The 2016 MLS East/West InterConference Play Thread
- Thread starter mgarbowski
- Start date
Yes. One was at home. I responded to your post calling us road warriors. Are you confused or me?
Probably neither, but I did just get in from a run and after a cold shower I still haven't stopped sweating - things still appear clear.... I stand by my revised statement that we're inter-conference Warriors and league-wide road warriors.
It's weird, I find myself rooting for east teams in interconference matches despite the fact its against our interests in a direct way... I hate that our conference is the "weak" conference.
Round 13 - Week 14
Two games: both at home for the East.
East Record 0-2-0
Season To Date
East Record 14-21-12
At Home 10-6-9
On Road 4-15-3
Goal Differential -9
East Points 54
West Points 75
Catching up here on the week when I was away. Bad week for us and the East, but you knew that already.
Two games: both at home for the East.
East Record 0-2-0
Season To Date
East Record 14-21-12
At Home 10-6-9
On Road 4-15-3
Goal Differential -9
East Points 54
West Points 75
Catching up here on the week when I was away. Bad week for us and the East, but you knew that already.
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Round 14 - Week 15
Six games: half at home for the East.
East Record 3-1-2
Season To Date
East Record 17-22-14
At Home 12-6-10
On Road 5-16-4
Goal Differential -6
East Points 65
West Points 80
A strong week for the East. What sticks out to me is that the cumulative goal differential is only -6 through 53 games. Then I notice the point differential is only 15. Spread that over 10 Western teams and that's only 1.5 points extra per team. Yet in the Standings they make the East look pathetic.
But the West have played 26 ties with each other while the East has 38, which accounts for 12 points of difference over the East. I'm not sure that playing to fewer intraconference ties makes them better than the East overall.
The West has also played 153 games and the East has only played 145 which is worth about 10 points.
These things never add up by the way.
Bottom line the West is not nearly as better than the East as people think based on the standing comparison. Head to head they have 5 more wins, or an average of 0.5 wins per team. It's not nothing, but it is not total dominance. The games played will even up, and I expect the ties to get closer to even than they are now, although that probably won't balance. But by the end of the year I expect that the West will be better than the East by a smaller point differential than we have now and concentrated at the bottom of the tables.
Six games: half at home for the East.
East Record 3-1-2
Season To Date
East Record 17-22-14
At Home 12-6-10
On Road 5-16-4
Goal Differential -6
East Points 65
West Points 80
A strong week for the East. What sticks out to me is that the cumulative goal differential is only -6 through 53 games. Then I notice the point differential is only 15. Spread that over 10 Western teams and that's only 1.5 points extra per team. Yet in the Standings they make the East look pathetic.
But the West have played 26 ties with each other while the East has 38, which accounts for 12 points of difference over the East. I'm not sure that playing to fewer intraconference ties makes them better than the East overall.
The West has also played 153 games and the East has only played 145 which is worth about 10 points.
These things never add up by the way.
Bottom line the West is not nearly as better than the East as people think based on the standing comparison. Head to head they have 5 more wins, or an average of 0.5 wins per team. It's not nothing, but it is not total dominance. The games played will even up, and I expect the ties to get closer to even than they are now, although that probably won't balance. But by the end of the year I expect that the West will be better than the East by a smaller point differential than we have now and concentrated at the bottom of the tables.
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What if you list the 10 teams for each side based on ppg? then the lack of played games should be at least marginally nullified.
Worth checking, and I ran it a little different. It's hard to compare PPG because it's on a different scale than actual points. So I (1) took all the PPGs in both conferences and (2) Converted them to points as if every team has played 15 games, as that is the average across the league. This indicates the extra games are worth 7 points overall.
I think the positions where the West advantage increases are a result of teams shifting position due to the PPG order being different from simple point order..
Either way I think it shows that the West point advantage is mostly due to (1) fewer ties and (2) playing more games. The 15 point advantage they earned fro IC play is less than half of the difference in total points between East and West.
The East should just pay NYCFC to play all of their games versus the West. Last year was a disaster for us going cross-conference, but this year we've got their numbers.
