EDITED: Thanks to UPinSLC and Jasonma below. It's better to use PPG. Observations on the full table standings in Week 9: We're at the 1/4 way mark of a 32-week, 34-game season. The L.A. Galaxy have played nearly a third of their games, with 11, while RSL has only played 6 times. Annoyingly, MLSsoccer.com does not provide full table standings, so here they are, with the MLS table on the left (tie-breaker is goal differential) versus the full table standings using points per game. Code: Team Pts Games Team PPG 1 LAG 17 11 1 RSL 2.5 2 NYRB 15 8 2 NYRB 2 3 RSL 15 6 3 PHI 1.75 4 PHI 14 9 4 POR 1.62 5 COL 14 9 5 CLB 1.62 6 FCD 14 8 6 COL 1.55 7 CLB 13 10 7 FCD 1.55 8 SEA 13 8 8 LAG 1.54 9 POR 13 8 9 HOU 1.33 10 HOU 12 9 10 SEA 1.3 11 DCU 11 9 11 DCU 1.22 12 NER 10 9 12 CHV 1.12 13 TFC 10 10 13 NER 1.11 14 CHV 9 8 14 TFC 1 15 VAN 8 10 15 CHI 0.87 16 CHI 7 8 16 VAN 0.8 17 SJE 6 8 17 SJE 0.75 18 SKC 4 6 18 SKC 0.66 See UPinSLC below for playoff standings:
you cant use points as a table standings right now, it has to be PPG because of the wild variations in the number of games played. just use this to get an idea of what the table would look like, you can easily organize by ppg: http://www.settingthetable.info/home/ West: 1. RSL (highest overall PPG in the league) 2. Portland 3. Colorado East: 1. NY 2. Philly 3. Columbus Wildcards: 7. Dallas 8. LA 9. Houston 10. Seattle im not sure how to decide which wildcards face who. is it FCD vs Seattle and LA vs Houston? if it is actually FCD vs LA for the west wildcard and Houston vs Seattle for the east wildcard. then RSL would play the FCD/LA winner and NY would play the HOU/SEA winner. i think i remember reading that the best overall record in the league will face the winner of the two worst wildcards to make the playoffs. EDIT: actually here it is: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/mls-reveals-expanded-playoffs-structure-2011 so its FCD/SEA and LA/HOU, then the lowest remaining seed will face the SS winner (RSL right now). if SEA wins than SEA faces RSL, if FCD wins and HOU wins, then HOU plays RSL; if FCD and LA win then LA plays RSL.
In 2001, when the season ended with an uneven number of games played, the final standings were done by PPG. So "If the playoffs started now" posts should use PPG.
Of course using PPG puts to bed the "NY and LA are the class of the league" talk. While Javi's absence is still a mystery, right now, if you want to rank the league... 1. Salt Lake (big giant gap) 2. New York (smaller but still sizable gap) 3. a bunch of other teams that no one knows how good they really are
I reckon LA should be on par with NY to say the least. Anything on the contrary would be pure humiliation.
well, for one, statistics would be be contrary. and you cant argue with statistics. right now LA is #8 in ppg, #12 in goals scored per game and tied for #6 for goals allowed per game. there is a very strong misconception right now that LA is playing like a top 3 team in the league, a misconception that is brewed by the sheer number of games that LA has played (and thus are bloating LA's raw numbers in comparison to other teams). this misconception is floated even higher by the fact that LA has a bunch of names on their roster, and thus should be one of the best teams in the league no matter what.
and........? philly is one of 7 teams that have played 8 games, including NY who is 1 point up on philly and columbus who is 1 point back of philly. RSL and KC have only played 6 games each (!!!).
Are you saying that's a good thing or bad thing? We also have played 5 of them at home, which skews the stats in our favor.
The OP also shows each of Sea and Por with 13 points and 8 games but their PPG being vastly different, so something's up with that too (I'm too lazy to go look into it). Edit: I jsut looked it up at the settingthetable site. Seattle has played 10 games and Portland only 8, so the PPG is accurate.
I find it interesting that, at this point in time, the East's sole "wildcard" team is Houston...and they just switched from the Western Conference this year. But, it's too early to be reading much into these things. One win or loss by any team other than RSL at this point swings the positions in the PPG table pretty wildly. And I doubt any team has more than 5 common opponents with any other team at this point in the schedule, so it's hard to make a lot of qualitative judgments about anyone near the middle of the pack, nor about a team like KC that has yet to play a home game.
Home / Away and quality of opposition is an important factor. Those that have played RSL / NY are at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the league. The only thing that I have learned so far is that RSL and NY have had the 2 best starts to the season. And... Portland has shown good home form.
FC Dallas would be the #3 seed in the west, they beat Colorado 3-0 and hold the tiebreaker against Colorado.
So TFC have to jump over NE and DCU + either Houston or Portland for a wildcard spot? Man, we suck, but we might actually have a chance.
Yes. And no. For instance, being a Galaxy fan, I can point out that although our PPG is only 8th in the league, that also consists of 7 away games to only 4 home games, and includes games against both the #1 and #2 PPG teams, and 2 games vs. the #3 PPG team. While we've only 1 game (which on the road) against any of the 4 teams at the bottom of the PPG table. So, while I'd agree that using PPG is more accurate than total points right now, it's still not a valid way to rank the quality of teams, with so few games played yet.
Interesting how one weekend can change things. LA and NYRB are now tied for second in PPG behind RSL, who still have a commanding PPG lead despite the tie this weekend. And I have no doubt all these numbers will change significantly many more times over the season....
On "if the playoffs started today" conversations: Until we get to the last few weeks of the season, the order of teams tied on points on my site is done using 1) goal differential, then 2) total goals. MLS determines it by 1) head-to-head, 2) goal differential, then 3) total goals. I don't think anyone has played an opponent twice yet. Once we get to the last few weeks I'll be ordering tied teams on points based on H2H so it's in line with MLS.
COL and DC are done with their H/A already. And I think there's another pair out there that is complete for 2011. edit: Philly and LAG as well.