27August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: MLS; New York Red Bulls; News and Rumors; Stadium Talk.
Yeah, all of that 60 to 90 crap seems out the door with steel actually going up in Harrison, New Jersey. Thanks to the Red Bull Reader, today we have proof that they are doing some serious work on the new Arena.
The progress to date includes completion of the erection of structural steel and steel decking through Level 4 of the north half of the west building. Total steel erected to date 206 Tons and 872 pieces. Today the steel erector started setting the steel columns for Levels 5 and 6. Level 6 is the roof of the west building. Level 3 is the main concourse and in this area will be the Stadium Club. Level 4 is the first level of Suites and the Suite Club. Level 5 is the second level of Suites and the Broadcast Booths.
Sounds like some good work being done up there. Should everything go smoothly we could see it open next fall. I am starting to wonder if that means the Red Bulls will play one of those wacky schedules that sees them on the road a lot to start the year and at home a bunch to finish the year since it is a new park.
27August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: MLS; News and Rumors; expansion talk.
Talk about an insert-foot-into-mouth kind of moment. Jeff Cooper, the man behind the machine that is trying to get a MLS club in the Gateway City of St. Louis had a couple comments about the league’s expansion fee.
“We’re not going to pay so much,” Cooper said.
“If they’re unreasonable with the price, we can go elsewhere,” he said.
Elsewhere huh? USL-1 elsewhere? Exactly how do you go from wooing people with millions of dollars to sign on your expansion bid to saying it may be too costly? Cooper and St. Louis were largely considered the front-runner for one of the next two bids into the league but with a comment like this one it could easily end the big before the paperwork is even processed on the bid.
Cooper and his group have a huge project on hands here. They are set to build a $573 million mixed-use soccer stadium complex. Again, telling people who are going to be paying that kind of money on a stadium and facility that it will end up being for a minor league team? That just won’t fly with people. Hell I wouldn’t even be surprised if everything falls apart for Cooper and his group if they balk at paying the league a hefty expansion fee all because its been raised since they were last told about it (then it was probably in the $10 to $20 million range…not its close to $50 million).
As much as I would like to see St. Louis in the league, this has to hurt their chances with the league. I have a feeling it easily opens the doors for other cities that are slightly on the fringe for a bid here or it helps one of those Canadian cities that are hoping to get in.
What do you make of these comments by Cooper? Kill the bid all together or is it not a big issue? Also, which city does this help out if it does hurt St. Louis?
27August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: Chicago Fire; Chivas USA; Colorado Rapids; Columbus Crew; DC United; FC Dallas; Houston Dynamo; KC Wizards; LA Galaxy; MLS; New England Revolution; New York Red Bulls; News and Rumors; Real Salt Lake; San Jose Earthquakes; Toronto FC.
Lots of people complain that the biggest thing against soccer is the lack of stats. Americans love their stats and honestly I can’t blame them. Other sports are full of them and soccer does lack some statistical value to some people.
Well, today I found a site that puts the math to the test and helps us figure out what each MLS club’s odds are at making the playoffs in 2008.
Sportsclubstats.com calculates each teams odds of making the playoffs, how each upcoming game will impact those odds, and how well they have to finish out to have a shot. They use various formulas and simulations to help project a possible playoff tree.
So what is your clubs odds according to SportsClubStats? (Kudos to WVH reader henryo for the link)
Columbus Crew: 99.4%
New England Revolution: 99.3%
Chicago Fire: 97.3%
Houston Dynamo: 89.7%
DC United: 83.3%
New York Red Bulls: 82.7%
Real Salt Lake: 49.2%
FC Dallas: 42%
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Toronto FC: 37.5%
Kansas City Wizards: 37%
Colorado Rapids: 24.3%
LA Galaxy: 23.7%
Chivas USA: 22.9%
San Jose Earthquakes: 11.8%
So what do we make of these numbers? Clearly the clubs below the line from the east have a very tough shot at making the playoffs here. Since there are only two automatic bids this year, getting into the playoffs from the eastern conference is a very tough thing to do this year.
Interesting to see how Real Salt Lake is doing here. Clubs like RSL and FC Dallas are definitely lucky with this playoff format this season. There is a clear drop off between DC/New York and RSL/Dallas. RSL’s most recent loss on the road to Columbus dropped them a little more than 10 percent.
