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Take Me Out to the Playoffs – Final

Peter C — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:29:37 +0000

The playoff numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
Quarterfinals Totals(both legs)
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	12,736	NA	CHI, COL, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, NE, RBNY
2007	17,041	33.81%	CHI, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY
2008	14,960	-12.22%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY, RSL
2009	20,755	38.74%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, LA, NE, RSL, SEA
2010	17,363	-16.35%	CLB, COL, DAL, LA, RBNY, RSL, SJ, SEA
Semifinals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	21,330	NA	DCU v NE – HOU v COL
2007	20,645	-3.21%	NE v CHI – HOU v KC
2008	17,348	-15.97%	CLB v CHI – RSL v RBNY
2009	23,548	35.74%	LA v HOU – CHI v RSL
2010	22,390	-4.92%	COL v SJ – LA v FCD
Finals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams	Venue
2006	22,427	NA	NE v HOU	Pizza Hut Park, Frisco, TX
2007	39,859	77.73%	NE v HOU	RFK Stadium, Wash DC
2008	27,000	-32.26%	RBNY v CLB	Home Depot Center, LA, CA
2009	46,011	70.41%	RSL v LA	Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
2010	21,700	-52.84%	COL v FCD	BMO Field, Toronto, ONT, CA
Playoff Totals
	Avg	+/-
2006	15,179	NA
2007	19,771	30.25%
2008	16,488	-16.60%
2009	23,559	42.88%
2010	19,535	-17.08%

Observations

As I mentioned last week, the final numbers don’t hold up to last year. 3 of the 5 lowest drawing clubs were in the playoffs this year and the final location, BMO field is a relatively small venue. In addition to no ‘glamour’ teams in the final, the weather was cold, but not as bad as it could have been at this time of year. As I suspected the game was listed as a sellout, but with there were many empty seats come game day. All that being said, the playoff overall total was the 3rd highest in the 15 year history of the league. This bodes well for the future.

The swaths of empty seats in a small stadium was a public relations horror, made worse after half time as many TFC ticket holders left in protest at having to purchase a Cup Final ticket as part of their season ticket renewal. Despite the events of matchday, I’m still in favor of a neutral site for the final. I simply can’t see maximizing the spectacle that the league would like MLS Cup to be if ticket sales and travel plans as well as all the surrounding activities associated with MLS Cup week must be made with less than a week’s notice of where the match would be held.

Caveat: I’ve attended one MLS Cup, the ’08 game at the Home Depot Center. And truth be told, the final was also in the Galaxy ticket package and there were many empty seats at that sellout match, albeit they were on the non-television side of the stadium.

Two firm announcements were made at halftime. The Commissioner confirmed that next year’s 34 game schedule will be balanced. As to the announcement that the playoffs will expand to 10 teams next year, I say why? Just as the playoffs were gaining legitimacy with 50% of the teams qualifiying and the anticipation that less than half would make it in next year, we’re back to what I would call an unwelcome scenario of more than half the teams eligible to win the Cup. I won’t comment on anything else that Don Garber mentioned as none of it was conclusive. Speculation on the new playoff structure, moving the schedule, etc. will be addressed when we know something concrete. I’ll leave the speculation to others.

Final
Rapids claim first Cup on own goal in overtime.
Colorado	2	Undercurrent	21,700
FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

MLS – What’s next

Mon Nov 22
Protected lists released prior to Wednesday’s expansion draft

Wed Nov 24
Portland and Vancouver select 10 players from unprotected lists

Wed Nov 30
The beginning of the process of the re-entry draft, explained here by our own Robert Hay.

MLS Throw Ins

Domestic Cups
	Supporters Shield	MLS Cup	US Open	SuperLiga	Total	Years in MLS
Chicago	1	1	4	0	6	13
Chivas USA	0	0	0	0	0	6
Colorado	0	1	0	0	1	15
Columbus	3	1	1	0	5	15
D.C. United	4	4	2	0	10	15
FC Dallas	0	0	1	0	1	15
Houston(SJ)	1	4	0	0	5	15
Kansas City	1	1	1	0	3	15
Los Angeles	3	2	2	0	7	15
New England	0	0	1	1	2	15
RBNY	0	0	0	0	0	15
Philadelphia	0	0	0	0	0	1
Real Salt Lake	0	1	0	0	1	6
San Jose	0	0	0	0	0	3
Seattle	0	0	2	0	2	2
Toronto	0	0	0	0	0	4
Miami	1	0	0	0	1	4
Tampa Bay	1	0	0	0	1	6

As you can see, I am listing the ‘old San Jose’ accomplishments where they belong(IMO), with the Dynamo. I know the deal was that the Quakes would retain the ‘legacy’ of the original team, but I choose reality, i.e.; the franchise that won the cups resides in Houston.

They Qualified

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League

Los Angeles – Supporters’ Shield – Group Stage
Colorado – MLS Cup Winner: – Group Stage
FCD – MLS Cup Loser – Preliminary Stage
Seattle – US Open Cup – Preliminary Stage

2011 NA SuperLiga – If the tourney is held. You just never know.

Real Salt Lake
RBNY
Columbus
San Jose

And …

The US Women defeated Italy in the first leg of the home and home vs Italy with a spot in the big dance at stake. The second leg is on Saturday in Chicago.

Take Me Out to the Playoffs – Week 3

Peter C — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:03:13 +0000

The playoff numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
Quarterfinals Totals(both legs)
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	12,736	NA	CHI, COL, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, NE, RBNY
2007	17,041	33.81%	CHI, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY
2008	14,960	-12.22%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY, RSL
2009	20,755	38.74%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, LA, NE, RSL, SEA
2010	18,551	-10.62%	CLB, COL, DAL, LA, RBNY, RSL, SJ, SEA
Semifinals Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	21,330	NA	DCU v NE – HOU v COL
2007	20,645	-3.21%	NE v CHI – HOU v KC
2008	17,348	-15.97%	CLB v CHI – RSL v RBNY
2009	23,548	35.74%	LA v HOU – CHI v RSL
2010	22,390	-4.92%	LA v FCD – COL v SJ
Playoff Totals
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	14,455	NA	MLS Cup 2010 Dallas v Colorado Sun, Nov 21, 8:30pm(ET)
2007	17,762	22.88%
2008	14,437	-13.09%
2009	21,314	38.07%
2010	19,319	-9.36%

Observations

People in Colorado finally turned out for the Rapids, even in the cold. More than 17,700. A full house at the Home Depot Center saw Dallas dismantle the Galaxy.

The final numbers won’t hold up to last year. 3 of the 5 lowest drawing clubs were in the playoffs this year and the final location, BMO field is a relatively small venue. Speaking of BMO, in addition to no ‘glamour’ teams in the final, the weather could be dicey. Don’t be surprised if the game is listed as a sellout, but with lots of empty seats come game day. That being said, I think the Dallas/Colorado final could make for an excellent match.

Semifinals

Colorado	1	Undercurrent	17,779
San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer	17,779

Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog	27,000
FC Dallas	3	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	27,000

MLS Cup Final

Dallas v Colorado – Sun Nov 21 8:30pm ET – BMO Field, Toronto, ONT, CA
I’ve lived in Toronto. For those of you travelling to the Cup final, bring your woolies.

