The Week 20 numbers look like this…

  5 year comparison
  Week 20 154 GP YTD
  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP
 2006   17,497     7   15,233     15,449     128 
 2007   23,740   35.68%   7   16,027   5.21%   15,899   2.91%   129 
 2008   13,907   -41.42%   4   16,484   2.85%   17,230   8.37%   132 
 2009   12,055   -13.32%   6   15,801   -4.14%   16,274   -5.55%   143 
 2010   14,620   21.28%   9   16,612   5.13%   16,604   2.03%   154 
YTD – 154 Games
  Average Median %<10K %>20k
 2006    15,233     13,036    21.43%   16.88% 
 2007    16,027     14,623    9.74%   23.38% 
 2008    16,484     15,188    11.04%   25.32% 
 2009    15,801     14,525    14.29%   19.48% 
 2010    16,612     14,434    8.44%   22.08% 

Here are the attendance comparisons to 2009:

MLS Attendance – Equal # of Home Games
  2009 2010  
  Att Cap % Att Att +/- GP Cap % Cap
 Seattle  30,204   93.22%   36,155   19.70%   11   101.84%   35,500 
 Toronto  20,267   92.21%   20,510   1.20%   10   93.32%   21,978 
 Philadelphia NA NA  20,343  NA  9   89.09%   18,500 
 LA Galaxy  19,292   71.45%   20,319   5.32%   9   75.26%   27,000 
 N.Y./N.J. Red Bulls  12,487   49.57%   17,425   39.54%   10   69.18%   25,189 
 Houston  15,538   69.06%   16,878   8.62%   10   75.01%   22,500 
 Real Salt Lake  16,213   78.95%   16,755   3.35%   11   86.64%   19,340 
 Chicago  12,839   64.19%   15,664   22.01%   8   78.32%   20,000 
 D.C. United  15,887   70.61%   14,702   -7.46%   10   65.34%   22,500 
 ChivasUSA  16,211   60.04%   14,268   -11.99%   9   52.84%   27,000 
 Columbus Crew  13,114   65.57%   13,984   6.63%   10   69.92%   20,000 
 Colorado Rapids  12,918   71.42%   13,158   1.86%   9   72.75%   18,086 
 NE Revolution  14,188   63.06%   11,814   -16.73%   10   52.51%   22,500 
 FC Dallas  9,306   43.91%   10,953   17.70%   9   51.68%   21,193 
 KC Wizards  10,019   96.47%   10,082   0.63%   10   97.08%   10,385 
 San Jose  11,236   60.58%   9,509   -15.37%   9   92.32%   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 played at Lincoln Financial Field. The announced capacity for the Union was published as 38,000 and will be calculated as such.
  • San Jose’s 4th match in 2009 was at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and drew over 15,800. Their 7th match was also at OAC and they drew over 17,100.

    Observations

    The week began in Philadelphia and New Jersey on Wednesday. The Union drew over 16,000 and RBNY pulled in over 19,000. The same two team had the early games on Saturday and again drew big crowds, over 17,700 in Philly and 25,000 at Red Bull Arena for the Galaxy. DC had a soft crowd of under 13,000 while New England had their usual poor turnout of just over 11,500. Salt Lake had just under 17,000 turn out for a match between the last 2 MLS Cup winners. I’m always disappointed when San Jose(and KC) don’t sell out in their small temporary homes. Only 8600+ saw the Quakes win. The weekend ended with Chivas USA drawing an ordinary sub 14,000.

    Rookie Watch: Danny Mwanga scored for the Union in each of their games. Michael Stephens had a strong game for the Galaxy. Eric Alexander scored for Dallas.

    Joel Lindpere, on my preseason ‘watch list'(bottom of post) scored for RBNY v TFC.

