Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Mid-season MLS Report

With the MLS season just about halfway over (and the league mostly on an international break), I figured it'd be a good time to look at where things are.

1. Best Team: Toronto FC
They have only lost two games, are outscoring opponents by almost a goal per game (0.73) and, more importantly, holding the bad guys to only 1.00 goals a game. Defense wins in MLS because very few teams have the discipline to play it. On top of these figures, they make it look pretty easy.

2. Supporter Sheild Race
The most important race for me, but it's rarely something teams try and really get after. What an unfortunate thing. Anyway. Outside of Toronto, we have Chicago, FC Dallas and (maybe) Sporting KC if they can get their scoring going. I don't see anyone else really challenging for the SS outside that group right now.

3. Bottom Feeders
Just like any other MLS season, look to see who plays this group the most to find out who will shoot up the table. Real Salt Lake, Colorado and DC are terrible. They can't score. Minnesota is in there as well, but I can see some improvement there.

4. Helltown team of the first half
Tim Melia SKC

Brandon Vincent CHI
Seth Sinovic SKC
Justin Morrow TFC
Matt Besler SKC

Romain Alessandrini LAG
Maximiliano Morales NYCFC
Miguel Almiron ATL
Jack Harrison NYCFC

Nemanja Nikolic CHI
David Villa NYCFC

Bench: Sean Johnson NYCFC, Joao Meira CHI, Justin Meram CLB, Lee Nguyen NER, Maximilano Urruti FCD, Gerso SKC

5. WhoScored.com favorites
Romain Alessandrini LAG, Maximiliano Urruti FCD, Ignacio Piatti MTL, Benny Feilhaber SKC, Miguel Almiron ATL, Justin Meram CLB.

6. Goal + Assist Leaders
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NPG+A pGMNameTeamWage
0.98David VillaNYCFC$5,610,000
0.97Justin MeramCLB$328,750
0.93Romain AlessandriniLAG$1,999,401
0.89David AccamCHI$820,938
0.86Diego ValeriPDX$2,607,500
0.86Víctor VázquezTFC$700,000
0.85Yamil AsadATL$150,000
0.84Maximiliano UrrutiFCD$300,000
0.83Miguel AlmirónATL$2,297,000
0.82Nemanja NikolicCHI$1,906,333
0.75Héctor VillalbaATL$770,750
0.74Chris WondolowskiSJE$800,000
0.73Lee NguyenNER$500,000
0.73C.J. SapongPHI$300,000
0.69Jozy AltidoreTFC$4,875,000
0.69Christian RamirezMIN$392,504
0.68Julian GresselATL$93,750
0.67Jack HarrisonNYCFC$165,500
0.64Kei KamaraNER$800,000
0.63Federico HiguainCLB$1,050,000
0.62Cyle LarinORL$192,000
0.6Maximiliano MoralezNYCFC$2,000,000
0.59Diego FagundezNER$180,000
0.59AlexHOU$170,000
0.59Albert RusnakRSL$882,813
0.58Erick TorresHOU$665,000

7. Form Table


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