MLS Throw Ins

Domestic Cups
	Supporters Shield	MLS Cup	US Open	SuperLiga	Total	Years in MLS
Chicago	1	1	4	0	6	13
Chivas USA	0	0	0	0	0	6
Colorado	0	0	0	0	0	15
Columbus	3	1	1	0	5	15
D.C. United	4	4	2	0	10	15
FC Dallas	0	0	1	0	1	15
Houston(SJ)	1	4	0	0	5	15
Kansas City	1	1	1	0	3	15
Los Angeles	3	2	2	0	7	15
New England	0	0	1	1	2	15
RBNY	0	0	0	0	0	15
Philadelphia	0	0	0	0	0	1
Real Salt Lake	0	1	0	0	1	6
San Jose	0	0	0	0	0	3
Seattle	0	0	2	0	2	2
Toronto	0	0	0	0	0	4
Miami	1	0	0	0	1	4
Tampa Bay	1	0	0	0	1	6

They Qualified

2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League

Los Angeles – Supporters’ Shield – Group Stage
Colorado – MLS Cup Participant: Winner = Group Stage – Loser = Preliminary Stage
FCD – MLS Cup Participant: Winner = Group Stage – Loser = Preliminary Stage
Seattle – US Open Cup – Preliminary Stage

2011 NA SuperLiga – If the tourney is held. You just never know.

Real Salt Lake
RBNY
Columbus
San Jose

And …

After suffering what some are calling the biggest upset in women’s soccer history, the US Women still have a chance to qualify for the Women’s World Cup. They defeated Costa Rica and now must win a home and home vs Italy to earn a spot in the big dance.

Take Me Out to the Playoffs – Week 2

Peter C — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:47:41 +0000

The playoff numbers look like this…

5 year comparison
Conference Semifinals – 2nd Leg
	Avg	+/-	Home Teams
2006	15,938	NA	New England	Dallas	Houston	DC United
2007	19,838	24.47%	New England	Chivas USA	Houston	DC United
2008	19,444	-1.99%	Chicago	Columbus	Houston	Chivas USA
2009	21,526	10.71%	Chicago	Columbus	Houston	Los Angeles
2010	19,871	-7.69%	Salt Lake	Columbus	New York	Los Angeles

Quarterfinals Totals(both legs)
	Avg	+/-	Teams
2006	12,736	NA	CHI, COL, DAL, DCU, LA, NE, RBNY, SJ
2007	17,041	33.81%	CHI, COL, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, NE, RBNY
2008	14,960	-12.22%	CHI, CHV, DAL, DCU, HOU, KC, NE, RBNY
2009	20,755	38.74%	CHI, CHV, CLB, HOU, KC, NE, RSL, SEA
2010	18,551	-10.62%	CLB, COL, DAL, LA, RBNY, RSL, SJ, SEA

Observations

More than 22,800 bought tickets for the Red Bulls/San Jose match. Looked like some didn’t make it to the arena on a damp and chilly Thursday evening. A terrible crowd of under 10,300 on a sunny Saturday in Columbus. A great crowd in Salt Lake, over 19,300. Los Angeles held up its end as their sellout made the LA/Seattle quarterfinal the only one that sold out both legs.

Colorado and Columbus

The Rapids have played 12 home playoff matches. Average attendance: 9,968. Games with under 10,000 in attendance: 7.
Columbus has played 14 home playoff matches. Average attendance: 13,413. Games with under 10,000 in attendance: 2.

Playoff Games – 2nd Leg

RBNY	1	Red Bulls Reader	22,839
San Jose	3	San Jose Center Line Soccer	22,839
San Jose advances – 3-2 aggregate
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra	10,322
Colorado	1	Undercurrent	10,322
Colorado advances – 2-2 aggregate 5-4 PK’s
Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield	19,324
FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	19,324
FC Dallas advances – 3-2 aggregate
Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog	27,000
Seattle	1	Seattle Times	27,000
Los Angeles advances – 3-1 aggregate

MLS Cup Semifinals

Colorado v San Jose – Sat Nov 13

Los Angeles v FC Dallas – Sun Nov 14

MLS Throw Ins

I presume that most of you are aware of the bombardment of bits being written, tweeted and otherwise disseminated about the state of the playoff system in MLS. Much of this crap has taken the form of something like, “The playoffs are a joke”, “Two western teams in the Eastern Conference final”, “We must have a single table”. You get the idea. Even our own Daniel Feuerstein, has chimed in.

I got so tired of seeing this drivel pass my eyes reading #MLS tweets(@SoccerTwit), I simply had to mention it in this post. For I’m sure we’ll see tons more as the week passes leading up to the Colorado/San Jose semifinal, and it’s going to make me even more baffled at the lack of understanding by most of the people spewing out the garbage.

First, as Daniel points out, the SoccerDon(Garber) has already stated that conferences will remain in MLS. Maybe 2, maybe 3, but no single table. And before I have to plug my ears to drown out the cries of Eurosnobs, I would ask… Did the top eight teams make the playoffs? Answer, yes they did.

Will it make it better if we call the first round the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals? That’s what they are. Simple solution. Rename the conferences. Hunt and Kraft, Yin and Yang, Black and White, anything that doesn’t relate to geography. Feel better?

Next, and I’ll bet this will happen, seed the playoffs as we’d all like to see them, i.e.; 1 v 8, 2 v 7, etc. Problem solved with one caveat. I can see the top conference finishers getting the top two seeds, with everyone else seeded 3-8. Just a thought.

If you are interested in reading a few playoff suggestions worthy of your consideration, try Brian Straus’ idea which includes a group play scenario, or Beau Dure’s tweak of the Australian Rules Football Playoff system.

In the meantime, enjoy the playoffs. They’ve been fantastic.

And …

After suffering what some are calling the biggest upset in women’s soccer history, the US Women still have a chance to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 30

Peter C — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:35:05 +0000

The Week 30 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Final Week			YTD		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	20,277	NA	6	15,502	NA	192
2007	20,575	1.47%	7	16,767	8.16%	195
2008	17,338	-15.73%	7	16,460	-1.83%	210
2009	19,916	14.87%	8	16,037	-2.57%	225
2010	17,292	-13.17%	9	16,675	3.98%	240
	2009 season ran 32 weeks

End of Season
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,502	14,175	18.75%	18.75%
2007	16,767	14,655	8.21%	29.74%
2008	16,460	15,188	10.95%	24.76%
2009	16,037	14,686	14.67%	20.44%
2010	16,675	15,332	7.50%	22.50%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,897	95.36%	36,173	17.08%	15	101.90%	35,500
LA Galaxy	20,416	75.61%	21,437	5.00%	15	79.40%	27,000
Toronto	20,344	92.57%	20,453	0.53%	15	93.06%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,252	NA	15	91.24%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,491	49.59%	18,441	47.64%	15	73.21%	25,189
Houston	17,047	75.77%	17,310	1.54%	15	76.93%	22,500
Real Salt Lake	16,375	81.00%	17,095	4.39%	15	88.39%	19,340
Chicago	14,689	73.44%	15,814	7.66%	15	79.07%	20,000
Columbus Crew	14,447	72.23%	14,642	1.35%	15	73.21%	20,000
ChivasUSA	15,092	55.90%	14,575	-3.42%	15	53.98%	27,000
D.C. United	16,088	71.50%	14,532	-9.67%	15	64.59%	22,500
Colorado Rapids	12,331	68.18%	13,329	8.09%	15	73.70%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,732	61.03%	12,987	-5.43%	15	57.72%	22,500
FC Dallas	12,441	58.70%	10,815	-13.07%	15	51.03%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,053	96.81%	10,287	2.32%	15	99.06%	10,385
San Jose	14,114	92.56%	9,659	-31.57%	15	93.78%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

For my calculations, I’ve taken the 3 teams playing in Amercan football stadiums, DCU in RFK, Houston in Robertson and New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacities at 22,500. I took the 22,500 number from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use.

