A Ranking - For Hope!

Crew SC fans seem a little frustrated that the team is in last place (they should be!). It's an unusual place for the team to be at any point in the season - and with four games gone, it should be a concern. I've never seen Columbus in this position. Even in short five or ten game spans there always seems to be at least a team or two worse.

To help make sense of the local team finding themselves 20 out of 20, let us look towards the facts and figures of this season, so far. I watch a fair amount of MLS, but it's impossible to get a fair handle on how the season is going in the league top to bottom.

Below will be a ranking based on where the team is on the table (Points per Game - PPG) and ranked by Who Scored (WS) and Squawka (SQ). "Rank" is the average position of PPG, WS and SQ.

Rank!	Team	PPG	WS	SQ
2	FC Dallas	2	1	2
2	L.A. Galaxy	4	2	1
4	Colorado Rapids	4	3	4
5	Sporting Kansas City	1	8	6
6	Montreal Impact	8	6	5
8	Portland Timbers	11	4	8
8	Philadelphia Union	8	10	7
9	Real Salt Lake	2	12	14
9	New York City FC	12	7	9
10	San Jose Earthquakes	4	14	12
10	Orlando City	7	8	15
10	Houston Dynamo	15	4	11
11	Columbus Crew	20	11	3
13	Chicago Fire	12	12	16
14	New England Rev.	14	16	13
15	Vancouver Whitecaps	10	17	17
15	Seattle Sounders FC	17	18	10
16	Toronto FC	15	15	18
19	New York Red Bulls	17	20	20
19	DC United	19	19	19

Here are the figures extended out with some helpful key performance indicators on the right.

PPG	Team	WS Rating	Squawka Rating	P	GD	Pts	Poss%	Pass%	Shot A	Shot F
2.25	Sporting Kansas City	6.85	747	4	2	9	57	82	11	11
2.00	FC Dallas	6.97	825	5	2	10	50	75	9.8	15
2.00	Real Salt Lake	6.8	485	4	2	8	45	72	13.8	10.5
1.75	L.A. Galaxy	6.94	918	4	4	7	55	80	10.3	13.5
1.75	Colorado Rapids	6.92	769	4	1	7	54	78	11.5	15.8
1.75	San Jose Earthquakes	6.79	504	4	0	7	48	77	15.8	9
1.67	Orlando City	6.85	468	3	1	5	50	81	11	12.3
1.50	Montreal Impact	6.89	749	4	1	6	49	80	14.3	11
1.50	Philadelphia Union	6.84	709	4	1	6	47	74	13.8	13
1.40	Vancouver Whitecaps	6.71	408	5	0	7	44	73	15.2	11.2
1.33	Portland Timbers	6.91	612	3	0	4	50	80	11.3	20.7
1.25	New York City FC	6.87	562	4	0	5	58	79	12	17
1.25	Chicago Fire	6.8	415	4	0	5	45	74	15.5	10.3
1.20	New England Rev.	6.73	487	5	-2	6	50	74	14.2	12.2
1.00	Toronto FC	6.75	364	4	0	4	45	70	14	11.3
1.00	Houston Dynamo	6.91	507	4	3	4	49	72	15	13.8
0.75	New York Red Bulls	6.51	112	4	-5	3	55	72	13	14.8
0.75	Seattle Sounders FC	6.65	511	4	-2	3	51	82	12	11.3
0.60	DC United	6.62	138	5	-6	3	47	71	12.8	14
0.50	Columbus Crew	6.82	806	4	-2	2	55	82	13.3	14.5

Looks like Squawka loves the Crew so far this year and Who Scored is kinda = meh. I'm thinking the trajectory of this team is middle of the table.

Crew SC Lack Hunger, Still Winless

Gregg Berhalter and Anthony Precourt's Columbus Crew SC is one that is very comfortable with not winning much for long stretches. In 2014, Columbus had an epic 16 match run where they only won one match and earned a measly 11 pts. Last year there was a sleepy 10 game run of 8pts in May/June.

Both of these runs are as bad as anything Robert Warzycha posted in his time, yet, it's clear that things are different. This Crew appears to be in control of the car while Warzycha's was often careening into oncoming traffic.

