2017 Schedule Thread

[JGarrettLieb]

I always prefer night games.

I've always been partial to the afternoon games myself. There's nothing quite like having a beer or two on a warm summers afternoon at a game. Especially when its about 3pm, when the light starts to go a bit golden.

The freaking 1pm welcome to the sauna its 105 in the stadium and you can fry an egg on the seats games stink.

 

[QuigrNYCFC]

How do you guys ( others ) feel about so many early Saturday matches ? I moved to FL and gave up my seats so no big deal here but a few people I know are considering dropping their tickets because of this. They own and operate businesses that require them to be there on Saturdays so attending won't be the easiest. And in todays world its common for people to work 6 day work weeks or weekends only etc. Was just wondering if it has been spoken about by others who share the inconvenience. Are these early kick offs to accommodate the Euro tv market ?

Probably for Euro market. Starts right after the last premier league game of the day and a little before when high profile La Liga games are on.

I much prefer night games during mid-week. I saw we've got a few of them this year but not many. Catching a game with a cold beer after a shit day at work is the best.

 

[adam]

I've always been partial to the afternoon games myself. There's nothing quite like having a beer or two on a warm summers afternoon at a game. Especially when its about 3pm, when the light starts to go a bit golden.

The freaking 1pm welcome to the sauna its 105 in the stadium and you can fry an egg on the seats games stink.

I like a 5pm match. Goes to 7. Kid falls asleep in the car ride home. Transfer them to bed and crack open a beer. Log onto the forums and see all the posts. That's the life, oh yeah...

 

[Gotham Gator]

Attendance at day games has been higher, but I don't know if 1pm or 4pm makes a big difference. Anything after 5pm gets difficult as I am bringing kids. I think that is true for a lot of people.

 

[Danton]

#anecdotalscheduletruther: my being a red head and the scheduling of the summer afternoon games just proves that NYCFC is in bed with BIG ZINC OXIDE.

 

[adam]

#anecdotalscheduletruther: my being a red head and the scheduling of the summer afternoon games just proves that NYCFC is in bed with BIG ZINC OXIDE.

At least the club is modern enough not to provide Ginger specific bathrooms.

 

[Lasker]

Attendance at day games has been higher, but I don't know if 1pm or 4pm makes a big difference. Anything after 5pm gets difficult as I am bringing kids. I think that is true for a lot of people.

1 vs 4 makes a big difference to me - While I prefer night games, 4 pm is fine. It's the 1 and 2:00 games I really dislike.

 

[LionNYC]

We're entering the toughest stretch of our schedule right now. Over the next 47 days, we're playing 9 games. That's a game every 5.2 days. Two single weeks (or eight days) of three matches in that time frame. All of this is before the two week Gold Cup MLS break.

Sunday April 23 vs. Orlando
Saturday April 29 at Columbus
Sunday May 7 vs. Atlanta
Sunday May 14 at Dallas
Wednesday May 17 at RSL
Sunday May 21 at Orlando
Sunday May 28 at Atlanta
Wednesday May 31 vs. New England
Saturday June 3 vs. Philadelphia

 

[Gotham Gator]

Good post. Next 7 games all feature tough opponents, with 5 of those on the road. We get a bit of a break with the last two opponents at home, but as mentioned, those are on a short rest.

Helpfully, Orlando also has a mid-week game before our contest on May 21 - they have to travel back from San Jose. Still, 3 road games in 8 days across the country is killer.

Philly is open the week before we play them on June 3.

 

[LionNYC]

Would it have been better to play on FIFA dates rather than having such a busy schedule?

Take your pick: Rested, fewer players or tired, more players.

 

[Ulrich]

Would it have been better to play on FIFA dates rather than having such a busy schedule?

Take your pick: Rested, fewer players or tired, more players.

We have too many NT players to even think of playing on those dates:
Ring, Chanot, Wallace, Mata, Awuah (now), Hererra, Camargo, and TMac (once he puts a stamp on his hypothetical Ireland invite).

 

[Gotham Gator]

We should be fine with the occasional mid-week game. Now, having to play mid-week 2 weeks out of 3 - with 6 games in 20 days - that is too much.

 

[LionNYC]

One thing I notice in our schedule is that both of our games vs. Chicago are on the latter half of a double game week for us...

Wednesday July 19 vs. Toronto, Saturday July 22 vs. Chicago
- Chicago's only game this week is vs NYCFC and no DGW the following week.

Wednesday September 27 at Montreal, Saturday September 30 at Chicago
- Chicago is at San Jose on Wednesday, so this match up is fairer

 

[Kjbert]

Watching our midfield vs theirs will be terrific. Vincent is playing well out wide and their striker has been the DP steal of the year

 

[LionNYC]

So MLSsoccer.com recently released the strength of schedule for each team's remaining games. The lower the score, the easier the schedule. We rank 4th easiest among the East (and 8th overall) with 1.35 behind Toronto with 1.28, Atlanta with 1.28, and DC with 1.34. Chicago has the 5th hardest in the east (6th hardest overall) with 1.47.