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

San Jose’s 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800. Their 7th match was also at OAC and they drew over 17,100. Their 11th was part of a doubleheader with Barcelona and drew over 61,500.

FC Dallas’ 14th home match in 2009 was part of a doubleheader(Mexico v Colombia), played at the Cotton Bowl, drawing over 51,000.

Observations

A little over 9,600 showed up for the Quakes match that only had seeding implications. They were treated, however to a hat trick by Chris Wondowlowski, setting a single season franchise record of 17 goals. The Red Bulls had 15,800+ for its Thursday match. Disappointing, considering they were playing to clinch the Eastern Division. A terrific turnout in Houston for the season finale. Over 18,000 in DC for Jaime Moreno’s last match for United. An SRO crowd in Kansas City. A good showing in Colorado saw a wild finish. Chivas USA had 14,800 for a meaningless match. Columbus closed out its season with its largest crowd of the year.

Rookie Watch: Tony Tchani had an assist for RBNY. Eric Alexander has an assist for FC Dallas.

Joel Lindpere, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) scored for RBNY. Geoff Cameron scored for Houston.

The 16,675 average attendance is the 3rd highest. It says something about David Beckham’s star power that even with Seattle’s fantastic 36,000+ average, 2007, Beckham’s first season, is still the 2nd highest attendance. And it’s even more astounding since he didn’t arrive until late in the season.

Week 30 Games

San Jose	3	San Jose Center Line Soccer	9,633
Chivas USA	0	Chivas USA – Official Blog	9,633

RBNY	2	Red Bulls Reader	15,866
New England	0	Revolution Soccer	15,866

Houston	2	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz	23,990
Seattle	1	Seattle Times	23,990

DC United	2	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider	18,071
Toronto	3	TFC Connected	18,071

Kansas City	4	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	11,518
San Jose	1	San Jose Center Line Soccer	11,518

Colorado	2	Undercurrent	17,729
Real Salt Lake	2	RSL – Behind the Shield	17,729

Chivas USA	1	Chivas USA – Official Blog	14,825
Chicago	4	Chicago Fire Confidential	14,825

Columbus	3	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra	19,006
Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk	19,006

Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog	24,993
FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	24,993

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	30	18	5	7	44	26	1.47	0.87	1.97	59	18
Real Salt Lake	30	15	11	4	45	20	1.50	0.67	1.87	56	25
NY Red Bull	30	15	6	9	38	29	1.27	0.97	1.70	51	9
Dallas	30	12	14	4	42	28	1.40	0.93	1.67	50	14
Columbus	30	14	8	8	40	34	1.33	1.13	1.67	50	6
Seattle	30	14	6	10	39	35	1.30	1.17	1.60	48	4
Colorado	30	12	10	8	44	32	1.47	1.07	1.53	46	12
San Jose	30	13	7	10	34	33	1.13	1.10	1.53	46	1
Kansas City	30	11	6	13	36	35	1.20	1.17	1.30	39	1
Chicago	30	9	9	12	37	38	1.23	1.27	1.20	36	-1
Toronto FC	30	9	8	13	33	41	1.10	1.37	1.17	35	-8
Houston	30	9	6	15	40	49	1.33	1.63	1.10	33	-9
New England	30	9	5	16	32	50	1.07	1.67	1.07	32	-18
Philadelphia	30	8	7	15	35	49	1.17	1.63	1.03	31	-14
Chivas USA	30	8	4	18	31	45	1.03	1.50	0.93	28	-14
DC United	30	6	4	20	21	47	0.70	1.57	0.73	22	-26

Well, the final weekend didn’t hold the interest of past seasons, as for the first time in a while, all playoff teams were decided last week. This week was for seeding and the Supporters’ Shield.

Colorado finishes above San Jose because of goal differential after they split their two matches. Same for Dallas over Columbus except they drew both games. Overall goal differential determines the standings after head to head.

KC missed the playoffs by seven points. That’s the largest gap since the league returned to 2 conferences in 2002.

Down the Stretch(ordered since Sep 1)

Points per game since
the All-Star Game			Sep 1
	GP	PPG	GP	PPG
Los Angeles	12	1.583	8	2.000
Salt Lake	13	1.923	8	2.000
Seattle	12	2.167	8	2.000
NY Red Bull	14	1.786	8	1.750
San Jose	15	1.533	10	1.700
Colorado	14	1.643	9	1.667
Dallas	14	1.714	9	1.444
Kansas City	14	1.643	9	1.444
Houston	13	1.077	8	1.250
New England	15	1.200	9	1.222
Philadelphia	16	1.063	9	1.222
Chicago	16	1.188	11	1.091
Toronto	14	0.857	9	0.889
DC United	13	0.769	8	0.875
Columbus	13	1.231	7	0.857
Chivas USA	14	0.929	9	0.667

Random Notes

5 teams finished with 50 or more points.
3 teams won at least 15 games. Last time was 2007.
RSL and Dallas lost 4 games, the fewest ever in a 30 game season. San Jose lost 4 in a 32 game season in ’05.
The season ends with Jamie Moreno as the all time leading goal scorer with 133. Jeff Cunningham has 132.
Chris Wondolowski, getting his shot due to injury, wins the Golden Boot for most goals in the 2010 season.
Donovan leads the league in assists, despite missing time for the World Cup.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 25 regular season home games, an MLS record.
RSL are unbeaten in their last 14 MLS games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 10 league home games.
Seattle are unbeaten in their last 7 league home games.

MLS Throw Ins

There were 58 draws in 240 matches compared to 69 in all of ’09(225 matches).
There were 147 clean sheets in 2010, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Goal scoring was down around 2.6% from 2009, 2.46 vs 2.53.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 45 home league matches(3 seasons).
Houston lost only one home game in ’08 and in ’09. They lost 6 at home this year.
DC United yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
DC United set a MLS record, being shut out 17 times in one season.

