Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 12
As MLS heads into the World Cup hiatus(play resumes June 25), the Week 12 numbers look like this…
| 5 year comparison | ||||||||
| Week 12 | 93 GP | YTD | ||||||
| Avg | +/- | GP | Avg | +/- | Avg | +/- | GP | |
| 2006 | 12,309 | 5 | 15,047 | 15,169 | 72 | |||
| 2007 | 13,600 | 10.48% | 7 | 15,049 | 0.01% | 15,324 | 1.02% | 79 |
| 2008 | 18,426 | 35.48% | 7 | 16,229 | 7.84% | 17,329 | 13.08% | 84 |
| 2009 | 13,148 | -28.65% | 8 | 14,729 | -9.24% | 14,947 | -13.74% | 92 |
| 2010 | 19,861 | 51.06% | 4 | 16,472 | 11.84% | 16,472 | 10.20% | 93 |
| YTD – 93 Games | ||||
| Average | Median | %<10K | %>20k | |
| 2006 | 15,047 | 13,280 | 22.58% | 16.13% |
| 2007 | 15,049 | 14,203 | 12.90% | 20.43% |
| 2008 | 16,229 | 14,919 | 11.83% | 26.88% |
| 2009 | 14,729 | 14,051 | 16.13% | 16.13% |
| 2010 | 16,472 | 14,287 | 11.83% | 23.66% |
Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:
| MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games | |||||||
| 2009 | 2010 | ||||||
| Att | Cap % | Att | Att +/- | GP | Cap % | Cap | |
| Seattle | 29,364 | 90.63% | 36,146 | 23.10% | 8 | 101.82% | 35,500 |
| Philadelphia | NA | NA | 29,954 | NA | 2 | 78.83% | 18,500 |
| Toronto | 20,151 | 91.69% | 20,537 | 1.92% | 5 | 93.45% | 21,978 |
| LA Galaxy | 19,228 | 71.21% | 19,635 | 2.12% | 6 | 72.72% | 27,000 |
| Houston | 15,480 | 68.80% | 16,685 | 7.79% | 7 | 74.16% | 22,500 |
| N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls | 10,966 | 43.54% | 16,282 | 48.48% | 7 | 64.64% | 25,189 |
| Real Salt Lake | 15,449 | 71.74% | 15,817 | 2.38% | 6 | 81.78% | 19,340 |
| D.C. United | 14,303 | 63.57% | 14,734 | 3.01% | 7 | 65.49% | 22,500 |
| ChivasUSA | 14,555 | 53.91% | 14,501 | -0.37% | 5 | 53.71% | 27,000 |
| Chicago | 11,726 | 58.63% | 14,267 | 21.66% | 6 | 71.33% | 20,000 |
| Columbus Crew | 12,369 | 61.84% | 14,244 | 15.16% | 5 | 71.22% | 20,000 |
| Colorado Rapids | 12,211 | 67.52% | 12,787 | 4.72% | 5 | 70.70% | 18,086 |
| FC Dallas | 8,801 | 41.53% | 10,448 | 18.70% | 6 | 49.30% | 21,193 |
| NE Revolution | 13,616 | 60.51% | 10,319 | -24.21% | 6 | 45.86% | 22,500 |
| KC Wizards | 9,590 | 92.34% | 9,896 | 3.19% | 6 | 95.29% | 10,385 |
| San Jose | 10,882 | 48.00% | 9,384 | -13.77% | 6 | 91.11% | 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.
Observations
Chicago announced crowd of just over 13,600 seemed a bit high, at least from the view on the tube. I was all set to hear the mantra of the BlackHawks playing in the Stanley Cup finals keeping the turnout low, but that won’t seem necessary. A fantastic showing in Salt Lake with over 19,000. This is exactly what you would expect in a matchup of last year’s MLS Cup finalists, competitors in the west and the top team in the league visiting. Kansas City had a near full house as it broke its long winless streak. Seattle sent MLS into the World Cup break with its usual full house.
Rookie Watch: Academy product Andy Najar and draftee Barry Rice performed well for DC United in their win over Seattle. Must be honest and say I can’t say that either Stephens(LA) or LaBeaux(CO) stood out in their appearances this week.
