MLS News from Major League Soccer Talk » US Open Cup

Why the New Format Will Save the US Open Cup

Robert Hay — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:07:51 +0000

The U.S. Soccer Federation yesterday announced an expanded Open Cup format and schedule, one that will incorporate all MLS and lower division teams in a newly and hopefully more condensed way. In essence, the changes allow the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to mirror the English FA Cup, where lower division and semi-pro teams have a chance to play against the top level of the country’s soccer hierarchy.

The Open Cup in 2012 will expand from 40 to 64 teams, which means all 16 U.S. MLS teams, 10 USL Pro, and 6 NASL teams will be included in the tournament. Last season, only half of the eligible MLS teams and all the eligible USL Pro sides had been included in the tournament, so this format change alone guarantees more participation. Six MLS teams in 2011 had automatically qualified for the tournament while another two came from play-in rounds held prior, a format that in essence had been in existence as long as MLS. Now, every MLS side will have an opportunity to participate in at least one match. The larger pool also means an expanded number of amateur teams are eligible to participate, with 16 spots going to the Premier Development League and the remaining to be divided among other amateur leagues.

What does this mean for MLS teams? First, it means that they do not have to worry about “playing in” to the U.S. Open Cup; they’re in as of May 29 (more on schedule below). Secondly, it sets up some very interesting potential match-ups. Soccer fans who watched the FA Cup this weekend saw major upsets like Swindon defeating Wigan; imagine the Des Moines Menace upsetting DC United or the Real Colorado Foxes giving the Colorado Rapids a run for their money. Those amateur teams would have a shot, if they survive the first two rounds, to take down the big boys and gain a little attention. While it is unlikely that too many amateur teams will advance too far (again, see how many were in the most recent round of the FA Cup), the possibility exists. More likely, for the first time NASL teams, who were excluded last year, will have a chance to show how small the gap could be between the top two divisions.

Another change that addressed a major concern with the tournament is the hosting of home games. Last year, Seattle played five home games on their way to the title. This season, everyone theoretically will have a chance to host their match prior to the quarterfinals. When the match-ups are determined, if both teams meet U.S. Soccer specs for hosting an Open Cup match, a “random selection process” will be used to determine the host. While few non-professional teams will likely qualify to host, for USL Pro and NASL teams there exists a chance that they can bring MLS teams to their venues and make a little extra money off the match. After the quarterfinals, the old bidding system of submitting financial bids will be used to determine the hosts. So while the Sounders could again theoretically only play home games on their way to winning the U.S. Open Cup, the potential exists that they would go on the road due to a random draw.

A final major change of note is the timing. As referenced above, MLS teams join the competition in the third round, but the tournament itself begins on May 15 and wraps up by the first weekend in August. All matches will be played on a Tuesday. This condensed schedule allows MLS teams competing in the CONCACAF Champions League and the Open Cup to wrap up the latter before turning their attention to the former. However, this is where travel can become a factor in these matches. Since the Open Cup games are on a Tuesday, MLS teams potentially face large travel distances in a short period of time. For example, San Jose plays at Sporting Kansas City on May 27. If they hosted an Open Cup match, they’d have essentially a day turn around. Because MLS teams come in during the Third Round and the schedule is defused to avoid many of these potential conflicts, it may affect only one or two teams doing very well in the tournament (or it may increase the chance of an upset) but the possibility exists.

So what do all of these changes mean? Do the problems that existed in the previous few years’ Open Cups still exist? The answer is, potentially, yes. But the tournament now at least has the look and feel of a European-style tournament, which undoubtedly will please Euro-phile American soccer fans. The Davids of the U.S. soccer world will get their chance against the Goliaths, and the NASL/USL Pro sides have a slightly better chance to host and ride upsets to the finals. MLS teams have a chance to juggle their lineups to take the competition seriously, or use it to play younger players and not have to worry about too much schedule congestion. While the 99 year-old tournament will never approach the Copa del Rey or FA Cup in term of prestige or fan following, it does raise the professionalism of U.S. soccer and makes the tournament a bit more watchable.

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Retooling or Rebuilding? Three Questions for the Seattle Sounders

Robert Hay — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:00:45 +0000

Last year was a good year for one of MLS’s premier franchises. The Sounders won yet another U.S. Open Cup and advanced past the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. While they could not vanquish their nemesis Galaxy in the regular season or playoffs (and were knocked out early by streaking RSL), the team again saw overwhelming fan support, some great moments on the pitch, and a fond farewell (on the pitch at least) to Kasey Keller.