CONCACAF Champions League

RSL and Columbus are thru to the quarterfinals. RSL finish 1st in Group A, Columbus 2nd in Group B. Seattle assured its place in next year’s CCL by winning the US Open Cup. Los Angeles joins Seattle in next year’s tourney as Supporters’ Shield winner.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 29

Peter C — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:29:37 +0000

The Week 29 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 29			Thru Week 29		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	20,277		6	15,502		192
2007	20,575	1.47%	7	16,767	8.16%	195
2008	17,338	-15.73%	7	16,460	-1.83%	210
2009	22,165	27.84%	7	15,878	-3.53%	205
2010	20,048	-9.55%	9	16,651	4.87%	231

Thru Week 29
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,502	14,175	18.75%	18.75%
2007	16,767	14,655	8.21%	29.74%
2008	16,460	15,188	10.95%	24.76%
2009	15,878	14,534	15.61%	19.51%
2010	16,651	15,124	7.36%	22.51%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,897	95.36%	36,173	17.08%	15	101.90%	35,500
LA Galaxy	19,946	73.87%	21,183	6.20%	14	78.45%	27,000
Toronto	20,344	92.57%	20,453	0.53%	15	93.06%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,252	NA	15	91.24%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	11,861	47.09%	18,625	57.03%	14	73.94%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,375	81.00%	17,095	4.39%	15	88.39%	19,340
Houston	16,160	71.82%	16,833	4.16%	14	74.81%	22,500
Chicago	14,689	73.44%	15,814	7.66%	15	79.07%	20,000
ChivasUSA	15,132	56.05%	14,557	-3.80%	14	53.92%	27,000
Columbus Crew	14,279	71.39%	14,330	0.36%	14	71.65%	20,000
D.C. United	16,075	71.44%	14,279	-11.17%	14	63.46%	22,500
Colorado Rapids	12,031	66.52%	13,014	8.18%	14	71.96%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,732	61.03%	12,987	-5.43%	15	57.72%	22,500
FC Dallas	12,441	58.70%	10,815	-13.07%	15	51.03%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,030	96.58%	10,199	1.69%	14	98.21%	10,385
San Jose	14,478	92.80%	9,661	-33.27%	14	93.80%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

FC Dallas’ 14th home match in 2009 was part of a doubleheader(Mexico v Colombia), played at the Cotton Bowl, drawing over 51,000.

Observations

Chicago had 12,200+ for a Tuesday matchup that ran at the same time as a USMNT match. Seattle, for the 2nd season in a row, set the home attendance record, after 36,000+ show up for the regular season home finale. Minority owner Drew Carey mentioned how the Sounders will be looking at ways to expand the capacity again for next year. Terrific weekend crowds. Over 19,000 in Chicago for Brian McBride’s last home game. More than 18,000 in Toronto, Philadelphia and New England. Salt Lake set a home game attendance record with a SRO turnout of 20,236. San Jose also had a SRO crowd. And finally, the Galaxy reported a sellout for the 2nd home game in a row.

Rookie Watch: Teal Bunbury had a goal and assist for Kansas City.

Kei Kamara, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) had an assist for Kansas City.

Week 29 Games

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential	12,230
Kansas City	2	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	12,230

Seattle	2	Seattle Times	36,356
Chivas USA	1	Chicago Fire Confidential	36,356

Toronto	2	TFC Connected	18,084
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra	18,084

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential	19,056
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider	19,056

Philadelphia	2	Philadelphia Union Talk	18,578
RBNY	1	Red Bulls Reader	18,578

New England	1	Revolution Soccer	18,298
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	18,298

Real Salt Lake	2	RSL – Behind the Shield	20,236
FC Dallas	0	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	20,236

San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer	10,597
Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz	10,597

Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog	27,000
Colorado	3	Undercurrent	27,000

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	29	17	5	7	42	25	1.45	0.86	1.93	56	17
Real Salt Lake	29	15	10	4	43	18	1.48	0.62	1.90	55	25
Dallas	29	12	14	3	41	26	1.41	0.90	1.72	50	15
Seattle	29	14	6	9	38	33	1.31	1.14	1.66	48	5
NY Red Bull	29	14	6	9	36	29	1.24	1.00	1.66	48	7
Columbus	29	13	8	8	37	33	1.28	1.14	1.62	47	4
Colorado	29	12	9	8	42	30	1.45	1.03	1.55	45	12
San Jose	28	12	7	9	30	29	1.07	1.04	1.54	43	1
Kansas City	29	10	6	13	32	34	1.10	1.17	1.24	36	-2
Chicago	29	8	9	12	33	37	1.14	1.28	1.14	33	-4
Toronto FC	29	8	8	13	30	39	1.03	1.34	1.10	32	-9
New England	29	9	5	15	32	48	1.10	1.66	1.10	32	-16
Philadelphia	29	8	7	14	34	46	1.17	1.59	1.07	31	-12
Houston	29	8	6	15	38	48	1.31	1.66	1.03	30	-10
Chivas USA	28	8	4	16	30	38	1.07	1.36	1.00	28	-8
DC United	29	6	4	19	19	44	0.66	1.52	0.76	22	-25

It was a weekend of failure. First Kansas City lost the early game on Saturday, eliminating themselves from their slim playoff hopes. Then Philadelphia denied RBNY the Eastern Conference clinching win, and finally the Galaxy failed to clinch the West, losing to the Rapids at home.

Seattle sits above RBNY because of its head to head advantage, whereas New England and Toronto split their two games, overall goal differential determines the standings after head to head.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 25 regular season home games, an MLS record.
RSL are unbeaten in their last 13 MLS games.
Dallas’ unbeaten run ended at 19 games, losing to RSL.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 57 draws thru the first 231 matches compared to 69 in all of ’09.
There have been 145 clean sheets in the first 231 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 231 games: goal scoring is down around 4.7% from 2009, 2.41 vs 2.53.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 45 home league matches(3 seasons).
Houston lost only one home game in ’08 and in ’09. They’ve lost 6 at home this year.
DC United have yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
DC United set a MLS record, being shut out 17 times in one season.
The Philadelphia Union are the best in not allowing late goals(as a percentage of total goals allowed). Interestingly, the are also the best at scoring late goals.

CONCACAF Champions League

RSL are thru to the quarterfinals. Columbus controls its own destiny and a win at Joe Public will send them thru. Toronto and Seattle are eliminated. Seattle assured its place in next year’s CCL by winning the US Open Cup.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 28

Peter C — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:24:02 +0000

The Week 28 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 28			Thru Week 28		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	19,097		6	15,348		186
2007	19,419	1.68%	6	16,636	8.39%	187
2008	16,219	-16.48%	7	16,396	-1.44%	188
2009	13,381	-17.50%	8	15,656	-4.51%	198
2010	15,013	12.20%	8	16,513	5.47%	222

Thru Week 28
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,348	13,866	19.35%	18.82%
2007	16,636	15,059	8.56%	28.34%
2008	16,396	15,037	11.17%	25.00%
2009	15,656	14,479	16.16%	18.69%
2010	16,513	15,050	7.66%	22.07%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,739	94.87%	36,160	17.64%	14	101.86%	35,500
LA Galaxy	19,812	73.38%	20,735	4.66%	13	76.80%	27,000
Toronto	20,324	92.47%	20,622	1.47%	14	93.83%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,301	NA	14	90.67%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	11,861	47.09%	18,625	57.03%	14	73.94%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,211	79.94%	16,870	4.07%	14	87.23%	19,340
Houston	16,160	71.82%	16,833	4.16%	14	74.81%	22,500
Chicago	14,300	71.50%	15,841	10.77%	13	79.20%	20,000
ChivasUSA	15,132	56.05%	14,557	-3.80%	14	53.92%	27,000
Columbus Crew	14,279	71.39%	14,330	0.36%	14	71.65%	20,000
D.C. United	16,075	71.44%	14,279	-11.17%	14	63.46%	22,500
Colorado Rapids	12,031	66.52%	13,014	8.18%	14	71.96%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,422	59.65%	12,607	-6.07%	14	56.03%	22,500
FC Dallas	12,441	58.70%	10,815	-13.07%	15	51.03%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,030	96.58%	10,199	1.69%	14	98.21%	10,385
San Jose	14,782	92.33%	9,589	-35.13%	13	93.10%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

FC Dallas’ 14th home match in 2009 was part of a doubleheader(Mexico v Colombia), played at the Cotton Bowl, drawing over 51,000.

