MLS Weakly, 04 05 2022: Notes on Week 5 with a New Org Chart/Principle

One analogy.

Because it’s been a couple weeks, I want to start by reminding people - while blushing, just to get that on record - how I viewed/organized every team competing in MLS after Week 4:

Long Season (aka, Playoffs)
New England Revolution, New York City FC, Seattle Sounders, Colorado Rapids, Portland Timbers, Nashville SC, Los Angeles FC, Philadelphia Union, Minnesota United FC, Real Salt Lake, Orlando City SC, Columbus Crew SC, Atlanta United FC, Club du Foot Montreal

Fodder, aka, the Teams Who Help Other Teams Reach the Playoffs by Failing (aka, Nope!)
DC United, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Toronto FC, San Jose Earthquakes, Houston Dynamo, Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Inter Miami CF, FC Cincinnati, Los Angeles Galaxy, Red Bull New York, Sporting Kansas City, FC Dallas, Chicago Fire FC

The Watch-List - Good!
FC Dallas

The Watch-List - Bad![Ed. - I was 66% wrong!]
Real Salt Lake
Club du Foot Montreal
Nashville SC

I’ve spent...too many hours trying to figure out how to either reorganize and/or rename both the teams and categories and I finally (but also almost certainly not really) landed on a framing that makes sense. It’ll take me at least 500 words to get there, so buckle up and thank you for your patience.

Week 5 threw a decent number of curveballs - e.g., if nothing else, the away team won eight of the fourteen games played - but some detail and/or narrative pointed to some, or even most, of that. Some games fit that description better than others (even if for momentarily non-obvious reasons), while some other games just seem…meaningless. In my mind, those are the games a neutral fan can safely dismiss as…let’s call it unedifying. In Week 5, those were (game summaries are linked to in the final score):

MLS Weakly, Week 5: A Report on the Double-Headers & Other Points of Interest

Twice the patriotism, twice the fun!

Major League Soccer wrapped up a busy Week 5 about an hour ago (whoops, that's four now), so here I am picking through some low-hanging observations, light, yet broad video review and a quick general staring at of things. Throw that in the mixer, have a couple…things, stick a finger or two down your throat and out it comes. Welcome to the MLS Weakly…

First things first, I think people should spend some time each week looking at the crudest and bluntest measure of success and failure in sports - e.g., the standings. I can give one reason why in a game I know nothing about apart from the final score: the Seattle Sounders’ 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC. Given both teams’ trajectories thereto - e.g., all but flawless for Seattle versus visibly sputtering for LAFC - and with the Sounders at home, I’m not sure what else one would expect. But here’s where staring at context-less numbers in the standings comes in: Seattle has a league-leading +11 goal differential, and they’ve given up just two goals in six games. That’s the kind of game you note, no further observation needed. Also, just to mention, New York City FC has the second best goal differential at +6, Orlando City SC follows them up at +4 and then - real point of interest - it’s +2 or worse from there on out.

And look where those teams are, Seattle, NYCFC and Orlando: 1st in the West, 2nd and 3rd in the East. Of which, bravo to the New England Revolution for its thin claim on first place in the East after Week 5; I say “thin” because Orlando, NYCFC and their superior goal differentials have a game in hand on the Revs. Speaking of games in hand, that segues nicely into the big story of MLS Week 5: all the team that played two games during it and how they survived them. Once again, here is the bluntest possible measure:

Teams that took all six points: Seattle and Minnesota United FC
Teams that took four: Toronto FC, Philadelphia Union, New England
Teams that took three: Club du Foot Montreal, Houston Dynamo FC, Sporting Kansas City, DC United, Inter Miami CF
Teams that took zero points: Columbus Crew SC, San Jose Earthquakes, Vancouver Whitecaps