Going into 2012, the team is looking at a three-front battle: in addition to defending their Open Cup title and trying to win that elusive MLS Cup, they face a tough road in the spring in the CCL. Last season, the team relied on its impressive depth to compete in all three competitions, but that depth has taken a hit this offseason. How they restock players will determine if they can take challenge for the Quadruple in 2012, or at least take home more than one trophy. Let’s play “Three Questions” with the Seattle Sounders:

1. Will the defense take a step back in 2012?

Center back is solid on this team, with Jeff Parke becoming an excellent MLS defender and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado being more than an adequate defender. Where the concern lies on this team is at the two full back spots and at keeper. Let’s start with the man between the pipes; Michael Gspurning comes over from Austria after he fell out of favor with his current club. Keller’s retirement meant more than losing one of the best keepers in MLS; it meant losing the heart and soul of the team, as well as a guy who knew how to boss a defense. Gspurning is good, but how his skills translate to MLS and how well he can work with his defenders will be telling for this team.

As for the full backs, Seattle lost James Riley and Tyson Wahl both to Montreal so will have to be replacing two important players. To do so, they signed Swedish international Adam Johansson to compete for one spot and took Marc Burch in the Re-entry draft for another. They join Leo Gonzalez and Michael Tetteh in the starting competition. While Johansson has proven ability (he has international caps), Burch is more of a spot/part-time starter at this stage. How the LB/RB battles shake out will be important going forward.

2. Is the depth still there?

As I mentioned above, with three competitions going this season Seattle again needs its depth to come through if it wants to compete in all three. That 2011 depth took a hit this offseason as they have lost some key role players. Besides the full backs mentioned above, the team has lost Erik Friberg (Malmo FF), Pat Noonan (LA Galaxy), and Nate Jaqua (New England Revolution). In the process, the team got younger and the salary cap shrank, but the team still needs some quality second stringers to fill in during the busy season. Otherwise, they may have to make a decision like the LA Galaxy to push aside a competition (maybe U.S. Open or Supporters Shield?) to focus their goals. Rumors are flying that they are looking overseas to fill gaps, trying to sign internationals like Christian Sivebaek.

3. What about Fernandez and Montero?

Two critical players are the subject of the rumor mill this offseason, and how these rumors are resolved will decide how this team will look in 2012. The first is Alvaro Fernandez, who in light of some interest from Palermo has expressed through his agent a desire to play in a bigger league. Or maybe, seeing teammate Mauro Rosales’ new contract, he simply wants to see the same kind of love (although he is already a designated player). Regardless, the team needs to figure out his situation quickly before their midfield is dealt a major blow by his departure.

The Montero rumor is more vague, simply that he has gotten interest from Europe, but the bigger question may be will Montero take the next step forward in his development. The young designated player has been streaky during his MLS career but when he’s hot, he simply racks up goals for Seattle. If he takes that next step to being a consistent scorer, Seattle will be hard to stop.

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

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

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 23

Peter C — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:52:09 +0000

The Week 23 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 23			177 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	11,814		10	15,158		15,139		153
2007	17,413	47.39%	7	16,522	9.00%	16,019	5.82%	151
2008	19,222	10.39%	6	16,472	-0.30%	17,121	6.88%	154
2009	16,665	-13.31%	9	15,749	-4.39%	16,737	-2.25%	164
2010	14,748	-11.50%	8	16,543	5.04%	16,543	-1.16%	178

YTD – 178 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,158	13,452	20.22%	16.85%
2007	16,522	15,046	8.43%	26.97%
2008	16,472	15,188	11.24%	25.28%
2009	15,749	14,525	16.29%	19.66%
2010	16,543	14,434	7.30%	22.47%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,412	93.87%	36,174	18.94%	12	101.90%	35,500
Toronto	20,288	92.31%	20,688	1.97%	12	94.13%	21,978
LA Galaxy	19,379	71.78%	20,298	4.74%	10	75.18%	27,000
Philadelphia	NA	NA	20,027	NA	10	89.41%	18,500
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,229	48.55%	17,828	45.79%	11	70.78%	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	13,724	68.62%	16,044	16.90%	10	80.22%	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	16,107	59.65%	14,093	-12.50%	10	52.20%	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	11,104	62.65%	9,638	-13.21%	10	93.57%	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

Philadelphia drew over 17,000, but still can’t win at home. The Rapids’ run to the playoffs means nothing in Denver. Only 10,300+ showing up as owner Stan Kroenke bought the St. Louis NFL Rams. LA is still a big draw as over 21,000 were at Toyota Park for the Fire match. DC United’s performance is now really showing at the gate as only 12,000 came out for the Crew. A typical Revs crowd of 13,100+ were at Gillette. Dallas, same as Colorado. Despite their fantasic season, only 10,033 came out to PHP. Not the case in Sandy, UT as 19,100 turned out for the Thierry Henry road show. A decent, but sub-par turnout in Houston of just over 15,000.

Rookie Watch: No rookie scorers this week. Can’t speak to performances as I have company visiting and couldn’t watch any of the matches.