Observations

Philadelphia drew its biggest crowd of the year at PPL for the Gals visit. The Fire pulled in 15,100+ for a Friday night tilt. A good, but still disappointing 20,800+ in Harrison for a visit by RSL. In Dallas, well, it’s Dallas. Just over 10,100 saw FCD break the single season record for games without a loss. Mmmm, I know the 5th largest city in the country, with no pro soccer team at any level, would welcome a struggling team. A pretty good crowd in DC, considering the season they’re having, 14,800+. Kansas City drew standing room only, 11,500+. Chivas USA had 12,400+ for its meaningless match vs TFC. A terrific count of nearly 16,500 for a Sunday evening match in Houston, showing what a good soccer town it is.

Rookie Watch: No rookie scorers this week. Of the games I watched, only Tim Ream’s performance for RBNY stood out in my mind. Michael Stephens started out strong for LA but seemed to fade as the match vs Philadelphia wore on. Feel free to express your rookie observations in the comment section.

Week 28 Games

Philadelphia	0	Philadelphia Union Talk	18,779
Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog	18,779

Chicago	2	Chicago Fire Confidential	15,124
Columbus	0	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra	15,124

RBNY	0	Red Bulls Reader	20,829
Real Salt Lake	0	RSL – Behind the Shield	20,829

FC Dallas	2	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick	10,119
Colorado	2	Undercurrent	10,119

DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider	14,822
San Jose	2	San Jose Center Line Soccer	14,822

Kansas City	1	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road	11,522
Seattle	2	Seattle Times	11,522

Chivas USA	3	Chicago Fire Confidential	12,426
Toronto	0	TFC Connected	12,426

Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz	16,479
New England	2	Revolution Soccer	16,479

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	28	17	5	6	41	22	1.46	0.79	2.00	56	19
Real Salt Lake	28	14	10	4	41	18	1.46	0.64	1.86	52	23
Dallas	28	12	14	2	41	24	1.46	0.86	1.79	50	17
NY Red Bull	28	14	6	8	35	27	1.25	0.96	1.71	48	8
Columbus	28	13	7	8	35	31	1.25	1.11	1.64	46	4
Seattle	28	13	6	9	36	32	1.29	1.14	1.61	45	4
San Jose	27	12	7	8	30	28	1.11	1.04	1.59	43	2
Colorado	28	11	9	8	39	29	1.39	1.04	1.50	42	10
Kansas City	27	9	6	12	30	33	1.11	1.22	1.22	33	-3
Chicago	27	8	8	11	33	35	1.22	1.30	1.19	32	-2
Toronto FC	28	8	7	13	28	37	1.00	1.32	1.11	31	-9
New England	28	8	5	15	31	48	1.11	1.71	1.04	29	-17
Chivas USA	27	8	4	15	29	36	1.07	1.33	1.04	28	-7
Philadelphia	28	7	7	14	32	45	1.14	1.61	1.00	28	-13
Houston	28	7	6	15	37	48	1.32	1.71	0.96	27	-11
DC United	28	6	3	19	19	44	0.68	1.57	0.75	21	-25

Columbus and RBNY were officially eliminated from the Supporters’ Shield chase this week. At the other end of the playoff table, KC is the only team with a mathematical chance of crashing the party. All that needs to happen is for them to win their remaining three matches(@CHI, @NE, SJ) and the Rapids to lose their last two games(@LA, RSL).

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 24 regular season home games, an MLS record.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 19 games, a single season MLS record.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 11 road games, an MLS record.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 55 draws compared to 69 in ’09 thru the first 222 matches.
There have been 139 clean sheets in the first 222 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 222 games: goal scoring is down around 4.3% from 2009, 2.42 vs 2.53.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 44 home league matches.
Houston lost only one home game in ’08 and in ’09. They’ve lost 6 at home this year.
DC United have yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
DC United set a MLS record, being shut out 16 times in one season.
The Philadelphia Union are the best in not allowing late goals(as a percentage of total goals allowed). Interestingly, the are also the best at scoring late goals.

CONCACAF Champions League

RSL are thru to the quarterfinals. Columbus controls its own destiny and a win at Joe Public will send them thru. Toronto and Seattle are eliminated. Seattle or Columbus could assure its place in next year’s CCL with a win in the US Open Cup final this week.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 27

Peter C — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:58:24 +0000

The Week 27 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 27			Thru Week 27		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	18,083		6	15,116		180
2007	18,241	0.87%	7	16,593	9.77%	181
2008	15,291	-16.17%	7	16,946	2.13%	181
2009	16,844	10.15%	7	15,748	-7.07%	190
2010	17,636	4.70%	10	16,569	5.22%	214

YTD
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,223	13,585	20.00%	17.22%
2007	16,544	15,033	8.29%	27.07%
2008	16,403	15,038	11.05%	24.86%
2009	15,752	14,525	15.26%	18.95%
2010	16,569	15,050	7.94%	22.43%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,739	94.87%	36,160	17.64%	14	101.86%	35,500
LA Galaxy	19,812	73.38%	20,735	4.66%	13	76.80%	27,000
Toronto	20,308	92.40%	20,622	1.55%	14	93.83%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,341	NA	13	89.96%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	11,929	47.36%	18,455	54.71%	13	73.27%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,211	79.94%	16,870	4.07%	14	87.23%	19,340
Houston	16,107	71.59%	16,860	4.67%	13	74.93%	22,500
Chicago	14,113	70.56%	15,901	12.67%	12	79.50%	20,000
ChivasUSA	15,349	56.85%	14,721	-4.09%	13	54.52%	27,000
Columbus Crew	14,279	71.39%	14,330	0.36%	14	71.65%	20,000
D.C. United	15,452	68.67%	14,237	-7.86%	13	63.28%	22,500
Colorado Rapids	12,031	66.52%	13,014	8.18%	14	71.96%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,422	59.65%	12,607	-6.07%	14	56.03%	22,500
FC Dallas	12,241	57.76%	10,865	-11.24%	14	51.27%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,022	96.50%	10,097	0.76%	13	97.23%	10,385
San Jose	14,782	92.33%	9,589	-35.13%	13	93.10%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

Observations

Colorado had a mostly invisible 10,100+ for its midweek game. San Jose drew over 9,800+ midweek. Seattle had its usual 36,000+. The Union pulled in 16,100+. That’s OK, but I was expecting Philadelphia to have close to sellouts in its new home. Columbus had 10,800+ show up in the rain. A surprising 18,100+ were at Gillette for the Revs. Does this mean that RSL is a draw? Almost 24,800 saw the Red Bulls take over first place in the East. Streaking Dallas can’t draw no matter how well they do, as only 10,615 were at PHP. No comments about the Texas/Oklahoma football game please. Colorado had 15,400+ come out, it’s 4th largest gate. Chivas USA easily had it largest crowd, over 24,200 for the Galaxy match.

