MLS Regional Standings - How Does Cascadia Stack Up?

by sidereal on Apr 4, 2011 12:50 PM PDT in Sounders: MLS Regular Season

The Cascadia region is getting a lot of deserved attention for the passion of its fans and the strength of its natural (as opposed to league-manufactured) rivalries. But how are the teams stacking up against other regions in MLS? Let's find out.

Most of the regions are pretty natural. The goal is to keep them around 3 teams (going to 2 or 4 if necessary). If you've got a better way to organize them, feel free to leave it in the comments. My only major question was what to do with Sporting Kansas City. It could have gone with the Texas teams in a Prairie division but I decided to match it up with Colorado and RSL, since those states actually border each other and Texas is weird enough to deserve its own region.

Region	Teams	Games	Points	PPG
Heartland Flyover	RSL, Colorado, Sporting KC	8	19	2.4
East Coast Media Bias	New England, New York, Philadelphia, DC	12	19	1.6
Great Lakes	Toronto, Chicago, Columbus	8	12	1.5
California Uber Alles	San Jose, Los Angeles, Chivas	10	12	1.2
Cascadia	Seattle, Vancouver, Portland	10	7	0.7
Don't Mess With Texas	Houston, Dallas	6	3	0.5

Much to the delight, I'm sure, of the MLS head office, the league is currently being dominated by teams in areas without a lot of media cachet. Two of the three landlocked teams are the only teams that have won every league game they've played this season, while Sporting Kansas City is putting up decent results for a team that's on the road for the entire first half of the season (and would be putting up even decenter results if not for a pretty ridiculous fightback by the Whitecaps this weekend).

Cascadia — featuring two expansion teams and the underperforming Seattle Sounders — is hovering near the bottom of the table, but is thankfully propped up by the dual disasters in Texas.

And yes, I'm aware that some (most?) of you believe that the ideal Cascadia results would be Seattle undefeated, Vancouver languishing in bottom-half anonymity, and Portland pointless and left to wander destitute among the grim back alleys of MLS. But that's not good for Cascadia pride.

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Comments

Not true

I don’t wish that kind of misery on Vancouver at all. Seattle > Vancouver > rest of MLS > Portland. :)

by Derek Young on Apr 4, 2011 1:42 PM PDT reply actions

Since we're clearly messing around here

I would re-group your first three as follows:

Rocky Mountain: RSL, Colorado
ECMB: NE, NY, Philly, DC and Toronto (I know adding the Reds makes this group large, but just ask a Canadian)
Heartland: Columbus, Chicago and Kansas City (KC has more in common with these two than the Rockies or Texas)

Cali, Cascadia and Texas are straightforward and remain the same.

You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.

by 108Ultra on Apr 4, 2011 1:55 PM PDT reply actions

That makes sense to my brain.

KC and SLC are 1000 miles apart, KC is closer to Houston and Dallas.

Unofficial Sounder Fan Club President - South Dakota Division

by JWAY on Apr 4, 2011 2:21 PM PDT up reply actions

Toronto-Columbus

My understanding is Toronto has had a decent rivalry with Columbus, more so than the east coast teams.

Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.

by lysander on Apr 4, 2011 2:25 PM PDT up reply actions

If you can call

Toronto’s inability to beat Columbus a rivalry.

You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.

by 108Ultra on Apr 4, 2011 6:20 PM PDT up reply actions

Oh and

did you just make

decenter

up as a word? I’m not sure even Words with Friends would accept that!

You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.

by 108Ultra on Apr 4, 2011 1:57 PM PDT reply actions

It's the decentest word I've made up today

Nos Audietis

by sidereal on Apr 4, 2011 2:25 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

I ought to have you cited for indecency.