A couple of players on my preseason ‘watch list’(bottom of post) had good games. Ryan Smith played well(assist) and Kei Kamara scored for the Wizards.
| Week 12 Games | ||
| Chicago | 2 | Chicago Fire Confidential |
| Colorado | 2 | Undercurrent |
| Real Salt Lake | 1 | RSL – Behind the Shield |
| Los Angeles | 0 | LA – Official Blog |
| Kansas City | 2 | Kansas City – Hillcrest Road |
| Philadelphia | 0 | Philadelphia Union Talk |
| Seattle | 2 | Seattle Times |
| DC United | 3 | DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider |
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GFA | GAA | PPG | PTS | GD | |
| Los Angeles | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 4 | 1.69 | 0.31 | 2.46 | 32 | 18 |
| Real Salt Lake | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 11 | 1.83 | 0.92 | 1.92 | 23 | 11 |
| Columbus | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 11 | 1.45 | 1.00 | 1.91 | 21 | 5 |
| NY Red Bull | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 16 | 1.17 | 1.33 | 1.75 | 21 | -2 |
| Colorado | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 9 | 1.18 | 0.82 | 1.82 | 20 | 4 |
| San Jose | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 14 | 1.36 | 1.27 | 1.55 | 17 | 1 |
| Toronto FC | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 14 | 1.36 | 1.27 | 1.55 | 17 | 1 |
| Houston | 13 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 18 | 19 | 1.38 | 1.46 | 1.23 | 16 | -1 |
| Dallas | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 13 | 11 | 1.18 | 1.00 | 1.36 | 15 | 2 |
| Seattle | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 17 | 1.08 | 1.31 | 1.15 | 15 | -3 |
| Chicago | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 16 | 1.45 | 1.45 | 1.27 | 14 | 0 |
| Kansas City | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 1.00 | 1.18 | 1.09 | 12 | -2 |
| New England | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 1.08 | 1.67 | 0.92 | 11 | -7 |
| Chivas USA | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 1.08 | 1.50 | 0.83 | 10 | -5 |
| DC United | 12 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 22 | 0.83 | 1.83 | 0.83 | 10 | -12 |
| Philadelphia | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 21 | 1.10 | 2.10 | 0.70 | 7 | -10 |
Streaking
- TFC has not lost at home in 11 straight.
- TFC ended its 13 game road winless streak.
- RSL are unbeaten in their last 16 regular season home games.
- Los Angeles finally yielded a road goal(albeit controversial). And their 15 game regular season unbeaten streak is over.
- Kansas City ended its winless streak at 9(all competitions).
MLS Throw Ins
- There have been 18 draws compared to 35 in ’09 thru the first 93 matches.
- There have been 58 clean sheets in the first 93 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2
- Through 89 games: goal scoring is slightly down from 2009, 2.54 vs 2.59.
- RSL has lost only twice in its last 35 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.
At the World Cup
These are the MLS players that are at the World Cup. As of Friday May 28(15 days before the start of the tournament), each of the clubs receives $1600 per day per player from FIFA until one day after the last game played by their respective teams at the World Cup.
| On WC Rosters | |
| Players | Team |
| Buddle, Donovan | LA |
| Bornstein | CHV |
| Findley | RSL |
| Espinoza | KC |
| Boyens | RBNY |
| 6/25 – End of WC Group Phase | |
Getting Friendly
| This Week’s Friendlies | ||||
| Opponents | Venue | Date | Friendlies | Att |
| Cruzeiro v NE Revolution | Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA | Sun, June 13 | Club | 12,160 |
Note: Steve Ralston made his return to the Revs in the match only to suffer a dislocated elbow.
The MLS play-in matches for the Open are complete. RBNY and DC United will join the top 6 league finishers in 2009 in the tourney proper. Seattle are the defending cup holders, and as such will compete in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League.
- 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.
- New York Red Bulls beat Colorado 3-0 to claim one of the two play in spots.
- DC United defeated RSL 2-1 to grab the other spot.
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.
0 Responses to Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Week 12
San Jose’s attendance is hurting. Should be doing much better with this market.