C.		-9	HOU. & CHV.	CHV. – Last in West
10-11		-8	S.J.		-7	N.Y.	N.Y. still made Playoffs
11-12		-13	L.A./DAL.		-9	DAL.	L.A. still made Playoffs and won MLS Cup, as defending SS Winners!
12-13		-42	D.C.		-16	D.C.	D.C. – Won Wooden Spoon

Most "largest drop-off"s by Points:

Team	Drop-offs by Points	Remarks
D.C.	4	All by Themselves!
DAL.	3	(1 shared with L.A.)
N.Y.	2
T.B.	2
CHI.	2
CLB.	1
K.C.	1
N.E.	1
S.J.	1
L.A.	1	(shared with DAL.)

Most "largest drop-off"s by Positions:

Team	Drop-offs by Positions	Remarks
D.C.	3	All by Themselves!
CHI.	3	(1 shared with DAL.)
K.C.	3	(1 shared with N.Y.)
N.Y.	3	(1 shared with K.C.)
DAL.	2	(1 shared with CHI.)
CLB.	1
L.A.	1
S.J.	1
T.B.	1
CHV.	1	(shared with HOU.)
HOU.	1	(shared with CHV.)

Quick Notes:
1. In the 17 cross-seasons examined:
- 12 seasons (70.59%) have seen the same team(s) with largest drop-offs both by points & positions.
- 5 seasons (29.41%) have seen completely different teams with largest drop-offs by points & positions.

2. 2013 is indeed a Record-Breaking Season, with D.C. setting the largest drop-offs by Points (-42) and Position (-16), well done!

3. Unless otherwise stated, most of these teams did suffer from disappointing seasons, either by:
- Winning the Wooden Spoon
- Finishing Last in their Conferences
- Missing the Playoffs
- Being eliminated in early rounds of Playoffs

4. The only exception being L.A. in 2012, who despite the largest drop-off in points (mainly due to an almost record breaking in 2011), not only made the playoffs, but went all the way to win the MLS Cup as well!!

 

@Hachiko should be delighted with another accolade for L.A.,

 

Special Updates for @Knave:

In terms of the Largest Cross-Seasons Drop-off by Points, D.C. currently hold 2 out of the Top-3 Spots:

• Gold: -42 points by 12-13 D.C.
  
• Silver: -38 points by 00-01 T.B. (Minor Correction for @Neuwerld here, )
  
• Bronze: -27 points by 99-00 D.C.

Now, in terms of the Largest Cross-Seasons Drop-off by Positions, D.C. have gone one better by holding all the Top-3 Spots!!!

• Gold: -16 positions by 12-13 D.C.
  
• Silver: -10 positions by 99-00 D.C. too...
  
• Bronze: -9 positions by 07-08 D.C. again!!
  (jointly with a few other teams, i.e. 97-98 K.C., 03-04 CHI., 04-05 CLB., 09-10 HOU. & CHV., and 11-12 DAL.)

 

You started it... Literally

 

"Agent Smith: I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever you want to call it..."

 

Life is suffering, eh?

 

This should offer some comfort:

 

Good catch. 52-14=38. Stupid calculator.

 

At the other side of the coin of the "Largest Drop-offs" by @Neuwerld, was compelled to work out the numbers for the "Lagest Shoot-ups" as well, and here you go!!


Largest Shoot-ups across Seasons, by Points & Positions (SS Standings):

Season		By Points	Team		By Positions	Team		Remarks
96-97		+9	D.C. & COL.		+3	K.C. & COL.		D.C. – Won the SS, COL. – Made MLSC Final, K.C. – Topped the West
97-98		+22	L.A.		+3	L.A. & N.Y.		L.A. – Won the SS
98-99		+14	DAL.		+4	DAL.
99-00		+39	N.Y.		+10	K.C.		K.C. – Won the SS & MLSC, N.Y. – Topped the East
00-01		+16	S.J.		+9	MIA. & S.J.		MIA. – Won the SS, S.J. – Won MLSC
01-02		+20	COL.		+7	COL.
02-03		+16	CHI.		+6	CHI.		CHI. – Won the SS & Made MLSC Final
03-04		+13	DAL.		+7	CLB.		CLB. – Won the SS
04-05		+26	S.J. & N.E.		+7	N.E.		S.J. – Won the SS, N.E. – Topped the East & Made MLSC Final
05-06		+25	CHV.		+6	CHV.		CHV.
06-07		+10	CHV.		+4	CHV.		CHV. – Topped the West
07-08		+20	CLB.		+5	RSL.		CLB. – Won the SS & MLSC
08-09		+15	L.A.		+11	L.A.		L.A. – Topped the West & Made MLSC Final
09-10		+30	N.Y.		+12	N.Y.		N.Y. – Topped the East
10-11		+17	PHI. & D.C.		+6	HOU. & PHI.		HOU. – Made MLSC Final, D.C. – Still Missed Playoffs
11-12		+28	S.J.		+13	S.J.		S.J. – Won the SS
12-13		+23	POR.		+14	POR.		POR. – Topped the West (Playoffs in Progress)

Most "Largest Shoot-Up"s by Points:

Team	Shoot-Ups by Points	Remarks
S.J.	3	(1 shared with N.E.)
CHV.	2	The only team with Largest Shoot-ups in Successive Seasons!!
DAL.	2
L.A.	2
N.Y.	2
COL.	2	(1 shared with D.C.)
D.C.	2	(1 shared with COL., 1 shared with PHI.)
CHI.	1
CLB.	1
N.E.	1
POR.	1
PHI.	1	(1 shared with D.C.)