We won our last two last year, so if you do one of those largely indefensible but fun convenient demarcations, we started 0-6-2 against the West, and since then are 5-1-0.
And now up-to-date:
Round 16 - Week 17
Six games: two at home for the East.
East Record 1-3-2
Season To Date
East Record 19-27-17
At Home 13-6-12 (31 games)
On Road 6-21-5 (32 games)
Goal Differential -12
East Points 74
West Points 98
The East had started to make things respectable, but it was an illusion based on a favorable Home/Away imbalance. Then in the last 2 weeks the East had 3 Home games and 7 Away, to create near parity, and the West just dominated. As it happens, both East and West have only lost 6 times in 31 and 32 Home games respectively. The difference overall is that the East won 13 and drew 12 at Home, while the West won 21 and drew 5.
Round 16 - Week 17
Six games: two at home for the East.
East Record 1-3-2
Season To Date
East Record 19-27-17
At Home 13-6-12 (31 games)
On Road 6-21-5 (32 games)
Goal Differential -12
East Points 74
West Points 98
The East had started to make things respectable, but it was an illusion based on a favorable Home/Away imbalance. Then in the last 2 weeks the East had 3 Home games and 7 Away, to create near parity, and the West just dominated. As it happens, both East and West have only lost 6 times in 31 and 32 Home games respectively. The difference overall is that the East won 13 and drew 12 at Home, while the West won 21 and drew 5.
Things will even out now that Mad Max is hitting the road again.... two teams enter... one team leaves...
And we provide the only loss to the West this week.
Round 17 - Week 18
Four games: two at home for the East.
East Record 0-1-3
Season To Date
East Record 19-28-20
At Home 13-6-14 (33 games)
On Road 6-22-6 (34 games)
Goal Differential -14
East Points 77
West Points 104
Round 17 - Week 18
Four games: two at home for the East.
East Record 0-1-3
Season To Date
East Record 19-28-20
At Home 13-6-14 (33 games)
On Road 6-22-6 (34 games)
Goal Differential -14
East Points 77
West Points 104
Rounds 18-19 - Week 19
Fantasy Rounds and MLS weeks synced up this week.
Six games: two at home for the East; four in the West
East Record 1-2-3
Season To Date
East Record 20-30-23
At Home 14-6-15 (35 games)
On Road 6-24-8 (38 games)
Goal Differential -16
East Points 83
West Points 113
There are 27 interconference games left and City is in 5 of them. Nobody else in the East has more than 3 remaining. We don't mind them, but looked at another way, we're running short of games where we can count on the West helping us. Further, given the extreme H/A split for interconference games, there is a shortage of games where our competition plays in the West. Here are the remaining IC games for the 5 other teams currently above the playoff line in the East
TFC 1H 1A
MTL 2H
PHI 2H 1A
NYRB 2A
NER 2H 1A
So Montreal has no IC away games left, Red Bulls have 2, and the remainder have one each. This could be a reason to expect those teams to perform mildly better the rest of the way. Our split is 3H 2 A, as if we had any idea whether that's good or bad at this point.
Fantasy Rounds and MLS weeks synced up this week.
Six games: two at home for the East; four in the West
East Record 1-2-3
Season To Date
East Record 20-30-23
At Home 14-6-15 (35 games)
On Road 6-24-8 (38 games)
Goal Differential -16
East Points 83
West Points 113
There are 27 interconference games left and City is in 5 of them. Nobody else in the East has more than 3 remaining. We don't mind them, but looked at another way, we're running short of games where we can count on the West helping us. Further, given the extreme H/A split for interconference games, there is a shortage of games where our competition plays in the West. Here are the remaining IC games for the 5 other teams currently above the playoff line in the East
TFC 1H 1A
MTL 2H
PHI 2H 1A
NYRB 2A
NER 2H 1A
So Montreal has no IC away games left, Red Bulls have 2, and the remainder have one each. This could be a reason to expect those teams to perform mildly better the rest of the way. Our split is 3H 2 A, as if we had any idea whether that's good or bad at this point.
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Plus, of our 5 games against the West, 3 are against the top 3 teams (all at home): COL, LAG, DAL; and 2 are against #8 and #10, SNJ and HOU, both away.
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