Week 28: impact of OT on standings

With 2 games remaining in the season, and the playoff race in the East heating up, it is interesting to note the affect OT has had on the fortunes of the 4 Eastern teams besides Chicago.

MLS makes the rules, so I don't think it is fair to bad-mouth any of the teams that won more often than they lost in OT. Those players just kept on playing.

Some people have claimed that players slow down in the last 10 or so minutes of tied games since they know OT is coming up, and thus the presence of OT affects regulation results. Thus it isn't feasible to create non-OT standings, because "what if my team would have tried harder in regulation instead of waiting for OT to score that miraculous golden goal, huh?" I don't buy it. This isn't the NFL where it takes a half hour to drive down the field. There is no reason not to keep trying to score; a goal in regulation is the same as in OT. And OT is not penalty kicks, it is the run of play, so it isn't as if worse teams bunker all game just waiting for OT. I can see how some players would slow down in stoppage time because the ref is going to blow the whistle at any moment, but that isn't going to affect results that much.

Anyways, here are the results in OT for all 10 teams:

Kansas City 3-0 (+6)
Los Angeles 2-1 (+3)
MetroStars 2-1 (+3)
New England 2-1 (+3)
Chicago 1-0 (+2)
Colorado 1-0 (+2)
San Jose 0-0 (0)
Dallas 0-1 (-1)
Columbus 0-3 (-3)
D.C. United 0-4 (-4)

Looks like KC is leading the OT mini-league.

And here are the standings as they would be without OT (OT wins and losses count as ties):

Eastern
-------
Chicago 28 13-6-9 48
D.C. United 28 10-6-12 42
MetroStars 28 9-7-12 39
New England 28 8-8-12 36
Columbus 28 8-9-11 35

Western
-------
San Jose 28 14-6-8 50
Colorado 28 10-10-8 38
Kansas City 28 7-10-11 32
Los Angeles 28 6-11-11 29
Dallas 28 5-17-6 21

Without OT, DC has clinched a playoff berth while Metro, Revs, and Columbus are all still in the hunt. DC also has a chance to catch Chicago for first place.

Compare the above standings to those on the MLS website, where the Crew look likely to be eliminated, or DC could potentially be knocked out instead. http://mlsnet.com/statistics/

- Paul