2018 MLS East/West Interconference Play Thread

[mgarbowski]

I'm keeping track again this year, but I'm not going to make weekly posts. I plan to do it monthly. If at any point you want a mid-month update for some reason, tag me and I'll try to respond. As always, I use the MLS W-L-T format and all records are from the East POV.

Week 1 and Season to Date - 3 Games
East Record 1-2-0
At Home 0-0-0
On Road 1-2-0
Goal Differential -3
East Points 3
West Points 6

Next update should be first week of April to cover the full March results. NYC has the only East win, and Atlanta losing 4-0 to Houston killed the East goal differential, but it was worth it.

 

[mgarbowski]

March and Season to Date - 22 Games
East Record 11-9-2
At Home 6-3-2
On Road 5-6-0
Goal Differential +7
East Points 35
West Points 29

Yesterday was almost all interconference as 9 of the 11 games played were interconference and the East collected 5 wins against 3 losses and 1 draw. Until then the conferences were surprisingly even. The East seems dominant but it is not showing up in the records quite yet. Order the Supporters' Shield standings by PPG and there are 5 from each conference in the top 10.
NYC has played 3 of its 5 games to date against the West and is 3-0-0. Subtract that from the total and the West is beating the East, slightly.

 

[mgarbowski]

April
East Record 10-7-1
At Home 7-3-1
On Road 3-4-0
Goal Differential +4
East Points 31
West Points 22

Season to Date - 40 Games
East Record 21-16-3
At Home 13-6-3
On Road 8-10-0
Goal Differential +11
East Points 66
West Points 51

The record is a bit misleading as the East has 5 more wins than losses, but also played 4 more Home than Away.

 

[mgarbowski]

Funny how it's harder to remember to keep up with a monthly post than weekly. Even though we have 2 rounds of June games, here are the figures only as of the end of May.

May
East Record 7-8-5
At Home 5-5-0
On Road 2-3-5
Goal Differential +3
East Points 26
West Points 29

Season to Date - 60 Games
East Record 28-24-8
At Home 18-11-3
On Road 10-13-5
Goal Differential +14
East Points 92
West Points 80

Terrible month at Home for the East, which has 4 more wins than the West but has played 4 extra Home games. The race for overall interconference superiority looks like it will be close this year. The West is stronger than it was last year from the top through the middle of the table.

 

[mgarbowski]

June
East Record 5-5-4
At Home 5-0-1
On Road 0-5-3
Goal Differential 0
East Points 16
West Points 18

Season to Date - 74 Games
East Record 33-29-12
At Home 23-11-4 (38 games)
On Road 10-18-8 (36 games)
Goal Differential +14
East Points 111
West Points 99


Things remain very tight. Neither conference lost a home game in June.

 

[mgarbowski]

July
East Record 6-12-5
At Home 5-2-2 (9 games)
On Road 1-10-3 (14 games)
Goal Differential -12
East Points 23
West Points 41

Season to Date - 97 Games
East Record 39-41-17
At Home 28-13-6 (47 games)
On Road 11-28-11 (50 games)
Goal Differential +2
East Points 134
West Points 140

The West takes the lead. They had a significant advantage in the number of games played at home in July and crushed the East in them. The East has a slight advantage in home games the rest of the way. Barring a sudden surge, it appears the conferences will finish very close to each other in head to head results.

 

[mgarbowski]

August + September 1
East Record 5-4-4
At Home 4-1-1 (6 games)
On Road 1-3-3 (7 games)
Goal Differential +1
East Points 19
West Points 16

Season to Date - 97 Games
East Record 44-45-21
At Home 32-14-7 (53 games)
On Road 12-31-14 (57 games)
Goal Differential +3
East Points 153
West Points 156

This includes the September 1 games, which avoids breaking a week into separate months, and simplifies my records. The East had a mildly good month, winning 1 more than it lost in a month where the West had 1 extra home game. Overall, the West has 1 more win than the East, having played 4 more Home games, while the East has a +3 Goal Differential.
Looking ahead, I count 23 more games for 133 total. I believe this is correct, even though an odd number. If the 11 teams in the East played each of 12 West teams once that would be 132 games. It turns out Vancouver plays Montreal twice. What is further odd is that the East will finish with 68 home games to just 65 for the West. This is doubly odd because we know that NYCFC plays 7 Away to only 5 at Home against the West this year, so other East teams must play cumulatively 5 extra homes games to balance it out and make the numbers work. I presume all of this unbalance is done to offset existing unbalance due to having one more team in the West this year.

 

[mgarbowski]

September (excluding September 1)
East Record 9-3-3
At Home 6-2-2 (10 games)
On Road 3-1-1 (5 games)
Goal Differential +12
East Points 30
West Points 12

Season to Date - 125 Games
East Record 53-48-24
At Home 38-16-9 (63 games)
On Road 15-32-15 (62 games)
Goal Differential +15
East Points 183
West Points 168

Dominant month by the East, building a comfortable cushion with just 8 interconference games remaining (of which 5 are at Home for the East teams). The East had the benefit of 10 Home games and only 5 Away, but the 3-1-1 Away record was impressive also. As noted in the prior entry, the East will end with 3 more Home games than the West when the season is over.

Three of the East's win's this month were by Atlanta, who finished 7-3-2 against the West.
Red Bulls are 9-2-0 against the West, with one game remaining in San Jose.
NYCFC finished its Western slate of games at 6-4-2. NYC started the season 5-1-0 against the West, and then went 1-3-2.

 

[mgarbowski]

The East went 3-1-0 this week, and now leads by 21 points with 4 games remaining. That means the East has clinched the season series.
The Red Bulls finished their Western slate 10-2-0.

 

[mgarbowski]

October
East Record 5-3-0
At Home 3-2-0 (5 games)
On Road 2-1-0 (3 games)
Goal Differential +5
East Points 15
West Points 15

Full 2018 Season - 133 Games
East Record 58-51-24
At Home 41-18-9 (68 games)
On Road 17-33-15 (65 games)
Goal Differential +20
East Points 198
West Points 177

I never finished the 2018 Interconference data report. The East won 7 more games than the West. Accounting for the 3 extra Home games the East had, they did better than the West but probably not enough to be meaningfully significant. It was roughly an even year, won by the East but not by much.