The Week 9 numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  Week 9 71 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2006   20,417     5   15,546     16,402     52 
 2007   15,773   -22.75%   6   15,314   -1.49%   15,139   -7.70%   59 
 2008   15,849   0.48%   8   15,405   0.60%   17,270   14.07%   63 
 2009   15,113   -4.65%   7   14,873   -3.46%   15,131   -12.38%   68 
 2010   18,379   21.61%   7   16,398   10.25%   16,398   8.37%   71 
YTD – 71 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2006    15,546     14,473    18.57%   15.71% 
 2007    15,314     14,351    11.27%   22.54% 
 2008    15,405     14,919    15.49%   25.35% 
 2009    14,873     14,271    16.90%   16.90% 
 2010    16,398     13,667    14.08%   25.35% 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
  2009 2010  
  Att Cap % Att Att +/- GP Cap % Cap
 Seattle  29,468   90.95%   36,113   22.55%   6   101.73%   35,500 
 Philadelphia NA NA  29,954  NA  2   78.83%   18,500 
 Toronto  20,282   92.28%   20,144   -0.68%   4   91.66%   21,978 
 LA Galaxy  19,139   70.88%   19,397   1.35%   5   71.84%   27,000 
 Houston  15,641   69.51%   17,207   10.02%   6   76.48%   22,500 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  10,792   42.85%   16,740   55.11%   5   66.46%   25,189 
 D.C. United  14,561   64.72%   14,954   2.69%   5   66.46%   22,500 
 Real Salt Lake  13,451   59.44%   14,950   11.14%   4   77.30%   19,340 
 Chicago  10,901   54.51%   14,937   37.03%   3   74.69%   20,000 
 ChivasUSA  14,555   53.91%   14,501   -0.37%   5   53.71%   27,000 
 Columbus Crew  13,263   66.31%   13,271   0.06%   4   66.35%   20,000 
 Colorado Rapids  11,037   61.02%   10,484   -5.01%   3   57.97%   18,086 
 NE Revolution  11,511   51.16%   10,120   -12.09%   5   44.98%   22,500 
 KC Wizards  9,431   90.81%   9,840   4.33%   5   94.75%   10,385 
 FC Dallas  9,417   44.43%   9,671   2.70%   5   45.63%   21,193 
 San Jose  11,273   39.06%   9,514   -15.60%   4   92.37%   10,300 

My disclaimer about the capacity calculations

For my calculations, I’ve taken the 3 teams playing in Amercan football stadiums, DCU in RFK, Houston in Robertson and New England in Foxboro and assigned maximum capacities at 22,500. I took the 22,500 number from an approximate average of the soccer specific stadiums in use.

  • Philly’s first two home games were at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union at the Linc was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.
  • San Jose 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800.

    Observations

    The Red Bulls had another disappointing turnout for the Crew’s visit, pulling in under 12,000. I would say the same for Dallas, but since it’s Dallas, anything over 10,000 is a plus. Seattle and Toronto had their usual sellout crowds. And Houston drew a fantastic crowd of over 24,400. ChivasUSA had another average gate, but Kansas City sold out CAB.

    Rookie Watch: Tony Tchani scored his first pro goal for RBNY in a losing effort. Irving Garcia was dynamic and Conner Chinn scored in RBNY’s friendly vs Juventus.

    Week 9 Games
     
    RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
    Columbus 3 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
     
    FC Dallas 0 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
    Los Angeles 1 LA – Official Blog
     
    Toronto 1 TFC Connected
    New England 0 Revolution Soccer
     
    Seattle 0 Seattle Times
    San Jose 1 San Jose Center Line Soccer
     
    Houston 2 Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
    DC United 0 DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
     
    Chivas USA 1 Chicago Fire Confidential
    Real Salt Lake 2 RSL – Behind the Shield
     
