I have found that when I stopped worrying learned to love relenting that, yes, I have regretted it often, but dammit, people sure like me a whole lot more! You do you @Knave. Never change.
That's okay, I've got you covered. DC United has been toast ever since Ben Olsen gave Mastroeni a call asking for coaching advice. TFC looks pretty damn good, probably because they cheat and we're too dumb to figure out how. Chicago is playing some darn good soccer. Something something about blind squirrels... The rest of the league is plodding along or just waking up to the fact that the season just started. Maybe we can add more teams to the playoffs to help this middling group.
I take exception to this. It's just as easy to get three points in April as in September, (maybe even more so,) and the difference between making the playoffs or not, or having a home opener or not, or having a bye or not is three points or fewer more often than not. #springpointsmatter
Consider this, RSL has allowed more goals than DCU, and yet are only 6 points behind San Jose. The WC is rather mediocre this year.
If Hansen replaced Cassar last off-season, with little to no other personnel changes, this RSL team would be competitive for the last playoff spot. And this is not a talented team. It was when the team had only one goal in four games, then lost at Minnesota with an interim coach. Not hard to think there were points available there that Petke could've grabbed, especially with an off-season to mold the team. Instead it's toast.
... The "This Shouldn't Be a Half-Assed Update, But It Is" Update ... Notes Something must be wrong with the spreadsheet. Right? Right? I mean, come on! After Week 22, am I really toasting 4 teams all at once in the same conference? MIN is toast! The Puds are toast! RSL is toast! And LAG is toast! That can't be right. Can it? Is this really for real? @Kappa74 says the season is only now beginning, so I guess we're just imagining this. (This may truly be the season of toast's testing. Then again, do we really think LAG, RSL or COL will make a miraculous run for the playoffs? I won't even ask about MIN.) Housekeeping I can't do a real update now. But tomorrow, after we've digested this craziness a bit, maybe I'll have time. In any event, good thing I posted this thread when I did, right?
Looking at the East, Columbus and Orlando have coordinated slides, keeping all the teams which are below average or even just bad in contention for sixth place. Only the outright terrible United is out.
Wow. Look at the difference in the CD and AD numbers between the top few spots in the East and the West. FCD, who is currently in 1st (by a hair) in the West, needs to earn more PPG than NYRB, who sit in fifth in the East, JUST TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS! I think continued expansion is going to make this format very whacky going forward!
Just remember that bad things come in threes, and who Atlanta plays next. How possible is it that Atlanta could be the source of half of DC's wins?
You've got 5 teams competing for the 6th and final playoff spot in the East. 7 teams competing for all 6 spots in the West. There should be some managerial jobs on the line, but guys like Mastro and Heaps just keep getting a pass. Would Biello and Curtin and Gregg survive no playoffs this year? And I have to wonder what happens to Kreis if Orlando misses the playoffs again.
From outside, I'm really not sure I could put the blame on him alone. For one the East is a bear this year, and their schedule was really front-loaded with home games that might've skewed expectations. And lest I'm mistaken If they miss it through some full-on collapse then maybe, but if they just miss out due to a truly congested field then I'd be remiss to pull the trigger unless you're really sure of who would be Plan B.
Curtin will survive. He'll get until at least the WC break next season. The Union will finish either just above or below the playoff line. Plus Sugarman and Stewart think very highly of Curtin. IMO, Kreis won't survive if Orlando doesn't make the playoffs. They play ugly football, and struggle to score. So what does mgmt do? They go out and get ANOTHER defensive midfielder. Dwyer is not gonna cure their anemic offense. Their fans point to their improved defense, but that is largely due to them parking the bus every game, even at home. At RSL, the team was the star. In NYC and now Orlando, Kreis is struggling to manage stars.... Heaps.....He'll survive. Olsen will get one season in the new digs as well. Pablo will survive as well, just as Robo survives in Vancouver. Berhalter is an interesting case. He doubles as Sporting Director. So if they let him go, it's a complete tear down and restructure/rebuild. I think if anything, they bring in a Sporting Director and give him until the WC Break as coach. Biello will stay. I feel he has a good relationship with Saputo, and he has an old roster, while also playing the kids. I think he's done a great job with what he was given. Plus he didn't get Dzemali until almost June.
All hail @Knave, who can toast 4 teams in a single (self-described) half-assed update! And in August, no less!
The more I look at this table, the crazier it seems. It's like everything wacky that could have happened in one weekend actually, for once, happened.
Five teams in the East fighting for the last spot, the upper ones just jostling for position. Nobody in the West really assured of a spot, but only seven contenders for six spots.
With MLS, usually the top and bottom of the table do not move apart all at once. The results are usually just too variable. But this week they did.