    Week 20 Games
     
    Philadelphia 1 Philadelphia Union Talk
    Real Salt Lake 1 RSL – Behind the Shield
     
    RBNY 1 Red Bulls Reader
    Toronto 0 TFC Connected
     
    Philadelphia 1 Philadelphia Union Talk
    Colorado 1 Undercurrent
     
    RBNY 0 Red Bulls Reader
    Los Angeles 1 LA – Official Blog
     
    DC United 1 DCU – Steve Goff – Soccer Insider
    FC Dallas 3 3rd Degree – Buzz Carrick
     
    New England 1 Revolution Soccer
    Houston 0 Soccer y Fútbol – Jose de Jesus Ortiz
     
    Real Salt Lake 2 RSL – Behind the Shield
    Columbus 0 Columbus Dispatch – Crew XTra
     
    San Jose 1 San Jose Center Line Soccer
    Kansas City 0 Kansas City – Hillcrest Road
     
    Chivas USA 0 Chicago Fire Confidential
    Seattle 0 Seattle Times
       GP  W  D  L  GF  GA  GFA  GAA  PPG  PTS  GD
     Los Angeles  20   13   4   3   32   13   1.60   0.65   2.15   43   19 
     Real Salt Lake  21   11   6   4   36   16   1.71   0.76   1.86   39   20 
     Columbus  20   11   4   5   28   19   1.40   0.95   1.85   37   9 
     Dallas  19   8   9   2   27   17   1.42   0.89   1.74   33   10 
     NY Red Bull  20   9   4   7   21   22   1.05   1.10   1.55   31   -1 
     Seattle  21   8   5   8   23   25   1.10   1.19   1.38   29   -2 
     Colorado  19   7   7   5   21   18   1.11   0.95   1.47   28   3 
     San Jose  18   7   5   6   21   20   1.17   1.11   1.44   26   1 
     Toronto FC  19   7   5   7   21   21   1.11   1.11   1.37   26   0 
     Chicago  16   5   6   5   21   21   1.31   1.31   1.31   21   0 
     New England  18   6   3   9   18   27   1.00   1.50   1.17   21   -9 
     Kansas City  19   5   5   9   15   22   0.79   1.16   1.05   20   -7 
     Houston  20   5   5   10   23   30   1.15   1.50   1.00   20   -7 
     Chivas USA  19   5   4   10   22   25   1.16   1.32   1.00   19   -3 
     Philadelphia  19   4   5   10   23   34   1.21   1.79   0.89   17   -11 
     DC United  20   3   3   14   13   35   0.65   1.75   0.60   12   -22 

    Streaking

    • RSL are unbeaten in their last 21 regular season home games.
    • Houston are winless in their last 10 games.
    • DC United are winless in their last 8 games.
    • Dallas are unbeaten in their last 10 games.
    • Dallas are also unbeaten in their last 9 road games.
    • Colorado are unbeaten in their last 6 home games.
    • Toronto are unbeaten in their last 17 regular season home games(7 in ’09).

    MLS Throw Ins

    • LA is the only club to have earned more than 50% of its points on the road.
    • There have been 40 draws compared to 49 in ’09 thru the first 154 matches.
    • There have been 95 clean sheets in the first 154 matches, counting scoreless draws as 2.
    • Through 145 games: goal scoring is down around 9.0% from 2009, 2.37 vs 2.60.
    • RSL has lost only twice in its last 40 home matches. They lost only once in ’08 and ’09, a feat matched by Houston.

    N.A. SuperLiga

    The participants in the 2010 N.A. SuperLiga and their respective finishes in the last completed season are …

    MLS FMF
     Houston  3   UNAM Pumas  4 
     Chicago  5   Monarchas Morelia  7 
     Chivas USA  6   Pachuca  8 
     New England  7   Puebla  13 
    N.A. SuperLiga
    Group A
      W D L Pts GD
     Houston  2   1   0   7   2 
     Puebla  2   0   1   6   2 
     Chivas USA  1   1   1   4   0 
     Pachuca  0   0   3   0   -5 
    Group B
      W D L Pts GD
     New England  3   0   0   9   3 
     Monarchas Morelia  1   1   1   4   3 
     Chicago  1   0   2   3   -4 
     UNAM Pumas  0   1   2   1   -2 
    N.A. SuperLiga Semifinals
     New England(1)(5) v Puebla(1)(3)  Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA  Wed, Aug 4
     Houston(0) v Morelia(1)  Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX  Thu, Aug 5
    SuperLiga after Semifinals
      Total Game Dates Average
    2007  234,751   14   16,768 
    2008  186,148   14   13,296 
    2009  86,948   11   7,904 
    2010  118,298   12   9,858 
           
    3 Doubleheaders in 2009 – 2 in 2010

    New England will attempt to win its 2nd SuperLiga title on Sept 1 at Gillette Stadium.