Last night Columbus left Frisco with a point on the back side of an international break. This makes four winless matches to start the season and six winless, digging back to last season's playoffs.

Greatness this isn't. It's a slog. And it's not fun. But it's working for this "new Crew" playing in this current competitive format in Major League Soccer.

We've said it here many times here at Helltown this year, and we'll say it again. This year's Crew team has a massive, pulsating, hangover from last year. The ease of which they are approaching this season appears to be almost by design. Maybe that will work, maybe not.

One thing is for certain, however. The world doesn't stop for you to recover and get that hunger back. While this new Crew SC might have a mini-history of bad stretches, none of them to start the season.

MLS gives you a long leash but there's an old saying out there that goes something like "jump on the day before it jumps on you." Words to live by, really. Same could be said about starting a season.

Ask a Columbus Blue Jacket fan.

The Red Card is not a Teaching Tool

MLS doesn't hide the fact it takes administrative cues from her father - the NFL. One of which is adding points of emphasis for officiating early in the season.

The methodology is simple and is common in many industries across the board. The way it works is thus - hit them hard, early and often with corrective action to get desired behavior. You may even see this where you work. Call-offs a problem? Put an emphasis on progressive counselling and write ups. Too much goofing off? Put an end to it by addressing it as it happens.

The theory is that after the early intense focus for a period of time, followed by a cool off period, you get people (players) behaving the way you want. A few years ago in MLS it was fouls (grappling) on corner kicks. If Crew fans remember back, think of Michael Parkhurst going down in the box in the first round against DC, thus earning a penalty. It was a wily veteran move that helped earn Columbus the three points.

Does it work? Has it made things better?

There's no evidence that this approach works in either the NFL or in MLS. In fact, it appears to be counterproductive.

In the specific case of grappling on corners in MLS, the emphasis ended up contributing in a record year for penalties. Oh, and also we see no difference now in grabbing in the box vs before there was any focus on it. In the NFL it appears that this sort of corrective management has caused a sort of rules crisis (a la the "what is a catch and what isn't" and tackling form / unnecessary roughness).

You can see from the image at the top of this post that red cards are being used as a punishment tool for whatever MLS is trying to clean up / correct in regards to player behavior. Eight red cards in the last nine games played. It's nuts.

Going back to the broader, real-world, implementation of this tool you see what sports leagues are doing wrong. Anyone in a management role could tell you this stuff.

Here are five things they are doing wrong...

1. Sports leagues are run by "sports people" (better to just say that first). Meaning: These folks start early in the industry and bounce around their whole career. Pick up a subscription to the Sports Business Journal to see examples. The folks making the calls are lifers with little outside experience. 

2. In MLS the crime does not fit the punishment. A red card completely changes the outcome of a match. It far and away outweighs something like a 15-yard penalty in the NFL (in keeping with the comparison). It's almost like MLS sees a red card as a yellow penalty flag. Interestingly enough, the NFL is looking at adding a type of red card in regards to personal fouls (ejecting a player after two). Again, though, a red puts you down a man where in the NFL you would just sub another player in. 

3. MLS, seemingly, doesn't consider the effect of the increased focus. Like in the grappling in the box leading to more penalties. Or, perhaps the most obvious, swinging the result of the entire match by merely trying to emphasis something. 

4. No follow-up. The most obvious. Once you remove the focus you have to check in on the results and maintain a level of focus, just not as intense. The fruit this tree grows is poisonous. No follow-up means players get confused as to the rules and the inconsistent implementation of them. This leads to frustration and more bad behavior!

5. Lastly. Careful documentation of the points of emphasis. It is impossible to prove MLS is not doing this but one can deduce that it is not happening because there isn't any noticeable change in player behavior. A general observation, yes, but the only change fans see is more reds early in the year and inconsistent whistles late season.

So, what is a better way to approach this for MLS? First off - stop using a catastrophic tool to get your point across (like, not using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, or terminating that employee next time they miss work). Second - communicate clearly what you want before AND after. Even going as far as a post-mortem. Did it work? Even if it didn't, tell you fans and employees. Mistakes are an important part of the improvement process. Airing them out helps prevent them from happening again.