Week 23 Games

Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk
Kansas City	1	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road

Colorado	3	Undercurrent
Chivas USA	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

Chicago	1	Chicago Fire Confidential
Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog

DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Columbus	1	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra

New England	3	Revolution Soccer
Seattle	1	Seattle Times

FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Toronto	0	TFC Connected

Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield
RBNY	0	Red Bulls Reader

Houston	1	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
San Jose	2	San Jose Center Line Soccer

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	23	13	5	5	33	17	1.43	0.74	1.91	44	16
Columbus	23	13	5	5	32	20	1.39	0.87	1.91	44	12
Real Salt Lake	23	12	7	4	37	16	1.61	0.70	1.87	43	21
Dallas	22	10	10	2	29	17	1.32	0.77	1.82	40	12
NY Red Bull	23	11	4	8	27	24	1.17	1.04	1.61	37	3
Colorado	22	9	7	6	28	21	1.27	0.95	1.55	34	7
San Jose	21	9	5	7	24	23	1.14	1.10	1.52	32	1
Seattle	23	9	5	9	26	29	1.13	1.26	1.39	32	-3
Kansas City	22	7	6	9	22	24	1.00	1.09	1.23	27	-2
Toronto FC	22	7	6	9	22	26	1.00	1.18	1.23	27	-4
Chicago	20	6	7	7	28	29	1.40	1.45	1.25	25	-1
New England	22	7	3	12	24	36	1.09	1.64	1.09	24	-12
Houston	23	6	5	12	28	38	1.22	1.65	1.00	23	-10
Chivas USA	22	6	4	12	23	29	1.05	1.32	1.00	22	-6
Philadelphia	22	5	6	11	26	38	1.18	1.73	0.95	21	-12
DC United	23	4	3	16	15	37	0.65	1.61	0.65	15	-22

Well, suddenly we have a 4 team race for the Supporters’ Shield. Next weekend Columbus visits LA. Chicago has 3 games in hand over Seattle, who is in the last playoff position, and trails by 7 points. But they’ll also have to leapfrog Kansas City and Toronto.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 22 regular season home games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 13 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 10 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 8 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 44 draws compared to 53 in ’09 thru the first 178 matches.
There have been 110 clean sheets in the first 178 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 178 games: goal scoring is down around 6.8% from 2009, 2.38 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).

N.A. SuperLiga

Monarchas Morelia beat the New England Revs to win the 2010 N.A. SuperLiga. Below are the final attendance numbers for the tourney.

SuperLiga Totals
	Total	Game Dates	Average
2007	247,251	15	16,483
2008	195,380	15	13,025
2009	114,163	12	9,514
2010	128,712	13	9,901

Doubleheaders in meant 3 fewer separate game dates
Doubleheaders in meant 3 fewer separate game dates

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

Group play continues in two weeks. The matches with MLS teams are(home team listed first) …

Sep 14 — Columbus v Joe Public
Sep 14 — Saprissa v Seattle
Sep 15 — Real Salt Lake v Toronto

Sep 21 — Columbus v Santos Laguna
Sep 21 — Cruz Azul v Toronto
Sep 22 — Arabe Unido v Real Salt Lake
Sep 22 — Monterrey v Seattle

CONCACAF Champions League Group Phase
Group A	Arabe Unido	RSL	Cruz Azul	Toronto	Home
Arabe Unido(PAN)	X	0	0	501	501
RSL(USA)	10,626	X	0	0	10,626
Cruz Azul(MEX)	0	6,156	X	0	6,156
Toronto(CAN)	0	0	16,862	X	16,862
Away	10,626	6,156	16,862	501
Group B	Columbus	Municipal	Santos Laguna	Joe Public	Home
Columbus(USA)	X	5,745	0	0	5,745
Municipal(GUA)	0	X	0	2,498	2,498
Santos Laguna(MEX)	4,700	0	X	0	4,700
Joe Public(T&T)	900	0	0	X	900
Away	2,800	5,745	0	2,498
Group C	Monterrey	Saprissa	Seattle	Marathón	Home
Monterrey(MEX)	X	12,042	0	0	12,042
Saprissa(CRC)	0	X	0	2,899	2,899
Seattle(USA)	22,513	0	X	0	22,513
Marathón(HON)	0	0	1,990	X	1,990
Away	22,513	12,042	1,990	2,899
Group D	Toluca	Olimpia	Puerto Rico	FAS	Home
Toluca(MEX)	X	0	0	0	0
Olimpia(HON)	0	X	0	0	0
Puerto Rico(CFU)	0	2,632	X	2,050	2,341
FAS(SLV)	3,500	0	0	X	3,500
Away	3,500	2,632	0	2,050
	No Report on the Toluca/Olimpia match

Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

The winner will compete in the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League.

In the semifinals, Columbus defeated DC United and Seattle beat ChivasUSA. Seattle, the defending champion, will host the final at Qwest Field on Tuesday, October 5.

