Crew drop out of playoff position

The loss last night to Chicago puts Columbus one spot out of playoffs with just about half (45%) of the MLS season left to play which means the watch has started. Before this recent 4 game skid, the Crew looked like they were coasting to another playoff appearance.

We usually have a pretty good picture of which teams are good/bad by mid-summer on the MLS calendar. The way things are looking right now, Columbus will be battling with Montreal, Philly, and DC above them and Atlanta below them.

I think the rest are pretty much locked into their positions.

PPG	Team 1	Team 2
3.00
2.90
2.80
2.70
2.60
2.50
2.40
2.30
2.20
2.10	New England
2.00
1.90
1.80
1.70	NYCFC
1.60	Orlando City	Nashville
1.50
1.40	Philadelphia	D.C. United
1.30	CF Montréal
1.20	Columbus Crew
1.10	Atlanta Utd
1.00	NY Red Bulls	Chicago Fire
0.90	Inter Miami	FC Cincinnati
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00

Projected MLS '19 Table Finish

Using current points per game as our guide, here is a look at how MLS would finish as of right now.

Pts	Team	Team 2	Team 3
80	Los Angeles FC
79
78
77
76
75
74
73
72
71
70
69
68
67
66
65
64
63	Houston Dynamo
62
61
60	Philadelphia Union	LA Galaxy
59	Atlanta United	Seattle Sounders FC
58
57
56
55
54	New York Red Bulls	DC United
53
52	New York City FC
51
50
49
48	Montreal Impact	FC Dallas	Minnesota United
47
46
45
44	Toronto FC	San Jose Earthquakes
43	Real Salt Lake
42
41	Orlando City
40
39
38	Chicago Fire	Vancouver Whitecaps
37	Portland Timbers
36	Sporting Kansas City	Columbus Crew
35
34	New England Revolution
33
32
31
30
29
28
27	Colorado Rapids
26
25	FC Cincinnati

LAFC is clearly a class above right now. Not just based on this year's results, but all-time MLS regular season points. They are on a pace to be 9 points clear of the most points in MLS history. NINE.

It is incredibly impressive, but for me it is more a function of rapid expansion. Think of it as basically two leagues.

1. The competitive league - everyone above 40 pts basically.

2. The noncompetitive league - below 40 pts.

When the league was smaller, you might have 2 or so teams that the members of the "competitive league" could walk over. What that mean is they earn something like 2 points a game on avg from them.

In today's world, you have at least eight teams that the good teams can draw points from. What this means is that a really good team like LAFC is in effect "super-sizing" their point total. It's also why the regular season point totals have been topped 2 years straight. This year will clearly be the 3rd in a row that record is broken.

...and another Crew loss

We are at four in a row here in Columbus. Not a common feat for this team. It's never happened in the "modern" era of MLS - meaning, not in the last ten years.

Apparently, this forced a 1.5-hour "leadership council" meeting earlier this week. Caleb Porter might not be on any sort of hot seat within the organization, but he is on my hot seat. It's just not clicking in Columbus.

Among other things, and outside the abysmal last month, when interviewed by the Columbus Dispatch and asked who is on the leadership council he said that it was "top secret." It's not though. With the roster still remarkably similar to last year, we can just go back to the council Gregg Berhalter openly listed.

Here's seven of them:

Ricardo Clark
Zack Steffen
Hector Jimenez
Federico Higuain
Wil Trapp
Josh Williams
Jonathan Mensah

Who knows number eight, Meram maybe. What difference does it make and why would it be top secret info to anyone over the age of 10 years old. Regardless, having over a third of your roster tripping over each other on some sort of 5th century BC Greek Council is nuts, man.

Anyhow, Crew are now officially bottom half. Outside of 2016, you have to go back to Robert Warzycha years to get 1.30 points per game with a negative goal difference of nearly half what the team has scored.


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PPG	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
2.44	LA Galaxy	9	7	1	1	15	8	7	22
2.30	Los Angeles FC	10	7	2	1	26	8	18	23
2.29	Houston Dynamo	7	5	1	1	15	8	7	16
2.00	Seattle Sounders FC	9	5	3	1	18	12	6	18
1.89	FC Dallas	9	5	2	2	14	9	5	17
1.86	Toronto FC	7	4	1	2	19	13	6	13
1.70	Philadelphia Union	10	5	2	3	15	10	5	17
1.70	DC United	10	5	2	3	13	10	3	17
1.70	Montreal Impact	10	5	2	3	12	14	-2	17
1.56	Minnesota United	9	4	2	3	18	15	3	14
1.33	Orlando City	9	3	3	3	13	14	-1	12
1.33	New York City FC	9	2	6	1	11	12	-1	12
1.30	Columbus Crew	10	4	1	5	8	11	-3	13
1.25	Sporting Kansas City	8	2	4	2	19	15	4	10
1.14	Atlanta United	7	2	2	3	6	8	-2	8
1.11	Real Salt Lake	9	3	1	5	11	16	-5	10
1.00	Chicago Fire	9	2	3	4	12	13	-1	9
1.00	New York Red Bulls	8	2	2	4	9	9	0	8
0.89	San Jose Earthquakes	9	2	2	5	12	19	-7	8
0.88	Portland Timbers	8	2	1	5	11	19	-8	7
0.80	FC Cincinnati	10	2	2	6	8	16	-8	8
0.80	New England Rev.	10	2	2	6	10	19	-9	8
0.67	Vancouver Whitecaps	9	1	3	5	7	12	-5	6
0.22	Colorado Rapids	9	0	2	7	12	24	-12	2