With his next goal, Jeff Cunningham will become MLS’s all time leading goal scorer, surpassing Jaime Moreno.

Rookie Watch: Jack McInerney scored for the Union. Steve Kinney broke Chicago’s 400 minutes scoreless string with his first MLS goal. Andy Najar assisted on DC United’s game winner vs Colorado.

Week 27 Games

Colorado	4	Undercurrent
Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk

San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Chicago	3	Chicago Fire Confidential

Seattle	3	Seattle Times
Toronto	2	TFC Connected

Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk
Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz

Columbus	0	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer

New England	1	Revolution Soccer
Real Salt Lake	2	RSL – Behind the Shield

RBNY	1	Red Bulls Reader
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road

FC Dallas	3	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

Colorado	0	Undercurrent
DC United	1	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider

Chivas USA	1	Chicago Fire Confidential
Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	27	16	5	6	40	22	1.48	0.81	1.96	53	18
Real Salt Lake	27	14	9	4	41	18	1.52	0.67	1.89	51	23
Dallas	27	12	13	2	39	22	1.44	0.81	1.81	49	17
NY Red Bull	27	14	5	8	35	27	1.30	1.00	1.74	47	8
Columbus	27	13	7	7	35	29	1.30	1.07	1.70	46	6
Seattle	27	12	6	9	34	31	1.26	1.15	1.56	42	3
Colorado	27	11	8	8	37	27	1.37	1.00	1.52	41	10
San Jose	26	11	7	8	28	28	1.08	1.08	1.54	40	0
Kansas City	26	9	6	11	29	31	1.12	1.19	1.27	33	-2
Toronto FC	27	8	7	12	28	34	1.04	1.26	1.15	31	-6
Chicago	26	7	8	11	31	35	1.19	1.35	1.12	29	-4
Philadelphia	27	7	7	13	32	44	1.19	1.63	1.04	28	-12
Houston	27	7	6	14	36	46	1.33	1.70	1.00	27	-10
New England	27	7	5	15	29	47	1.07	1.74	0.96	26	-18
Chivas USA	26	7	4	15	26	36	1.00	1.38	0.96	25	-10
DC United	27	6	3	18	19	42	0.70	1.56	0.78	21	-23

Columbus faded from the Supporters’ Shield race by winning just once in its last 6 league matches(scoreless in their last 3 home games). Seattle has overcome its slow start and lost only once in 12 league matches. Toronto, which started the season undefeated in its first 10 home games, has lost 3 and drawn 1 in its last 4 at BMO. Colorado had a chance to clinch its first playoff spot since ’06, but lost to league bottom dwellers DC United at home. While they appear safe to make the playoffs, it must be causing some anxiety as they missed the ’08 playoffs by 1 point and draw on closing day and by tiebreaker in ’09 with a loss on closing day. Kansas City has shown they are not quite ready for prime time, losing to the Red Bulls and Dallas in their last two, and squandering their games in hand over the teams they are chasing for a playoff spot.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 24 regular season home games, an MLS record.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 18 games, a single season MLS record.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 11 road games, an MLS record.
New England are winless in their last 11 road games.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 53 draws compared to 66 in ’09 thru the first 214 matches.
There have been 133 clean sheets in the first 214 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 214 games: goal scoring is down around 3.2% from 2009, 2.43 vs 2.50.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 44 home league matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.
DC United have yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
The Philadelphia Union are the best in not allowing late goals(as a percentage of total goals allowed). Interestingly, the are also the best at scoring late goals.

CONCACAF Champions League

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 26

Peter C — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:21:50 +0000

The Week 26 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 26			Thru Week 26		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	15,419		7	15,014		174
2007	23,104	49.84%	7	16,475	9.73%	174
2008	16,948	-26.64%	6	16,448	-0.16%	174
2009	14,973	-11.65%	8	15,748	-4.26%	183
2010	16,022	7.01%	10	16,517	4.88%	204

YTD
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,014	13,196	20.69%	16.67%
2007	16,475	15,008	8.62%	26.44%
2008	16,448	15,188	11.49%	24.71%
2009	15,748	14,516	15.85%	19.13%
2010	16,517	14,935	7.84%	22.06%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,587	94.40%	36,167	18.24%	13	101.88%	35,500
LA Galaxy	19,812	73.38%	20,735	4.66%	13	76.80%	27,000
Toronto	20,308	92.40%	20,622	1.55%	14	93.83%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,609	NA	12	90.16%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,070	47.92%	17,927	48.52%	12	71.17%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,211	79.94%	16,870	4.07%	14	87.23%	19,340
Houston	16,107	71.59%	16,860	4.67%	13	74.93%	22,500
Chicago	14,113	70.56%	15,901	12.67%	12	79.50%	20,000
Columbus Crew	14,272	71.36%	14,597	2.28%	13	72.98%	20,000
D.C. United	15,452	68.67%	14,237	-7.86%	13	63.28%	22,500
ChivasUSA	15,551	57.60%	13,925	-10.46%	12	51.57%	27,000
Colorado Rapids	12,614	69.75%	13,046	3.42%	12	72.14%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,432	59.70%	12,183	-9.30%	13	54.14%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,258	43.69%	10,884	17.56%	13	51.36%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,022	96.50%	10,097	0.76%	13	97.23%	10,385
San Jose	15,137	91.82%	9,569	-36.78%	12	92.90%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

Observations

The week began with Dallas’ return to form, under 7,500 coming out to PHP. Kansas City fell shy of selling out, with just under 9,700 coming out for its midweek tilt. The Galaxy had its 2nd sellout of the season for the battle of the DP’s. Philly drew a good crowd of over 16,400, but I was still expecting closer to sellouts for the Union. Toronto had its normal 20,000+, but with its playoff hopes fading for the 4th year in a row, it will be interesting to see how it draws for its last home game of the season. Over 13,800 came to RFK to see DC United. I guess that’s not too bad considering the team’s performance this year. The Revs had a typical crowd of 13,500+. Chicago had a very decent turnout of just under 17,500. The Wizards sold out. A terrific crowd came to Rio Tinto for the Rocky Mountain Cup match, 18,300+.

Rookie Watch: Teal Bunbury scored this week. Andy Najar scored for DC United.

Kei Kamara and Ryan Smith, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) scored for KC v Houston. Smith also scored vs Dallas. Joel Lindpere had a fine match for RBNY v the Galaxy. Geoff Cameron, back from injury, scored for Houston.