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup structure

Eric, you will be missed.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 22

Peter C — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:23:59 +0000

The Week 22 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 22			170 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	13,932		6	15,082		15,361		143
2007	16,209	16.34%	6	16,311	8.15%	16,005	4.19%	144
2008	15,294	-5.64%	9	16,350	0.24%	17,036	6.45%	148
2009	16,236	6.16%	6	15,903	-2.73%	16,559	-2.80%	155
2010	19,215	18.35%	8	16,628	4.56%	16,628	0.41%	170

YTD – 170 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,082	13,036	21.18%	17.06%
2007	16,311	14,804	8.82%	25.29%
2008	16,350	15,078	11.76%	24.12%
2009	15,903	14,629	15.88%	20.00%
2010	16,628	14,434	7.65%	22.94%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,412	93.87%	36,174	18.94%	12	101.90%	35,500
Toronto	20,220	92.00%	20,688	2.31%	12	94.13%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	20,343	NA	9	89.09%	18,500
LA Galaxy	19,379	71.78%	20,298	4.74%	10	75.18%	27,000
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,229	48.55%	17,828	45.79%	11	70.78%	25,189
Houston	15,836	70.38%	17,061	7.74%	11	75.83%	22,500
Real Salt Lake	16,213	78.95%	16,755	3.35%	11	86.64%	19,340
Chicago	13,027	65.13%	15,486	18.87%	9	77.43%	20,000
D.C. United	15,173	67.44%	14,471	-4.63%	11	64.32%	22,500
Columbus Crew	13,714	68.57%	14,384	4.89%	12	71.92%	20,000
ChivasUSA	16,107	59.65%	14,093	-12.50%	10	52.20%	27,000
Colorado Rapids	12,711	70.28%	12,993	2.22%	10	71.84%	18,086
NE Revolution	13,561	60.27%	11,974	-11.70%	11	53.22%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,407	44.39%	10,889	15.75%	10	51.38%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,010	96.39%	10,109	0.99%	11	97.34%	10,385
San Jose	11,104	62.65%	9,638	-13.21%	10	93.57%	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

Columbus drew 16,700+ for its match with streaking Dallas. A full house in Toronto. Red Bulls draw 21,800+. The Rapids seem to only draw on July 4, only 11,511 turned out. Over 20,000 at HDC for the Galaxy. The usual packed house in Seattle, 36,000+. Chivas USA continues to struggle at the gate with 12,500 coming out on Sunday night.

Rookie Watch: Jack McInerney scored for the Union. Zach Loyd named Man of the Match for Dallas. Andy Najar showed why he’s going to be a star.

Kai Kamara, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) got an assist vs LA. Joel Lindpere had a strong match in RBNY’s victory.

Week 22 Games

Columbus	0	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
FC Dallas	0	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

Toronto	0	TFC Connected
Real Salt Lake	0	RSL – Behind the Shield

New England	1	Revolution Soccer
Philadelphia	2	Philadelphia Union Talk

RBNY	2	Red Bulls Reader
San Jose	0	San Jose Center Line Soccer

Colorado	3	Undercurrent
Houston	0	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz

Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog
Kansas City	2	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road

Seattle	2	Seattle Times
Chicago	1	Chicago Fire Confidential

Chivas USA	1	Chicago Fire Confidential
DC United	0	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	22	13	4	5	32	16	1.45	0.73	1.95	43	16
Columbus	22	12	5	5	31	20	1.41	0.91	1.86	41	11
Real Salt Lake	22	11	7	4	36	16	1.64	0.73	1.82	40	20
Dallas	21	9	10	2	28	17	1.33	0.81	1.76	37	11
NY Red Bull	22	11	4	7	27	23	1.23	1.05	1.68	37	4
Seattle	22	9	5	8	25	26	1.14	1.18	1.45	32	-1
Colorado	21	8	7	6	25	21	1.19	1.00	1.48	31	4
San Jose	20	8	5	7	22	22	1.10	1.10	1.45	29	0
Toronto FC	21	7	6	8	22	25	1.05	1.19	1.29	27	-3
Kansas City	21	7	5	9	21	23	1.00	1.10	1.24	26	-2
Chicago	19	6	6	7	27	28	1.42	1.47	1.26	24	-1
Houston	22	6	5	11	27	36	1.23	1.64	1.05	23	-9
Chivas USA	21	6	4	11	23	26	1.10	1.24	1.05	22	-3
New England	21	6	3	12	21	35	1.00	1.67	1.00	21	-14
Philadelphia	21	5	5	11	25	37	1.19	1.76	0.95	20	-12
DC United	22	4	3	15	15	36	0.68	1.64	0.68	15	-21

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 21 regular season home games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 12 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 10 road games, an MLS record.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 6 home games.
Houston are winless in their last 8 road games. And they’ve been scoreless in their last 4 road games.
Seattle are unbeaten in their last 6 games.

MLS Throw Ins

LA is the only club to have earned more than 50% of its points on the road.
There have been 42 draws compared to 52 in ’09 thru the first 170 matches.
There have been 106 clean sheets in the first 170 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 162 games: goal scoring is down around 6.0% from 2009, 2.39 vs 2.55.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 40 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 stingiest in ’10(as a percentage of total goals allowed).