    Kansas City 0 Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
    Columbus 1 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
       GP  W  D  L  GF  GA  GFA  GAA  PPG  PTS  GD
     Los Angeles  10   8   2   0   16   2   1.60   0.20   2.60   26   14 
     Columbus  8   6   2   0   14   6   1.75   0.75   2.50   20   8 
     Real Salt Lake  9   5   1   3   17   10   1.89   1.11   1.78   16   7 
     San Jose  8   5   1   2   12   7   1.50   0.88   2.00   16   5 
     Houston  10   5   1   4   14   10   1.40   1.00   1.60   16   4 
     NY Red Bull  9   5   0   4   9   12   1.00   1.33   1.67   15   -3 
     Colorado  8   4   1   3   9   7   1.13   0.88   1.63   13   2 
     Toronto FC  9   4   1   4   12   13   1.33   1.44   1.44   13   -1 
     Seattle  10   3   3   4   9   13   0.90   1.30   1.20   12   -4 
     Dallas  9   2   5   2   10   10   1.11   1.11   1.22   11   0 
     Chivas USA  10   3   1   6   11   14   1.10   1.40   1.00   10   -3 
     Chicago  8   2   3   3   11   12   1.38   1.50   1.13   9   -1 
     Kansas City  8   2   2   4   8   9   1.00   1.13   1.00   8   -1 
     New England  10   2   2   6   10   15   1.00   1.50   0.80   8   -5 
     Philadelphia  7   1   1   5   7   15   1.00   2.14   0.57   4   -8 
     DC United  9   1   0   8   4   18   0.44   2.00   0.33   3   -14 

    Streaking

    • FC Dallas’ unbeaten home streak ended at 12.
    • TFC has not lost at home in 10 straight.
    • TFC is winless in 13 straight road games(4 draws).
    • RSL are unbeaten in their last 14 regular season home games.
    • Los Angeles have yet to yield a goal on the road(5 games).
    • Los Angeles and San Jose have not yielded a goal in 4 games.

    MLS Throw Ins

    • Two teams remain unbeaten, Columbus and Los Angeles.
    • There have been 13 draws compared to 29 in ’09 thru the first 71 matches.
    • There have been 46 clean sheets in the first 71 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2
    • Through 71 games: goal scoring is slightly down from 2009, 2.44 vs 2.55.
    • RSL has lost only twice in its last 33 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.

    Going to World Cup Camp

    These are the MLS players that are now heading to their respective countries’ pre-World Cup camps. The columns represent the games that will be played by their MLS teams during their absences. The only dead bang sure thing player that will be going to South Africa is Landon Donovan, although I think it would also be safe to say that Roger Espinoza(Honduras) and Andrew Boyens(New Zealand) will make their final squads. Did I forget anyone?

    On Provisional WC Rosters
     Players  Team 5/29 6/25
     Buddle, Donovan  LA 2 5
     Bornstein, Klejstan  CHV 2 4
     Marshall, Rogers  CLB 3 6
     Ching  HOU 2 5
     Pearce  FCD 2 4
     Findley  RSL 2 5
     Espinoza  KC 2 5
     Boyens  RBNY 2 5
    Final Roster submissions – June 1
    5/29=last US Friendly before June 1
    6/25 – End of WC Group Phase

    Getting Friendly

    This Week’s Friendlies
    Opponents Venue Date Event ATT
     Boca Jrs v LA  Home Depot Center, LA, CA Sun, May 23  Friendly  18,268 
     Juventus v RBNY  Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ Sun, May 23  Friendly  18,731 
     Panathinaikos v Benfica  BMO Field, Toronto Sun, May 23  Friendly  8,000 *
     Fiorentina v Montreal Impact  Saputo Stadium, Montreal Sun, May 23  Friendly  8,094 
     Czech v Turkey  Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ Sat, May 22  Friendly  16,371 
     Paris St Germain v Chicago
     Legia Warsaw v Red Star Belgrade
     Toyota Park, Bridgeview, IL Sat, May 22  Chi Sister Cities Cup  12,234 
     Paris St Germain v Chicago
     Legia Warsaw v Red Star Belgrade
     Toyota Park, Bridgeview, IL Wed, May 19  Chi Sister Cities Cup  9,254 
     Benfica v NE  Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA Wed, May 19  Friendly  12,735 
             
           total  103,687 
           average  12,961 

    * – approximate attendance grabbed from Portuguese report. – 6 friendlies scheduled for the upcoming week.

    Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

    The MLS play-in matches for the Open are down to the final matches that will determine the teams that will join the top 6 league finishers in 2009. Seattle are the defending cup holders, and as such will compete in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League. Two teams will emerge from the group of Colorado, RSL, DCU and RBNY to join the 6 that automatically qualified.

    • Colorado Rapids defeated the Kansas City Wizards 2-1.
    • Real Salt Lake beat the San Jose Earthquakes on PK’s 5-3 after playing to a 3-3 score.
    • New York Red Bulls downed Philadelphia 2-1.
    • DC United beat FC Dallas 4-2, the 2nd year in a row that DCU eliminates FCD.
    • New York Red Bulls downed New England 3-0.

    The structure for the tourney has been finalized. Round 1 begins June 15, Round 2 June 22, Round 3(when the 8 MLS teams join in) June 29.

    In case you were wondering, here is the World Cup schedule(June 11-July 11). Note that the latest start time(ET) is 2pm.