Most "Largest Shoot-Up"s by Positions:

Team	Shoot-Ups by Positions	Remarks
K.C.	2	(1 shared with COL.)
COL.	2	(1 shared with K.C.)
L.A.	2	(1 shared with N.Y.)
N.Y.	2	(1 shared with L.A.)
DAL.	1
CLB.	1
N.E.	1
CHV.	2
RSL.	1
POR.	1
MIA.	1	(1 shared with S.J.)
S.J.	2	(1 shared with MIA.)
HOU.	1	(1 shared with PHI.)
PHI.	1	(1 shared with HOU.)

Quick Notes:
1. In the 17 cross-seasons examined:
- 14 seasons (82.35%) have seen the same team(s) with largest shoot-ups both by points & positions.
- 3 seasons (17.65%) have seen completely different teams with largest shoot-ups by points & positions.

2. As with the case of the Largest Drop-offs, Canadian teams do not feature among the Largest Shoot-ups too.

3. For @Hachiko’s info, S.J. have the most number of Shoot-ups by Points (3), while several teams (Colorado [to the delight of @JasonMa], K.C., L.A., N.Y.) share the most number of Shoot-ups by Positions (2).

4. Again, for @Hachiko, it is worth noting that Chivas USA were the only team to record the Largest Shoot-Ups in Successive Seasons (2005-06-07), a feat unlikely to be repeated in the seasons to come, ever.

5. The Top-3 records for the Largest Shoot-ups across Seasons, by Points:

• Gold: +39 points by 99-00 N.Y.
• Silver: +30 points by 09-10 N.Y.
• Bronze: +28 points by 11-12 S.J.

(N.Y. occupying the Top-2 spots should be of much dismay to @Knave…
But D.C. will have a chance to top N.Y., if they amass more than 55 points in 2014, for a Shoot-Up of at least 40 pointss between 2013-14, )

6. The Top-3 records for the Largest Shoot-ups across Seasons, by Positions:

• Gold: +14 points by 12-13 POR.
• Silver: +13 points by 11-12 S.J.
• Bronze: +12 points by 09-10 N.Y.

(N.Y. occupying 3rd-spot should be of much dismay to @Knave as well…
Again, D.C. will have a chance to top N.Y., if they finish better than 6th-place overall in 2014, for a Shoot-Up of at least 13 positions between 2013-14, )

7. Unless otherwise stated, most of these teams did enjoy hugely successful seasons, either by:

• Winning the MLS Cup,
• Making the MLS Cup Final,
  
• Winning the Supporters’ Shield,
• Topping their respective Conferences, or:
• At least making the Playoffs after missing it in the previous season(s).

8. The only exception being D.C. in 2011, who remain the one and only team to date to miss the playoffs, despite the largest Shoot-Ups in points from previous season, mainly due to a (worst) records-breaking season in 2010.
(Again, this won’t go down well with @Knave too… )

 

Indeed.

 

The Rapids had a couple of big wins where fans though perhaps they'd turned a corner:

1) June 29 at Montreal: 4-3 win
The Rapids had hit the skids and the season appeared to be getting away from them. They had lost a USOC match 3-1 to Orlando, tied Dallas at home, then lost 3 straight, to San Jose, Chicago and Portland, and now had to face the #1 team in the East on the road.

Instead the Rapids rallied for a big win and there was much rejoicing among Rapids fans. Little did we know this was at the start of a long mediocre run by Montreal (23 points in 22 games including the Rapids game).

2) Oct 5 vs Seattle: 5-1 win
Seattle came in unbeaten in 7 games and this huge win seemed like the Rapids' coming out party. This game started a 4 game Seattle losing streak where they were outscored 12-2. JasonMa started posting "The Rapids broke the Sounders." Unfortunately the Sounders look like they were already broken as the Rapids went back to their good but not great level of play.

 

With the loss to Houston (#9 Seed), N.Y. (as #1 Seed) have also set a new record for the Largest Playoffs Upset in MLS History, topping the previous records of "#8 upset #1 Seed" in 2005, 2009 & 2012:

 

One must be really good to achieve that. Real talent. I am proud!

 

I have a request - can someone put together a table based on how teams did against the 10 playoff teams? If someone has already done that, can they point me in that direction? I don't have the data easily available to do that myself at the moment.

 

Interesting idea!!

Found a related thread on this for 2010:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/playoff-teams-only-table.1575909/

Haven't got anything on other seasons yet... Any one mind help?

 

Yes, for Top-10 only, simiar to:
http://usasoccer.blogspot.sg/2010/10/playoff-teams-only-table.html?m=1

 

All 19 against the top 10. If it's easier just to do the top 10 against each other, that's fine. I would probably have time to do it tomorrow. Your post on the standings minus Toronto / Chivas / DC and particularly how Seattle was affected made me wonder how the playoff teams fared against each other. Seattle's last 7 games included 6 games against playoff teams. They went 0-3-3 in those games. In their first 5 games of the season, they went 0-2-2 against playoff teams (and then beat Colorado in the following game, but I'm going to pick sets to fit my narrative). Obviously, things went a little bit better in the middle part of the season, but that's 10 games against playoff teams that Seattle didn't win.

 

Can't wait!!

Even better if some trendings on this can be derived from the past seasons too (e.g. how many previous MLSC Winners have topped such Standings), though it's a sizeable task...

 

I read somewhere that Seattle had a .5 PPG against either playoff teams, or the 4 other Western Conference teams.. I can't remember which it was though.

 

IMHO, more keen to look at the Top-10 only Standings, being more relevant once the Playoffs Fields were set, as these will form the potential match-ups in playoffs, while the eliminated teams would no longer matter, :-i