N.A. SuperLiga

The participants in the 2010 N.A. SuperLiga and their respective finishes in the last completed season are …

MLS		FMF
Houston	3	UNAM Pumas	4
Chicago	5	Monarchas Morelia	7
Chivas USA	6	Pachuca	8
New England	7	Puebla	13

N.A. SuperLiga
Group A
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
Houston	2	1	0	7	2
Puebla	2	0	1	6	2
Chivas USA	1	1	1	4	0
Pachuca	0	0	3	0	-5
Group B
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
New England	3	0	0	9	3
Monarchas Morelia	1	1	1	4	3
Chicago	1	0	2	3	-4
UNAM Pumas	0	1	2	1	-2

N.A. SuperLiga Semifinals
New England(1)(5) v Puebla(1)(3)	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA	Wed, Aug 4
Houston(0) v Morelia(1)	Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX	Thu, Aug 5

SuperLiga after Semifinals
	Total	Game Dates	Average
2007	234,751	14	16,768
2008	186,148	14	13,296
2009	86,948	11	7,904
2010	118,298	12	9,858

3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010
3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010

New England will attempt to win its 2nd SuperLiga title on Sept 1 at Gillette Stadium.

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

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 21

Peter C — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:55:50 +0000

The Week 21 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 21			162 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	14,771		9	15,093		15,424		137
2007	17,381	17.67%	9	16,134	6.90%	15,996	3.71%	138
2008	15,625	-10.11%	7	16,409	1.70%	17,149	7.21%	139
2009	23,667	51.47%	6	15,819	-3.59%	16,572	-3.37%	149
2010	14,347	-39.38%	8	16,500	4.31%	16,500	-0.44%	162

YTD – 162 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,093	12,979	21.60%	16.67%
2007	16,134	14,680	9.26%	24.69%
2008	16,409	15,188	11.73%	24.69%
2009	15,819	14,525	15.43%	19.75%
2010	16,500	14,384	8.02%	21.60%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,204	93.22%	36,155	19.70%	11	101.84%	35,500
Toronto	20,220	92.00%	20,655	2.15%	11	93.98%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	20,343	NA	9	89.09%	18,500
LA Galaxy	19,292	71.45%	20,319	5.32%	9	75.26%	27,000
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,487	49.57%	17,425	39.54%	10	69.18%	25,189
Houston	15,836	70.38%	17,061	7.74%	11	75.83%	22,500
Real Salt Lake	16,213	78.95%	16,755	3.35%	11	86.64%	19,340
Chicago	13,027	65.13%	15,486	18.87%	9	77.43%	20,000
D.C. United	15,173	67.44%	14,471	-4.63%	11	64.32%	22,500
ChivasUSA	16,211	60.04%	14,268	-11.99%	9	52.84%	27,000
Columbus Crew	13,660	68.30%	14,173	3.76%	11	70.87%	20,000
Colorado Rapids	12,918	71.42%	13,158	1.86%	9	72.75%	18,086
NE Revolution	14,188	63.06%	11,814	-16.73%	10	52.51%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,407	44.39%	10,889	15.75%	10	51.38%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,010	96.39%	10,109	0.99%	11	97.34%	10,385
San Jose	11,104	62.65%	9,638	-13.21%	10	93.57%	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.

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.

Observations

Chicago had a fair crowd of 14,000+ for its midweek tilt v the Revs. A record crowd in Toronto saw their 17 game home unbeaten streak come to an end. San Jose also set an attendance record(at Buck Shaw) as they beat the Galaxy. What looked like another drab turnout at Crew Stadium was reported at 16,000+. A typical soft showing in Dallas, despite the club’s success. A full house in Kansas City. Can’t wait to see how they draw in their new stadium next year. Almost 19,000 saw a thrilling match in Houston. A little over 12,100 came out in rain soaked DC to see their first win in 2 months.

Regardless of how well San Jose and the Wizards did at the gate, when you have home games in Columbus, Dallas, San Jose and Kansas City in the same week, it’s a real numbers buster.

Rookie Watch: Tony Tchani got his first assist in MLS. Need some help from readers for other outstanding rookie performances.

Joel Lindpere, on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) had a good game for RBNY v TFC. Kei Kamara scored and had 2 assists for the Wizards, while Ryan Smith got his 8th assist for KC.