Week 26 Games

FC Dallas	2	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
New England	2	Revolution Soccer

Kansas City	4	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
Houston	3	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz

Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog
RBNY	2	Red Bulls Reader

Philadelphia	3	Philadelphia Union Talk
Chivas USA	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

Toronto	2	TFC Connected
San Jose	3	San Jose Center Line Soccer

DC United	1	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Houston	3	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz

New England	2	Revolution Soccer
Columbus	2	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential
Seattle	1	Seattle Times

Kansas City	1	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
FC Dallas	3	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield
Colorado	1	Undercurrent

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	26	15	5	6	38	21	1.46	0.81	1.92	50	17
Real Salt Lake	26	13	9	4	39	17	1.50	0.65	1.85	48	22
Dallas	26	11	13	2	36	22	1.38	0.85	1.77	46	14
Columbus	26	13	6	7	35	29	1.35	1.12	1.73	45	6
NY Red Bull	26	13	5	8	34	27	1.31	1.04	1.69	44	7
San Jose	24	11	6	7	28	25	1.17	1.04	1.63	39	3
Seattle	26	11	6	9	31	29	1.19	1.12	1.50	39	2
Colorado	25	10	8	7	33	25	1.32	1.00	1.52	38	8
Kansas City	25	9	6	10	29	30	1.16	1.20	1.32	33	-1
Toronto FC	26	8	7	11	26	31	1.00	1.19	1.19	31	-5
Philadelphia	25	7	6	12	30	39	1.20	1.56	1.08	27	-9
Chicago	24	6	8	10	28	32	1.17	1.33	1.08	26	-4
Houston	26	7	5	14	35	45	1.35	1.73	1.00	26	-10
New England	26	7	5	14	28	45	1.08	1.73	1.00	26	-17
Chivas USA	25	7	4	14	25	34	1.00	1.36	1.00	25	-9
DC United	26	5	3	18	18	42	0.69	1.62	0.69	18	-24

Do we now have a 5 team race for the Supporters’ Shield? The top five teams, all with 4 games remaining, are separated by 6 points. Los Angeles and Dallas play on the last weekend of the season. And if San Jose were to win its 2 games in hand, they would join the party. KC lost an opportunity to draw closer to the playoffs with their home loss to Dallas. DC United appears to have all but locked up the 3rd pick in next year’s SuperDraft.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 24 regular season home games, an MLS record.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 17 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 11 road games, an MLS record.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 9 home games.
New England are winless in their last 11 road games.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 51 draws compared to 63 in ’09 thru the first 204 matches.
There have been 127 clean sheets in the first 204 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 204 games: goal scoring is down around 5.0% from 2009, 2.42 vs 2.54.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 44 home league matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.
DC United have yielded 17 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
San Jose has gone from one the worst allowing late goals in ’09 to the 3rd stingiest in ’10(as a percentage of total goals allowed).

CONCACAF Champions League

Toronto came away with a draw at Cruz Azul, while Seattle gave up a surprising 2 goal lead after 70 minutes, giving up 3 goals in 4 minutes to Monterrey. Too bad, because despite their previous 3 losses, with Saprissa’s loss, the Sounders actually had a chance to advance had they held on to the lead. RSL and Columbus lead their respective groups.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 25

Peter C — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:11:57 +0000

The Week 25 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 25			194 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	12,373		8	16,126		14,997		167
2007	18,809	52.02%	8	16,743	3.83%	16,251	8.36%	167
2008	15,671	-16.68%	7	16,336	-2.43%	17,015	4.70%	168
2009	10,176	-35.06%	3	15,737	-3.67%	16,597	-2.45%	175
2010	15,378	51.11%	8	16,573	5.32%	16,573	-0.14%	194

YTD – 194 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	16,126	14,648	13.47%	24.09%
2007	16,743	15,321	8.25%	29.38%
2008	16,336	15,030	11.34%	24.74%
2009	15,737	14,573	15.46%	19.07%
2010	16,573	14,935	7.22%	22.16%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,587	94.40%	36,167	18.24%	13	101.88%	35,500
Toronto	20,278	92.26%	20,665	1.91%	13	94.03%	21,978
LA Galaxy	19,912	73.75%	20,213	1.51%	12	74.86%	27,000
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,894	NA	11	90.24%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,070	47.92%	17,927	48.52%	12	71.17%	25,189
Houston	16,107	71.59%	16,860	4.67%	13	74.93%	22,500
Real Salt Lake	16,208	79.64%	16,759	3.40%	13	86.65%	19,340
Chicago	13,912	69.56%	15,757	13.26%	11	78.79%	20,000
Columbus Crew	14,272	71.36%	14,597	2.28%	13	72.98%	20,000
D.C. United	15,542	69.07%	14,271	-8.17%	12	63.43%	22,500
ChivasUSA	15,551	57.60%	13,925	-10.46%	12	51.57%	27,000
Colorado Rapids	12,614	69.75%	13,046	3.42%	12	72.14%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,221	58.76%	12,070	-8.71%	12	53.64%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,311	43.94%	11,169	19.95%	12	52.70%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,010	96.39%	10,109	0.99%	11	97.34%	10,385
San Jose	15,137	91.82%	9,569	-36.78%	12	92.90%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

Observations

San Jose drew a disappointing 8100+ for its midweek match vs Philly. Dallas had its 2nd largest crowd for its Thursday game vs the Red Bulls. A relatively small turnout in Salt Lake for a Saturday afternoon match. And before anyone comments, I think it’s time to stop saying it’s because of college football. This is the MLS Cup Champion on an astonishing run of success at home. OK, mini-rant over. Columbus drew over 17,100, its 2nd largest turnout this season. 16,400+ were in Houston. Colorado also had over 16,300 show up. Anyone know why they had a decent gate? Chivas USA also had its 2nd largest crowd, just over 15,300 for a late Sunday afternoon start.

Seattle DP Blaise Nfuko not only scored his first MLS goal, he bagged a hat trick vs Columbus.

Rookie Watch: Eric Alexander scored for Dallas. Teal Bunbury netted his 3rd for KC. Can’t speak to performances as I still have company visiting and couldn’t watch any of the matches.

Kei Kamara, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) scored and had an assist in the Wizards victory.

Week 25 Games

San Jose	1	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Philadelphia	0	Philadelphia Union Talk

FC Dallas	2	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
RBNY	2	Red Bulls Reader

Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield
Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

Columbus	0	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Seattle	4	Seattle Times

Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
Toronto	2	TFC Connected

Colorado	3	Undercurrent
New England	0	Revolution Soccer

Los Angeles	2	LA – Official Blog
DC United	1	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider

Chivas USA	0	Chicago Fire Confidential
Kansas City	2	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	25	15	5	5	38	19	1.52	0.76	2.00	50	19
Real Salt Lake	25	13	8	4	38	16	1.52	0.64	1.88	47	22
Columbus	25	13	5	7	33	27	1.32	1.08	1.76	44	6
Dallas	24	10	12	2	31	19	1.29	0.79	1.75	42	12
NY Red Bull	25	12	5	8	32	27	1.28	1.08	1.64	41	5
Colorado	24	10	7	7	32	24	1.33	1.00	1.54	37	8
San Jose	23	10	6	7	25	23	1.09	1.00	1.57	36	2
Seattle	25	10	6	9	30	29	1.20	1.16	1.44	36	1
Toronto FC	25	8	7	10	24	28	0.96	1.12	1.24	31	-4
Kansas City	23	8	6	9	24	24	1.04	1.04	1.30	30	0
Chicago	23	6	8	9	28	31	1.22	1.35	1.13	26	-3
Chivas USA	24	7	4	13	25	31	1.04	1.29	1.04	25	-6
Philadelphia	24	6	6	12	27	39	1.13	1.63	1.00	24	-12
New England	24	7	3	14	24	41	1.00	1.71	1.00	24	-17
Houston	24	6	5	13	29	40	1.21	1.67	0.96	23	-11
DC United	25	5	3	17	17	39	0.68	1.56	0.72	18	-22

Columbus and Dallas lost points to LA in the 4 team race for the Supporters’ Shield. The marquee matches next week is LA vs Red Bulls although both teams are playoff bound. Toronto v San Jose and Seattle vs Chicago will have more impact, although the Fire will need a lot of help even if they defeat the Sounders.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 23 regular season home games, an MLS record.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 15 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 11 road games, an MLS record.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 9 home games.
Houston are winless in their last 8 road games. And they’ve been scoreless in their last 4 road games.
New England are winless in their last 10 road games.