Another cool thing this site did was take each club’s remaining games and simulate them a bunch of times. They took the records from those simulations and posted what each club’s odds would be if they had say a 3-4-2 record over their last nine games. Take a club like San Jose who is in the league cellar, according to this site they need at least a five wins over their last nine games to even have a hope of making the playoffs this season. Or you look at a club like Columbus, they need just two or three more wins to be really safe in the playoff race.
Pretty interesting stuff. Check it out and let me know what you think of your club’s odds here.
27August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: CONCACAF; Champions League; Chivas USA; MLS; New England Revolution; News and Rumors.
Not a good night for Major League Soccer on the international scene. Two games on foreign soil and two very ugly losses.
Chivas loses in Panama to Tauro 2-0.
New England loses in Trindad to Jack Warner’s Joe Public 2-1.
MLS clubs lost games to very small clubs. Not the big boys of CONCACAF like Pachuca or Olimpia, but teams that play in front of maybe 2,000 people on a good night.
Now, its not the end of the world for the Revs and the American Goats; they still get to host the second legs next week. New England is probably in better shape to advance to the group stage than Chivas is at this point. The Revs at least picked up a goal on the road in their 2-1 loss.
What did you all make of this opening round to the new CONCACAF tournament? Like it so far or are you just disappointed to not see the MLS clubs fair better on the road?
26August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: MLS; Toronto FC.
You read that headline correctly, Toronto FC is on a retreat - in the middle of a playoff race. Yup, head coach John Carver decided to get the club away from things in Toronto for a couple days and for the new players to get accustom to their new teammates. One of those new players being Carlos Ruiz.
The Fish has landed with his new club on the way to this retreat. Good news too and probably a huge sigh of relief out of Carver who’s had to dodge Ruiz questions all week.
“It’s a chance for him to get to know the guys, and get in amongst them,” Carver said.
“I’m not going to bring him in and have a war against him (and) I think that’s what happened in L.A.,” said Carver, referring to the rocky relationship between Ruiz and Ruud Gullit, the Galaxy’s former coach. “This is a guy you might have to cuddle.”
Rightfully so. A gutsy move by a coaching staff that is in the middle of a playoff race. Toronto currently sits a couple points out of contention in the east. Getting the distractions and regrouping as a team though at this time of the year is not a bad thing at all. These kinds of things either do a lot of harm or a lot of good. That is why they bumped this trip up from later on in the season.
Plus it is a chance to play on the el naturel of surfaces.
“We’re going to take them up to Blue Mountain resort, wherever that is,” Carver said after yesterday’s 90-minute practice. “It’s a great opportunity to train on grass.”
You think these guys can’t wait until BMO Field gets a natural surface next year? I think so. But what do you make of a club like Toronto doing such a thing this time of the year? Will it pay off for the club who has seen a lot of change in recent weeks or will it do more harm?
26August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: FC Dallas; MLS; News and Rumors.
Nice to know some clubs still care about where they play. While all summer pitches across the land turned brown or nasty due to too much play. FC Dallas made sure the stretch run into the fall would not include a nasty, torn up field.
Kudos FCD for caring about your field.
26August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: MLS; New England Revolution; News and Rumors; Stadium Talk.
It’s starting to sounds like this is just another Boston suburb to check off the list for New England fans. We talked back in mid-July about the possibility of New England building a stadium in the Boston suburb of Somerville, which is located not too far out of the city.
This time however, the news doesn’t sound as good. The city is trying to work on it’s Inner Belt and the state may be screwing it up by mandating that a Maintenance Facility needs to be present on the site that they are expanding.
Space is already limited even though New England’s owner Bob Kraft is looking into the area for a stadium. We know the club is really in no rush to get out of their current stadium situation since its is ideal enough for the league, meaning they don’t pay rent like in some NFL stadiums.
I’m starting to wonder if the Revs will ever get their own stadium. The idea of a stadium close to Boston is almost too much to ask these days. Plus the cost of such a thing in that area is probably ridicous to begin with.
Do you think the Revs will ever get into a place of their own, one without football lines?
26August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: CONCACAF; Champions League; Chivas USA; DC United; Game Previews; Houston Dynamo; MLS; New England Revolution.
No more than five months after the previous regional tournament concluded, a new format kicks off tonight. Yup, the CONCACAF Champions League is getting under way and will not officially put and end to the CONCACAF Champions Cup and many other previous tournaments.