Week 21 Games

Chicago	2	Chicago Fire Confidential
New England	1	Revolution Soccer

Toronto	1	TFC Connected
RBNY	4	Red Bulls Reader

San Jose	1	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Los Angeles	0	LA – Official Blog

Columbus	3	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
Colorado	1	Undercurrent

FC Dallas	1	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
Chivas USA	0	Chicago Fire Confidential

Kansas City	4	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
New England	1	Revolution Soccer

Houston	4	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
Chicago	3	Chicago Fire Confidential

DC United	2	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
Philadelphia	0	Philadelphia Union Talk

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	21	13	4	4	32	14	1.52	0.67	2.05	43	18
Columbus	21	12	4	5	31	20	1.48	0.95	1.90	40	11
Real Salt Lake	21	11	6	4	36	16	1.71	0.76	1.86	39	20
Dallas	20	9	9	2	28	17	1.40	0.85	1.80	36	11
NY Red Bull	21	10	4	7	25	23	1.19	1.10	1.62	34	2
San Jose	19	8	5	6	22	20	1.16	1.05	1.53	29	2
Seattle	21	8	5	8	23	25	1.10	1.19	1.38	29	-2
Colorado	20	7	7	6	22	21	1.10	1.05	1.40	28	1
Toronto FC	20	7	5	8	22	25	1.10	1.25	1.30	26	-3
Chicago	18	6	6	6	26	26	1.44	1.44	1.33	24	0
Kansas City	20	6	5	9	19	23	0.95	1.15	1.15	23	-4
Houston	21	6	5	10	27	33	1.29	1.57	1.10	23	-6
New England	20	6	3	11	20	33	1.00	1.65	1.05	21	-13
Chivas USA	20	5	4	11	22	26	1.10	1.30	0.95	19	-4
Philadelphia	20	4	5	11	23	36	1.15	1.80	0.85	17	-13
DC United	21	4	3	14	15	35	0.71	1.67	0.71	15	-20

Well, we’re now in the stretch run for the playoffs and the Supporters’ Shield. Dallas could put themselves into the thick of it with a win over Columbus next week. San Jose could solidify its playoff position by winning its game in hand. They next play RBNY. Chicago seems to be in the best position to bump a team out of the playoffs as it has 2(or 3) games in hand over the teams that are ahead of them. They meet Seattle next weekend, with Seattle coming off a midweek Champions League match. Alas, my Philadelphia Union, on the heels of their loss in DC and taking only 3 points from their last 4 home matches will not duplicate expansion Seattle of last year by making the playoffs. By the way, did you notice there were no draws this week.

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 21 regular season home games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 11 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 9 road games.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 6 home games.

MLS Throw Ins

LA is the only club to have earned more than 50% of its points on the road.
There have been 40 draws compared to 50 in ’09 thru the first 162 matches.
There have been 98 clean sheets in the first 162 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 162 games: goal scoring is down around 5.5% from 2009, 2.43 vs 2.57.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 40 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 stingiest in ’10(as a percentage of total goals allowed).

N.A. SuperLiga

The participants in the 2010 N.A. SuperLiga and their respective finishes in the last completed season are …

MLS		FMF
Houston	3	UNAM Pumas	4
Chicago	5	Monarchas Morelia	7
Chivas USA	6	Pachuca	8
New England	7	Puebla	13

N.A. SuperLiga
Group A
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
Houston	2	1	0	7	2
Puebla	2	0	1	6	2
Chivas USA	1	1	1	4	0
Pachuca	0	0	3	0	-5
Group B
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
New England	3	0	0	9	3
Monarchas Morelia	1	1	1	4	3
Chicago	1	0	2	3	-4
UNAM Pumas	0	1	2	1	-2

N.A. SuperLiga Semifinals
New England(1)(5) v Puebla(1)(3)	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA	Wed, Aug 4
Houston(0) v Morelia(1)	Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX	Thu, Aug 5

SuperLiga after Semifinals
	Total	Game Dates	Average
2007	234,751	14	16,768
2008	186,148	14	13,296
2009	86,948	11	7,904
2010	118,298	12	9,858

3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010
3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010

New England will attempt to win its 2nd SuperLiga title on Sept 1 at Gillette Stadium.

CONCACAF Champions League

A good showing for MLS as the group phase got underway. The only loss was suffered by Seattle, the only team that was on the road.

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

Group play continues this week. The matches with MLS teams are(home team listed first) …

Aug 24 – Arabe Unido v Toronto
Aug 24 – Santos Laguna v Columbus
Aug 25 – Cruz Azul v Real Salt Lake
Aug 25 – Seattle v Monterrey

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 20

Peter C — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:36:38 +0000

The Week 20 numbers look like this…

	5 year comparison
	Week 20			154 GP		YTD
	Avg	+/-	GP	Avg	+/-	Avg	+/-	GP
2006	17,497		7	15,233		15,449		128
2007	23,740	35.68%	7	16,027	5.21%	15,899	2.91%	129
2008	13,907	-41.42%	4	16,484	2.85%	17,230	8.37%	132
2009	12,055	-13.32%	6	15,801	-4.14%	16,274	-5.55%	143
2010	14,620	21.28%	9	16,612	5.13%	16,604	2.03%	154

YTD – 154 Games
	Average	Median	%<10K	%>20k
2006	15,233	13,036	21.43%	16.88%
2007	16,027	14,623	9.74%	23.38%
2008	16,484	15,188	11.04%	25.32%
2009	15,801	14,525	14.29%	19.48%
2010	16,612	14,434	8.44%	22.08%