 

[Ulrich]

So MLSsoccer.com recently released the strength of schedule for each team's remaining games. The lower the score, the easier the schedule. We rank 4th easiest among the East (and 8th overall) with 1.35 behind Toronto with 1.28, Atlanta with 1.28, and DC with 1.34. Chicago has the 5th hardest in the east (6th hardest overall) with 1.47.

And it only gets harder for RB

 

[sbrylski]

So MLSsoccer.com recently released the strength of schedule for each team's remaining games. The lower the score, the easier the schedule. We rank 4th easiest among the East (and 8th overall) with 1.35 behind Toronto with 1.28, Atlanta with 1.28, and DC with 1.34. Chicago has the 5th hardest in the east (6th hardest overall) with 1.47.

Eyeballing this, Chicago is in danger of fading from the top 2 spots while Toronto, NYCFC, and Atlanta should only improve their grip on playoff spots.

After those four, Montreal has the easiest schedule among playoff contenders in the East, but it'll be a battle to climb the table. Going to be a clusterf*ck for those last two spots.

 

[mgarbowski]

So MLSsoccer.com recently released the strength of schedule for each team's remaining games. The lower the score, the easier the schedule. We rank 4th easiest among the East (and 8th overall) with 1.35 behind Toronto with 1.28, Atlanta with 1.28, and DC with 1.34. Chicago has the 5th hardest in the east (6th hardest overall) with 1.47.

Considering we play 1/3 of our remaining 15 games against the teams with the 1st, 2nd, and 4th best PPG in the league (excluding ourselves), the other 10 games must be against utter weaklings to have an average ranked that low.

 

[JGarrettLieb]

Considering we play 1/3 of our remaining 15 games against the teams with the 1st, 2nd, and 4th best PPG in the league (excluding ourselves), the other 10 games must be against utter weaklings to have an average ranked that low.

In order we play

Toronto
Chicago
Toronto
NJRB
LA Galaxy
New England
NJRB
Sporting KC
Timbers
Colorado
Dynamo
Montreal
Chicago
New England
Columbus

4/15 decides supporters shield and are the three best teams.

LA is bottom third
New England x2 is bottom of east and bottom quarter.
NJRB x2 is out of playoffs in east but middle of pack in points.
Sporting KC is best in west and right behind us in rankings.
Timbers are right above NJRB and middle of pack.
Colorado is worse than New England 3rd from bottom.
Dynamo are right above timbers and in middle of pack.
Montreal Impact are bottom quarter
Columbus are high side of middle of pack.

Our schedule is then.

5/15 best in league.

4/15 are bottom feeders.

6/15 are in the middle somewhere. Tending towards the higher side of the middle.


Is our remaining schedue super hard, I don't think so, its probably average or a bit above average at best. But that's entirely based on points totals and not the form or possible reinforcements teams could bring in.

But if you really look at the table, the strength of schedule is kind of deceiving based on a straight ranking system. Near as I can tell a strength of schedule remaining of 1.41 + or - .1 is enough to encapsulate 13/22 teams. So really its not that NYCFC's schedule is massively weaker than everyone else's its that its ever so slightly weaker than the majority of teams in the league in a tight cluster. And the difference between the strongest and weakest schedule remaining is .53 points per game. In other words, enforced fnancial parity works bitches.

But we all knew that, since the supporters shield in MLS has never been won with more than 67 points. Which is about 26 less points than you typically need to win the premier league.

 

[LionNYC]

In order we play

Toronto
Chicago
Toronto
NJRB
LA Galaxy
New England
NJRB
Sporting KC
Timbers
Colorado
Dynamo
Montreal
Chicago
New England
Columbus

4/15 decides supporters shield and are the three best teams.

LA is bottom third
New England x2 is bottom of east and bottom quarter.
NJRB x2 is out of playoffs in east but middle of pack in points.
Sporting KC is best in west and right behind us in rankings.
Timbers are right above NJRB and middle of pack.
Colorado is worse than New England 3rd from bottom.
Dynamo are right above timbers and in middle of pack.
Montreal Impact are bottom quarter
Columbus are high side of middle of pack.

Our schedule is then.

5/15 best in league.

4/15 are bottom feeders.

6/15 are in the middle somewhere. Tending towards the higher side of the middle.


Is our remaining schedue super hard, I don't think so, its probably average or a bit above average at best. But that's entirely based on points totals and not the form or possible reinforcements teams could bring in.

But if you really look at the table, the strength of schedule is kind of deceiving based on a straight ranking system. Near as I can tell a strength of schedule remaining of 1.41 + or - .1 is enough to encapsulate 13/22 teams. So really its not that NYCFC's schedule is massively weaker than everyone else's its that its ever so slightly weaker than the majority of teams in the league in a tight cluster. And the difference between the strongest and weakest schedule remaining is .53 points per game. In other words, enforced fnancial parity works bitches.

But we all knew that, since the supporters shield in MLS has never been won with more than 67 points. Which is about 26 less points than you typically need to win the premier league.

But a lot of those hard games are home. Toronto, Chicago, Red Bulls, Sporting KC, Portland.

Outside of Toronto and Chicago, our hardest away match is probably none.