I’ve said before that I love this new format and have really been calling for something similar to this for a few years now in CONCACAF. I know some out there think the MLS clubs should just try to be included in some South American tournaments, and while that would be cool I think the idea of being the regions best club team still has a bit of a meaning to it.
There will be some that think its trying to be too much like UEFA Champions League and to a degree they are right. But at the end of the day this format will work ten or 20 times better than the previous formats. Why? More games, more clubs and more potential rivalries if you will. The little clubs from the small islands will want to step up their game a bit more against the big boys of Mexico and the US.
So this time around we have four clubs going for it all here. The same four that were in the North American SuperLiga a month ago. Yeah, aside from getting into the taxing part of the scheduling, two of these clubs have preliminary games tonight while the other two are safely in group play already.
How will things go for the MLS clubs? Let’s see. Read the rest of this entry »
26August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: Chicago Fire; Chivas USA; Colorado Rapids; Columbus Crew; DC United; FC Dallas; Houston Dynamo; KC Wizards; LA Galaxy; MLS; New England Revolution; New York Red Bulls; Power Rankings; Real Salt Lake; San Jose Earthquakes; Toronto FC.
A lot can change in one week. You can go from sitting on top of the world to forth or fifth place. It doesn’t take much to change you place in line, just ask any Olympian. It’s no different in the world of soccer, especially in a parity driven MLS.
We’ve gotten 21 games in the books for these clubs and with nine to go things are as tight as I’ve ever seen them. You could easily go from 13th place in the league to a playoff spot all in one game with the way things are going.
So how did week 22 change things for some MLS clubs? What we do know is things are packed in the top and at the bottom. Everything else inbetween is an utter mess.
1. Columbus Crew (37 pts., up 2) - Two game winning streak thanks to the boot of Guillermo Barros Schelotto puts this club on top. We know GBS is an MVP candidate but give a lot of credit to players around him for finishing what he sets up. Two years ago that wouldn’t have happened with this team. I will say they still need to do some convicing on the road but right now at home they are playing as well as anyone can this year.
Read the rest of this entry »
25August2008
Posted by Drew Epperley under: Chicago Fire; Chivas USA; Colorado Rapids; Columbus Crew; DC United; Daily Kicker; FC Dallas; Houston Dynamo; KC Wizards; LA Galaxy; MLS; New England Revolution; New York Red Bulls; Real Salt Lake; San Jose Earthquakes; Toronto FC.
Let’s just say things out west aren’t as good as they’ve been in years past. There’s been plenty of talk today all over the soccer blogosphere about how bad the western conference is in Major League Soccer. Most of you already know my feelings on the western side of the ball compared to the eastern side.
But for now I just wanted to throw out some more stats or reasons if you will to give you further proof that the west is lucky they get three automatic bids into the playoffs this season. And maybe further proof that the league needs to be in a single table formation (though I am still on the fence about that issue).
- Kansas City and Toronto are tied for last in the East and are five points out of a playoff spot. In the West, each team would be tied for third (but based on goal differential they’d still be out of luck in terms of getting in the playoffs).
- Speaking of goal differential, two eastern sides have a negative GD. Out west five clubs have a below par GD. Oddly enough the two above the curve out west are in Texas (Houston and Dallas).
- Four Eastern teams have more wins than losses. One Western team has the same (Houston).
- Eastern teams have won a combined 22 road games; Western teams have combined for 11 road wins.
- Eastern teams have given up an average of 26.9 goals. Western teams have given up nearly three goals more at 29.7. Some will say the poor defense out in LA would make that number a bit better, it would but not by much (still 27.5).
- Eastern teams have outscored Western teams 199 to 197. That’s even with LA’s 40 goals.
- Speaking of LA, their 40 goals seem like a lot but they are close to being pasted up on that mark by DC, who’ve scored 36 of their own.
- No western club has a winning record on the road. But to be fair only three clubs in the entire league do (Columbus, New England and Chicago). But again to be fair the three worst are from the west (Colorado, RSL, and Chivas).
- Two western clubs have yet to win back-to-back games this season. Believe it or not one of those is Real Salt Lake (other being Colorado).
Now getting into the playoffs isn’t an easy thing this year, that much we do know. I’ve talked about the magic number of points in the past that would probably be good enough for the eighth and final spot (38 to 40 points).
It’s not easy to just flip the switch to win here for some clubs. I suppose this talk gives us a good bit of ammunition for the always popular “single table debate”. What do you make of this all going on right now in the league? Single table or not, its definitely giving us something to talk about here.
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