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
	2009		2010
	Att	Cap %	Att	Att +/-	GP	Cap %	Cap
Seattle	30,204	93.22%	36,155	19.70%	11	101.84%	35,500
Toronto	20,267	92.21%	20,510	1.20%	10	93.32%	21,978
Philadelphia	NA	NA	20,343	NA	9	89.09%	18,500
LA Galaxy	19,292	71.45%	20,319	5.32%	9	75.26%	27,000
N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls	12,487	49.57%	17,425	39.54%	10	69.18%	25,189
Houston	15,538	69.06%	16,878	8.62%	10	75.01%	22,500
Real Salt Lake	16,213	78.95%	16,755	3.35%	11	86.64%	19,340
Chicago	12,839	64.19%	15,664	22.01%	8	78.32%	20,000
D.C. United	15,887	70.61%	14,702	-7.46%	10	65.34%	22,500
ChivasUSA	16,211	60.04%	14,268	-11.99%	9	52.84%	27,000
Columbus Crew	13,114	65.57%	13,984	6.63%	10	69.92%	20,000
Colorado Rapids	12,918	71.42%	13,158	1.86%	9	72.75%	18,086
NE Revolution	14,188	63.06%	11,814	-16.73%	10	52.51%	22,500
FC Dallas	9,306	43.91%	10,953	17.70%	9	51.68%	21,193
KC Wizards	10,019	96.47%	10,082	0.63%	10	97.08%	10,385
San Jose	11,236	60.58%	9,509	-15.37%	9	92.32%	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.

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.

Observations

The week began in Philadelphia and New Jersey on Wednesday. The Union drew over 16,000 and RBNY pulled in over 19,000. The same two team had the early games on Saturday and again drew big crowds, over 17,700 in Philly and 25,000 at Red Bull Arena for the Galaxy. DC had a soft crowd of under 13,000 while New England had their usual poor turnout of just over 11,500. Salt Lake had just under 17,000 turn out for a match between the last 2 MLS Cup winners. I’m always disappointed when San Jose(and KC) don’t sell out in their small temporary homes. Only 8600+ saw the Quakes win. The weekend ended with Chivas USA drawing an ordinary sub 14,000.

Rookie Watch: Danny Mwanga scored for the Union in each of their games. Michael Stephens had a strong game for the Galaxy. Eric Alexander scored for Dallas.

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

Week 20 Games

Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk
Real Salt Lake	1	RSL – Behind the Shield

RBNY	1	Red Bulls Reader
Toronto	0	TFC Connected

Philadelphia	1	Philadelphia Union Talk
Colorado	1	Undercurrent

RBNY	0	Red Bulls Reader
Los Angeles	1	LA – Official Blog

DC United	1	DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
FC Dallas	3	3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick

New England	1	Revolution Soccer
Houston	0	Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz

Real Salt Lake	2	RSL – Behind the Shield
Columbus	0	Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra

San Jose	1	San Jose Center Line Soccer
Kansas City	0	Kansas City – Hillcrest Road

Chivas USA	0	Chicago Fire Confidential
Seattle	0	Seattle Times

	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GFA	GAA	PPG	PTS	GD
Los Angeles	20	13	4	3	32	13	1.60	0.65	2.15	43	19
Real Salt Lake	21	11	6	4	36	16	1.71	0.76	1.86	39	20
Columbus	20	11	4	5	28	19	1.40	0.95	1.85	37	9
Dallas	19	8	9	2	27	17	1.42	0.89	1.74	33	10
NY Red Bull	20	9	4	7	21	22	1.05	1.10	1.55	31	-1
Seattle	21	8	5	8	23	25	1.10	1.19	1.38	29	-2
Colorado	19	7	7	5	21	18	1.11	0.95	1.47	28	3
San Jose	18	7	5	6	21	20	1.17	1.11	1.44	26	1
Toronto FC	19	7	5	7	21	21	1.11	1.11	1.37	26	0
Chicago	16	5	6	5	21	21	1.31	1.31	1.31	21	0
New England	18	6	3	9	18	27	1.00	1.50	1.17	21	-9
Kansas City	19	5	5	9	15	22	0.79	1.16	1.05	20	-7
Houston	20	5	5	10	23	30	1.15	1.50	1.00	20	-7
Chivas USA	19	5	4	10	22	25	1.16	1.32	1.00	19	-3
Philadelphia	19	4	5	10	23	34	1.21	1.79	0.89	17	-11
DC United	20	3	3	14	13	35	0.65	1.75	0.60	12	-22

Streaking

RSL are unbeaten in their last 21 regular season home games.
Houston are winless in their last 10 games.
DC United are winless in their last 8 games.
Dallas are unbeaten in their last 10 games.
Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 9 road games.
Colorado are unbeaten in their last 6 home games.
Toronto are unbeaten in their last 17 regular season home games(7 in ’09).

