The 2016 MLS East/West InterConference Play Thread

[mgarbowski]

Round 5 - Weeks 6
Two games both home for the East
East Record 1-1-0

Season To Date
East Record 4-9-5
At Home 3-2-3
On Road 1-7-2
Goal Differential -7
East Points 17
West Points 32

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 6 - Week 7
Three games all held at West stadiums
East Record 0-3-0

Season To Date
East Record 4-12-5
At Home 3-2-3
On Road 1-10-2
Goal Differential -11
East Points 17
West Points 41

It's getting ugly for the East in road interconference games. Only 1 win and 2 ties in 13 tries. That's 5 out of a possible 39 points, while the West nabbed 31 points in those games.
This terrible performance by the rest of the East is basically why NYCFC is sitting in the last playoff spot, -- barely by the second tie-breaker -- with a 1.0 PPG. The bad news is that 29% of the interconference games held in the west that don't involve us have already been played compared to 19% of the total league schedule so we have been getting an outsized benefit from this anomaly. We will have to win a few games out West to really take advantage of it.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 7 - Week 8
One game: Houston/West hosting Columbus/East
East Record 1-0-0

Season To Date
East Record 5-12-5
At Home 3-2-3
On Road 2-10-2
Goal Differential -10
East Points 20
West Points 41

Just one IC game last week but this week has 7 coming, including the first for NYCFC when we host Vancouver on Saturday. ALso 5 of the 7 are home games for the east to start rebalancing the current H|A split of 8|14.

 

[Ulrich]

Round 7 - Week 8
One game: Houston/West hosting Columbus/East
East Record 1-0-0

Season To Date
East Record 5-12-5
At Home 3-2-3
On Road 2-10-2
Goal Differential -10
East Points 20
West Points 41

Just one IC game last week but this week has 7 coming, including the first for NYCFC when we host Vancouver on Saturday. ALso 5 of the 7 are home games for the east to start rebalancing the current H|A split of 8|14.

NYCFC did it's part. As did RB. Others... Not so much

 

[mgarbowski]

NYCFC did it's part. As did RB. Others... Not so much

Yeah. Need to wait for the POR|TOR game for the full week results but the best you can say about the East at home this week is they didn't lose. The West wins. Good for us though.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 8 - Week 9
Seven games: East was home for 5.
East Record 2-2-3

Season To Date
East Record 7-14-8
At Home 5-2-6
On Road 2-12-2
Goal Differential -7
East Points 29
West Points 50

We won our first game against the West this year. Last year we didn't manage that until our 9th try in September. We ended up winning the last 2 against San Jose and Vancouver.
The East won only 2 of 5 home games, drawing the rest, and the West continued it's home dominance winning the other 2 games.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 9 - Week 10
Two games: One home and away.
East Record 1-1-0

Season To Date
East Record 8-15-8
At Home 6-2-6
On Road 2-13-2
Goal Differential -8
East Points 32
West Points 53

Home team won both games this week.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 10 - Week 11
Six games: three home and three away.
East Record 1-3-2

Season To Date
East Record 9-18-10
At Home 6-3-8
On Road 3-15-2
Goal Differential -9
East Points 37
West Points 64

The East's only win in 6 tries came on the road this week. Yes, that would be us. We are 2-0-0 against the West this year. The East only managed 2 ties and a loss at home. The West, when not playing us, was 2-0-0 at home.

 

[JCMore]

Round 10 - Week 11
Six games: three home and three away.
East Record 1-3-2

Season To Date
East Record 9-18-10
At Home 6-3-8
On Road 3-15-2
Goal Differential -9
East Points 37
West Points 64

The East's only win in 6 tries came on the road this week. Yes, that would be us. We are 2-0-0 against the West this year. The East only managed 2 ties and a loss at home. The West, when not playing us, was 2-0-0 at home.

If we are the only team who a) can beat a western conference team and B) beat them on the road I am all for it. Let the west continue to take the points from the east as long as NYC continues to take their points from the west.

 

[Gotham Gator]

East West Points Analysis

Total West Points: 174 (115 games)
Total East Points: 125 (105 games)
Difference from Interconference Play: 27*
Difference from Ties: 7**
Difference from Extra Games: 15***

* - The West have obtained 64 points from interconference games this season and the East 37.
** - The West teams have 24 ties this season, and the East teams 38. Ties award one point less per game than games where a team wins, or 0.5 points per participant. The point difference from ties is therefore equal to one-half the difference in number of ties.
*** - This is the amount not attributable to interconference play and ties. It works out to 1.5 ppg, which seems a little high, but I can't work out what else it would be.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 11 - Week 12
Two games: both at home for the East.
East Record 1-1-0

Season To Date
East Record 10-19-10
At Home 7-4-8
On Road 3-15-2
Goal Differential -10
East Points 40
West Points 67

Of all teams, Chicago puts one in the Win column for the East. Yes it was at home against Houston, but it's important to get wins at home against teams that have not won on the road yet all season [cough, cough].