    CONCACAF Champions League

    Four MLS clubs will play in the group phase of the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League. RSL and Columbus earned automatic berths as the MLS Cup and Supporters Shield winners. Toronto FC won the Canadien Nutrilite Championship and then won their preliminary contest vs Motagua of Honduras. Seattle won the L.H. U.S. Open Cup and also won their preliminary vs Isidro Metapan of El Salvador, while the Galaxy(MLS Cup runners-up) were unable to overcome their thrashing at home by giant killers Puerto Rico, representing the Caribbean Football Union. The group phase begins play on Aug 17.

    Group play begins this week. The matches with MLS teams are(home team listed first) …

    • Aug 17 – Toronto v Cruz Azul
    • Aug 18 – Columbus v Municipal
    • Aug 18 – Real Salt Lake v Arabe Unido
    • Aug 19 – Marathón v Seattle

    Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

    The winner will compete in the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League.

    In the semifinals, Columbus will play DC United on Sept 1, 7:30 p.m. ET @ RFK Stadium, Wash, DC and Seattle will play ChivasUSA on Sept 1, 10 p.m. ET @ Starfire Sports Complex, Tukwila, WA.

    The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup structure

    Congestion

    You can decide if fixture congestion has had an effect so far. Of the clubs that participated in multiple non-league competitions, only Seattle and Toronto have not been bounced out yet. LA crashed out of the CCL and US Open Cup. Chicago and Houston lost in the N.A. SuperLiga and the US Open Cup. Chivas USA lost in SuperLiga but are in the US Open Cup semifinals. New England lost in the US Open Cup but are in the N.A. SuperLiga final. Columbus and RSL have the automatic berths in the group phase of the CCL, but RSL lost in the US Open Cup while Columbus are in the semifinals. It’s a matter for discussion as to whether Seattle had tougher go than Toronto vis-a-vis the Canadien Nutrilite Championship vs the US Open Cup being injected into their schedules.
    TFC and Seattle have the longest stretches without a full week between games. Seattle and RSL have no league matches between their first two CCL games, which makes sense as they are the only two MLS teams that have played 21 games. Seattle however will have to remain very sharp as they have a slim lead over playoff contenders, all of whom have games in hand. Columbus, coming off a tough loss to RSL, have the toughest period coming up.

    Fixture Congestion for MLS Teams
      TFC SEA CLB RSL NE
     7/24/10 MLS        
     7/25/10   MLS      
     7/27/10 CCL        
     7/28/10   CCL      
     7/31/10 MLS MLS      
     8/1/10          
     8/3/10 CCL CCL      
     8/4/10          
     8/5/10          
     8/7/10 MLS     MLS  
     8/8/10   MLS      
     8/11/10 MLS     MLS  
     8/14/10   MLS MLS MLS MLS
     8/17/10 CCL       MLS
     8/18/10     CCL CCL  
     8/19/10   CCL      
     8/21/10 MLS   MLS   MLS
     8/24/10 CCL   CCL    
     8/25/10   CCL   CCL  
     8/28/10 MLS MLS MLS MLS MLS
     8/29/10          
     9/1/10   USOC USOC   SL
     9/4/10   MLS MLS   MLS
               
     Days  36   42   22   22   22 
     Games 10 11 7 6 6
     Days/Game  3.6   3.8   3.1   3.7   3.7 
    CCL=CONCACAF Champions League – SL=N.A. SuperLiga – USOC=US Open Cup