MLS Throw Ins

LA is the only club to have earned more than 50% of its points on the road.
There have been 40 draws compared to 49 in ’09 thru the first 154 matches.
There have been 95 clean sheets in the first 154 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
Through 145 games: goal scoring is down around 9.0% from 2009, 2.37 vs 2.60.
RSL has lost only twice in its last 40 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.

N.A. SuperLiga

The participants in the 2010 N.A. SuperLiga and their respective finishes in the last completed season are …

MLS		FMF
Houston	3	UNAM Pumas	4
Chicago	5	Monarchas Morelia	7
Chivas USA	6	Pachuca	8
New England	7	Puebla	13

N.A. SuperLiga
Group A
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
Houston	2	1	0	7	2
Puebla	2	0	1	6	2
Chivas USA	1	1	1	4	0
Pachuca	0	0	3	0	-5
Group B
	W	D	L	Pts	GD
New England	3	0	0	9	3
Monarchas Morelia	1	1	1	4	3
Chicago	1	0	2	3	-4
UNAM Pumas	0	1	2	1	-2

N.A. SuperLiga Semifinals
New England(1)(5) v Puebla(1)(3)	Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA	Wed, Aug 4
Houston(0) v Morelia(1)	Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX	Thu, Aug 5

SuperLiga after Semifinals
	Total	Game Dates	Average
2007	234,751	14	16,768
2008	186,148	14	13,296
2009	86,948	11	7,904
2010	118,298	12	9,858

3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010
3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010

New England will attempt to win its 2nd SuperLiga title on Sept 1 at Gillette Stadium.

CONCACAF Champions League

Four MLS clubs will play in the group phase of the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League. RSL and Columbus earned automatic berths as the MLS Cup and Supporters Shield winners. Toronto FC won the Canadien Nutrilite Championship and then won their preliminary contest vs Motagua of Honduras. Seattle won the L.H. U.S. Open Cup and also won their preliminary vs Isidro Metapan of El Salvador, while the Galaxy(MLS Cup runners-up) were unable to overcome their thrashing at home by giant killers Puerto Rico, representing the Caribbean Football Union. The group phase begins play on Aug 17.

Group play begins this week. The matches with MLS teams are(home team listed first) …

Aug 17 – Toronto v Cruz Azul
Aug 18 – Columbus v Municipal
Aug 18 – Real Salt Lake v Arabe Unido
Aug 19 – Marathón v Seattle

Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

The winner will compete in the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League.

In the semifinals, Columbus will play DC United on Sept 1, 7:30 p.m. ET @ RFK Stadium, Wash, DC and Seattle will play ChivasUSA on Sept 1, 10 p.m. ET @ Starfire Sports Complex, Tukwila, WA.

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup structure

Congestion

You can decide if fixture congestion has had an effect so far. Of the clubs that participated in multiple non-league competitions, only Seattle and Toronto have not been bounced out yet. LA crashed out of the CCL and US Open Cup. Chicago and Houston lost in the N.A. SuperLiga and the US Open Cup. Chivas USA lost in SuperLiga but are in the US Open Cup semifinals. New England lost in the US Open Cup but are in the N.A. SuperLiga final. Columbus and RSL have the automatic berths in the group phase of the CCL, but RSL lost in the US Open Cup while Columbus are in the semifinals. It’s a matter for discussion as to whether Seattle had tougher go than Toronto vis-a-vis the Canadien Nutrilite Championship vs the US Open Cup being injected into their schedules.
TFC and Seattle have the longest stretches without a full week between games. Seattle and RSL have no league matches between their first two CCL games, which makes sense as they are the only two MLS teams that have played 21 games. Seattle however will have to remain very sharp as they have a slim lead over playoff contenders, all of whom have games in hand. Columbus, coming off a tough loss to RSL, have the toughest period coming up.

Fixture Congestion for MLS Teams
	TFC	SEA	CLB	RSL	NE
7/24/10	MLS
7/25/10		MLS
7/27/10	CCL
7/28/10		CCL
7/31/10	MLS	MLS
8/1/10
8/3/10	CCL	CCL
8/4/10
8/5/10
8/7/10	MLS			MLS
8/8/10		MLS
8/11/10	MLS			MLS
8/14/10		MLS	MLS	MLS	MLS
8/17/10	CCL				MLS
8/18/10			CCL	CCL
8/19/10		CCL
8/21/10	MLS		MLS		MLS
8/24/10	CCL		CCL
8/25/10		CCL		CCL
8/28/10	MLS	MLS	MLS	MLS	MLS
8/29/10
9/1/10		USOC	USOC		SL
9/4/10		MLS	MLS		MLS

Days	36	42	22	22	22
Games	10	11	7	6	6
Days/Game	3.6	3.8	3.1	3.7	3.7
CCL=CONCACAF Champions League – SL=N.A. SuperLiga – USOC=US Open Cup