Still, the East merely split at home, and the West continues to own 90% of the Eastern conference. The 10% would be us. If only we got more than 1 PPG against the East.
If only sports were more like math:

West>East
NYCFC>West, therefore
NYCFC>East
Yet it does not work that way.

 

[Sabo]

East West Points Analysis

Total West Points: 174 (115 games)
Total East Points: 125 (105 games)
Difference from Interconference Play: 27*
Difference from Ties: 7**
Difference from Extra Games: 15***

* - The West have obtained 64 points from interconference games this season and the East 37.
** - The West teams have 24 ties this season, and the East teams 38. Ties award one point less per game than games where a team wins, or 0.5 points per participant. The point difference from ties is therefore equal to one-half the difference in number of ties.
*** - This is the amount not attributable to interconference play and ties. It works out to 1.5 ppg, which seems a little high, but I can't work out what else it would be.

You are missing some games. East has 42 ties, not 38.

The point difference from games with ties is 2/3 the point difference from wins (1+1), (0+3). Hope that helps your math.

 

[Gotham Gator]

You are missing some games. East has 42 ties, not 38.

The point difference from games with ties is 2/3 the point difference from wins (1+1), (0+3). Hope that helps your math.

Thanks for the help. I am confident in my analysis that a tie costs 1/2 point per team. Look at it this way. A win awards a total of 3 points over both teams. A tie awards a total of 2 points over both teams. The difference is 1 point over both teams or 1/2 point per team. In other words this is how much less you are getting per game if you tie than if you split wins/losses 50-50.

Also, my 38 figure was from last week. There were 4 more ties added to the East standings this week.

 

[adam]

This guy took it to another level.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid

 

[mgarbowski]

This guy took it to another level.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid

He's trying to do something I'm not which is figure out why the West beats the East. I wish him well, but I'm not sure I follow, and to the extent I do, it doesn't make sense. His charts seem to show for example, that in East v West Games, the East has both More Goals For, and More Goals Conceded, which makes me wait, what?

 

[adam]

He's trying to do something I'm not which is figure out why the West beats the East. I wish him well, but I'm not sure I follow, and to the extent I do, it doesn't make sense. His charts seem to show for example, that in East v West Games, the East has both More Goals For, and More Goals Conceded, which makes me wait, what?

It is an MLS article. Maybe he's the same guy that drew up those tie-breaking procedures.

 

[Ulrich]

He's trying to do something I'm not which is figure out why the West beats the East. I wish him well, but I'm not sure I follow, and to the extent I do, it doesn't make sense. His charts seem to show for example, that in East v West Games, the East has both More Goals For, and More Goals Conceded, which makes me wait, what?

And yet unless I missed it, nowhere did he discuss the East having two expansion teams. That's a lot of gimme points.

 

[mgarbowski]

Round 12 - Week 13
Six games: 4 at home for the East.
East Record 4-2-0

Season To Date
East Record 14-19-12
At Home 10-4-9
On Road 4-15-3
Goal Differential -6
East Points 54
West Points 69

It was bound to happen, I guess. A 6-game undefeated week for the East getting 14 of a possible 18 points. Philadelphia became the first team in 7 tries to get any points in Colorado this year, and did it by going down a goal at minute 87 then tying it back at 90+2.
The West still has a commanding lead and we've played 23 games in East venues compared to 19 in the West.
The league as a whole has played more than 40% of the interconference games. NYCFC has played 20%

 

[Ulrich]

Round 13 - Week 13
Six games: 4 at home for the East.
East Record 4-2-0

Season To Date
East Record 14-19-12
At Home 10-4-9
On Road 1-15-3
Goal Differential -6
East Points 54
West Points 69

It was bound to happen, I guess. A 6-game undefeated week for the East getting 14 of a possible 18 points. Philadelphia became the first team in 7 tries to get any points in Colorado this year, and did it by going down a goal a minute 87 then tying it back at 90+2.
The West still has a commanding lead and we've played 23 games in East venues compared to 19 in the West.
The league as a whole has played more than 40% of the interconference games. NYCFC has played 20%

And yet NYCFC are the current road warriors. We're tied for most away wins and have 2 games in hand on Dallas and 3 on Toronto.

 

[mgarbowski]

And yet NYCFC are the current road warriors. We're tied for most away wins and have 2 games in hand on Dallas and 3 on Toronto.

Only one of those was inter conference though.....
So far.