And they both end with "ation". It would be unfair to treat them differently.
The 2016 MLS East/West InterConference Play Thread
- Thread starter mgarbowski
- Start date
In 2 or 3 years, it will be 24 teams and home and home in conference and 1 game OoC.
So don't read much into this right now. It'll be interesting to see the schedule next year. I'm guessing we'll get a 3rd game against RB, New England and Philly.
Full 30ish player rosters, including DPs.Very interesting, especially in light ofmgarbowski 's analysis of win/loss between the conferences. East spending more. West winning more. Maybe everyone should spend less.
Clarification: Do those spending numbers cover cap spending only? Or do they include the above the cap DP spending/TAM/etc?
I wonder how much the time zone difference could play into the better performance of western conference teams. In other words, is it perhaps easier for western conference teams to come out east and play a couple of hours earlier than it is for eastern conference teams to go out west and play a couple of hours later? There's also the added factor of irregular match start times to accommodate TV schedules.
It's probably a bit of a stretch and difficult to decouple this from home field advantage except where home / away teams play in more similar time zones, but thought it was worth a mention.
It's probably a bit of a stretch and difficult to decouple this from home field advantage except where home / away teams play in more similar time zones, but thought it was worth a mention.
Nothing scientific here but traveling for work I always found it easier to work after traveling west. Of course I had more work at 7 AM and they work more at 7 PM.
I have a movie for you to watch that delves into this by a pompous Frenchman with a gun-toting & albino Milli Vanilli. Since you
Be the Spoon.
Seen it; it was around then that I figured the next 1.5 movies were going to be, less than satisfying.
Wasn't thinking of this at all by the way but I get why you might have thought so, I was and was just playing off the very common internet argument point, sometimes a preemptive disclaimer, that correlation is not causation.
It's the opposite in the NFL. West Coast teams typically struggle on trips east - that 1 pm EST kickoff feels like 10 am.
I think the West has just had better ownership the last decade.
Much of the West have fantastic, fully engaged ownership like Seattle, SKC, RSL, Portland, LA...
Meanwhile back East, we've had RB, the Krafts, various Chicago owners...just a lot of apathy and stupidity.
But the new Columbus owner is good, new Orlando owner is very ambitious, Toronto have shown more ambition, CFG look ready to splash the cash, Montreal has engaged ownership.
Once Miami and Atlanta join, I think the East will own the league.
Much of the West have fantastic, fully engaged ownership like Seattle, SKC, RSL, Portland, LA...
Meanwhile back East, we've had RB, the Krafts, various Chicago owners...just a lot of apathy and stupidity.
But the new Columbus owner is good, new Orlando owner is very ambitious, Toronto have shown more ambition, CFG look ready to splash the cash, Montreal has engaged ownership.
Once Miami and Atlanta join, I think the East will own the league.
Last edited:
I don't think Atlanta is going to be that hot in the East. It's just another revenue stream for Blank outside of NFL, just another thing to house in his arena. Not a top priority. Miami, if/when it happens, will be a force in the East if they have good people in control of the team.
All records, etc are from the standpoint of the Eastern Conference.
All Records are in standard MLS format W-L-T.
Week 2 there were no interconference games.
Week 3 - 4 Games
East Record 1-2-1
At Home 1-0-1
On Road 0-2-0
Goal Differential -2
East Points 4
West Points 7
Season To Date
East Record 2-5-3
At Home 1-0-2
On Road 1-5-1
Goal Differential -7
East Points 9
West Points 18
There is still a big disparity in Home/Away games played. The East is doing OK at home, but the disparity is big even there. The East has 1.67 PPG points at home. The West has 2.57 PPG at home.
Week 4 upcoming 2 games both at home for the East.
All Records are in standard MLS format W-L-T.
Week 2 there were no interconference games.
Week 3 - 4 Games
East Record 1-2-1
At Home 1-0-1
On Road 0-2-0
Goal Differential -2
East Points 4
West Points 7
Season To Date
East Record 2-5-3
At Home 1-0-2
On Road 1-5-1
Goal Differential -7
East Points 9
West Points 18
There is still a big disparity in Home/Away games played. The East is doing OK at home, but the disparity is big even there. The East has 1.67 PPG points at home. The West has 2.57 PPG at home.
Week 4 upcoming 2 games both at home for the East.
Last edited:
it's 2016, not 1816 or 1916 when cross country travel was prohibitively expense and time consuming.
do teams in NFL (16 games), NBA (82 games), MLB (162 games) and NHL (82 games) have the same issues about travel and time zones?
do teams in NFL (16 games), NBA (82 games), MLB (162 games) and NHL (82 games) have the same issues about travel and time zones?
I'm not necessarily expecting a larger home field advantage for interconference play in MLS, and I would want to compare over a few seasons to make a judgment. It may or may not exist. But the regular home field performance is certainly real, and I think is responsible for some but certainly not all of the West's advantage so far this year.
Trael should be easy these days most the clubs have private jets and there are plenty of training facilities to train in if you want to travel earlier. Teams in Europe play and different times all week and have no issues adjusting.
The start time for games is a huge advantage for the West teams. A 7pm Pacific start is 10pm for east coast teams - that's tough to get the same performance out of a player's body when they're used to being finished with all activity by then.
Believe MLS teams are only allowed four charters per year. Presumably they use them from the cross country flights, but a lot of commercial travel in MLS.
European teams very rarely have to fly more than 2-3 hours to get anywhere on the continent and there is rarely more than an hour time difference between cities. In the US there is a 3 hour time difference between east and west coast and fairly long commercial flight times between the two coasts as well. It's not nearly as easy as it is in Europe.
I assume the Europe comment was more in reference to early stage Champion's League matches. The flight from Manchester to Moscow (or vice versa) is bound to be tough. But there are very few of those and the top teams in UCL are so much better than their far east competitors that the time zone issue is nearly irrelevant.
Round 4 (Weeks 4 and 5)
Six games 3H/3A
East Record 1-3-2
Season To Date
East Record 3-8-5
At Home 2-1-3
On Road 1-7-2
Goal Differential -9
East Points 14
West Points 29
Orlando broke an 8-game winless streak for the East, and in so doing took over First Place. Overall, the West is doing us a lot of good, even with that result. And it will be a while before we start playing the West. 25% of all interconference games will be complete by the time we play our first (NYC plays in 10% of these games overall). The Red Bulls will have played 5 of their 10 IC games before we play 1. We either need to start taking advantage of this early schedule and the gifts the West is giving us, or we'll need to play well against the West ourselves.
Six games 3H/3A
East Record 1-3-2
Season To Date
East Record 3-8-5
At Home 2-1-3
On Road 1-7-2
Goal Differential -9
East Points 14
West Points 29
Orlando broke an 8-game winless streak for the East, and in so doing took over First Place. Overall, the West is doing us a lot of good, even with that result. And it will be a while before we start playing the West. 25% of all interconference games will be complete by the time we play our first (NYC plays in 10% of these games overall). The Red Bulls will have played 5 of their 10 IC games before we play 1. We either need to start taking advantage of this early schedule and the gifts the West is giving us, or we'll need to play well against the West ourselves.
Similar threads
- Poll