MLS Throw Ins

There have been 48 draws compared to 60 in ’09 thru the first 194 matches.
There have been 124 clean sheets in the first 194 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 194 games: goal scoring is down around 9.2% from 2009, 2.36 vs 2.59.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 42 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.
DC United have yielded 16 goals in the last 15 minutes of games.
San Jose has gone from one the worst allowing late goals in ’09 to the 3rd stingiest in ’10(as a percentage of total goals allowed).

CONCACAF Champions League

After a good showing for MLS in the first group phase matches, they pulled an oh-for four in the 2nd round. Seattle had lost its 3 matches and looks done for in the tourney.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 24

Peter C — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:37:14 +0000

The Week 24 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 24			186 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	14,880		6	15,348		15,129		159
2007	17,987	20.88%	8	16,659	8.54%	16,118	6.54%	159
2008	16,016	-10.95%	7	16,450	-1.26%	17,073	5.92%	161
2009	16,148	0.82%	8	15,748	-4.26%	16,709	-2.13%	172
2010	18,444	14.22%	8	16,625	5.57%	16,625	-0.50%	186

YTD – 186 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,348	13,866	19.35%	18.82%
2007	16,659	15,174	8.60%	28.49%
2008	16,450	15,078	11.29%	25.27%
2009	15,748	14,479	15.59%	19.35%
2010	16,625	14,569	6.99%	22.58%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,587	94.40%	36,167	18.24%	13	101.88%	35,500
Toronto	20,278	92.26%	20,665	1.91%	13	94.03%	21,978
LA Galaxy	20,072	74.34%	20,224	0.76%	11	74.90%	27,000
Philadelphia	NA	NA	19,894	NA	11	90.24%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,070	47.92%	17,927	48.52%	12	71.17%	25,189
Real Salt Lake	16,091	78.74%	16,952	5.35%	12	87.65%	19,340
Houston	15,938	70.84%	16,895	6.01%	12	75.09%	22,500
Chicago	13,912	69.56%	15,757	13.26%	11	78.79%	20,000
Columbus Crew	13,714	68.57%	14,384	4.89%	12	71.92%	20,000
D.C. United	15,542	69.07%	14,271	-8.17%	12	63.43%	22,500
ChivasUSA	15,673	58.05%	13,792	-12.00%	11	51.08%	27,000
Colorado Rapids	12,771	70.61%	12,749	-0.17%	11	70.49%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,221	58.76%	12,070	-8.71%	12	53.64%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,229	43.55%	10,811	17.15%	11	51.01%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,010	96.39%	10,109	0.99%	11	97.34%	10,385
San Jose	15,692	92.04%	9,702	-38.17%	11	94.19%	10,300

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

Philly’s first two home games were played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.

Observations

Chicago drew 12,800+ on Wednesday. Big surprise, Seattle filled the house on Thursday. Another big surprise, only 10,700+ for Chivas USA on Friday. Toronto was just under 20,400. 19,000+ were in Harrison for the Red Bulls. A full house at PPL Park for the Union. The Quakes were also at capacity. Nearly 19,500 were at the HDC for the Galaxy.

Rookie Watch: Tim Ream got his first for RBNY. Can’t speak to performances as I have company visiting and couldn’t watch any of the matches.

Joel Lindpere, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) assisted on Henry’s goal for RBNY v TFC.

Week 24 Games

Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential
Toronto	0	TFC Connected

Seattle	0	Seattle Times
Real Salt Lake	0	RSL – Behind the Shield

Chivas USA	2	Chicago Fire Confidential
New England	0	Revolution Soccer

Toronto	0	TFC Connected
DC United	1	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider

RBNY	3	Red Bulls Reader
Colorado	1	Undercurrent

Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk
Chicago	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer
FC Dallas	0	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

Los Angeles	3	LA – Official Blog
Columbus	1	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	24	14	5	5	36	18	1.50	0.75	1.96	47	18
Real Salt Lake	24	12	8	4	37	16	1.54	0.67	1.83	44	21
Columbus	24	13	5	6	33	23	1.38	0.96	1.83	44	10
Dallas	23	10	11	2	29	17	1.26	0.74	1.78	41	12
NY Red Bull	24	12	4	8	30	25	1.25	1.04	1.67	40	5
Colorado	23	9	7	7	29	24	1.26	1.04	1.48	34	5
San Jose	22	9	6	7	24	23	1.09	1.05	1.50	33	1
Seattle	24	9	6	9	26	29	1.08	1.21	1.38	33	-3
Toronto FC	24	7	7	10	22	27	0.92	1.13	1.17	28	-5
Kansas City	22	7	6	9	22	24	1.00	1.09	1.23	27	-2
Chicago	22	6	8	8	28	30	1.27	1.36	1.18	26	-2
Chivas USA	23	7	4	12	25	29	1.09	1.26	1.09	25	-4
Philadelphia	23	6	6	11	27	38	1.17	1.65	1.04	24	-11
New England	23	7	3	13	24	38	1.04	1.65	1.04	24	-14
Houston	23	6	5	12	28	38	1.22	1.65	1.00	23	-10
DC United	24	5	3	16	16	37	0.67	1.54	0.75	18	-21

Columbus, RSL and Dallas lost points to LA in the 4 team race for the Supporters’ Shield. Some tasty matches next week. Seattle visits Columbus and the Red Bulls visit Dallas. Chicago missed out taking advantage of its game-in-hand situation by taking only 1 point from 6, but got lucky as Seattle drew. Toronto also did themselves no good by taking only 1 point from 6, including a home loss to league bottom feeders DC United and failing to score in both matches. Three scoreless draws this week. Think playoff pressure is taking hold?

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 22 regular season home games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 14 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 11 road games, an MLS record.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 8 home games.
Houston are winless in their last 8 road games. And they’ve been scoreless in their last 4 road games.
New England are winless in their last 9 road games.

MLS Throw Ins

LA is the only club to have earned more than 50% of its points on the road.
There have been 47 draws compared to 57 in ’09 thru the first 186 matches.
There have been 119 clean sheets in the first 186 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 186 games: goal scoring is down around 8.4% from 2009, 2.34 vs 2.56.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 41 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.
DC United have yielded 14 goals in the last 15 minutes.
Dallas have not given up more than 1 goal since April 22.
San Jose has gone from one the worst allowing late goals in ’09 to the 3rd stingiest in ’10(as a percentage of total goals allowed).

CONCACAF Champions League

After a good showing for MLS in the first group phase matches, they pulled an oh-for four in the 2nd round.

Aug 17 — Toronto 2 Cruz Azul 1
Aug 18 — Columbus 1 Municipal 0
Aug 18 — Real Salt Lake 2 Arabe Unido 1
Aug 19 — Marathón 2 Seattle 1

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido 1 Toronto 0
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna 1 Columbus 0
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul 5 Real Salt Lake 4
Aug 25 – Seattle 0 Monterrey 2