You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.

by 108Ultra on Apr 4, 2011 6:22 PM PDT up reply actions

I'll vouch for "decenter" as a legit word

Longtime Tournament Scrabble player. I know these things :-)

by LordIceman on Apr 4, 2011 9:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Would that be more of

De-center, rather than decent-er?

by agtk on Apr 5, 2011 10:18 AM PDT up reply actions

Good point. Both, actually

Since decent-est is also perfectly good. Also de-centered, de-centering.

by LordIceman on Apr 5, 2011 11:47 AM PDT up reply actions

I just came in to say

nice writeup. And props for the DK reference.

by BrooklynPreacher on Apr 4, 2011 2:17 PM PDT reply actions

My grouping

I would have kept the same except put KC in with Chicago. To me they are both town in the middle of the country that at one time had a lot to do with large herds of cattle, so they are the same! :)

Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.

by lysander on Apr 4, 2011 2:24 PM PDT reply actions

W/ Montreal and NY2

I like having 20 teams split in to 4 sets of 5

Cali/Rockies LAG, Chivas, SJ, Colorado, RSL
Cascadia/Canada PDX, SSFC, VAN, Montreal, Reds
Midwest/Texas- SKC, Fire, CLB, Dynamo, Dallas
South/ECMB- NYRB, NY2, DCU, Philly, Revs

or is the Pan-Canada thing too much disatance to work?

Cascadia/Rockies
Cali/Texas
Midwest/Toronto/Montreal
South/ECMB

Thoughts?

"But who would listen to Little old me anyway?"

-by thehemogoblin

by Little old me on Apr 4, 2011 2:33 PM PDT reply actions

I HATE the stupid -dash- script

Gets me ~~Everytime~~

"But who would listen to Little old me anyway?"

-by thehemogoblin

by Little old me on Apr 4, 2011 2:33 PM PDT up reply actions

As far as regional groupings, it makes less sense to do pan-can

Why not

West Coast – VAN, SEA, PDX, SJ, CHV, LA
Midwest – COL, RSL, KC, CHI, CLB
SXSE – DAL, HOU
ECMB – TOR, MON, NY, NE, DC, PHI

It is easy to see which region is lacking.

by agtk on Apr 4, 2011 3:09 PM PDT up reply actions

Cascadia Uber Alles

I care not for those Californians.

by Derek Young on Apr 4, 2011 4:06 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

3 has a lot of benefits

Cascadia is 3, and you’re really not going to get anywhere around here without dealing with Cascadia as a region. California is 3 and I’m not sure grouping them with Colorado/RSL makes any sense. ECMB is a clean 4. So I think the 3-4 range makes sense. KC is the hard one to deal with. It’s midwest, but it not in the Great Lakes/Upper Midwest area. Maybe I should have grouped them with Texas.

Also consider what happens when Montreal comes in. It’s not reall Great Lakes, it’s not really ECMB. It should definitely be grouped in with Toronto. Maybe you move KC back to the Midwest with the other Lakes teams and let Toronto/Montreal have a 2-team Eastern Canada group.

Nos Audietis

by sidereal on Apr 4, 2011 3:29 PM PDT up reply actions

Getting back to the topic at hand...

I am very disappointed in all 3 cascadia teams so far. I am really hoping they all turn it around and start dominating the league.

Cascadia uber alles!

Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.

by lysander on Apr 4, 2011 8:30 PM PDT reply actions

Cascadia Pride

As a TA guy who lurks around the other Cascadia SBN sites, I gotta say that while I want to sweep both the ‘Caps and Sounders and have you guys draw twice with each other, I have no qualms at all about supporting either rival Cascadia side against anyone else in MLS. Maybe I won’t be shouting pro-Sounders things, but you can be sure I’ll be deriding your foes ;) I’ve been in every city with an MLS side except the two in Texas including seeing matches in Foxboro, San Jose (Spartan & Candlestick, not Buck Shaw), and Salt Lake City. None of them have anything on Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. That being the case, it’s been a bummer watching PDX and SEA with the lone bright spot being the Whitecaps. Seeing them paste Toronto was sweet and claw back two in added time to wrench the three points away from the SporKS was also pretty cool…

Now can we get some three point outings for the southern 2/3 of the rivalry? Never fear, I’m not gonna waver in support, but I sure would love me some Cascadia wins.

by JD SoOR on Apr 4, 2011 9:07 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

I love pdx and bc

these towns know how to party! Any way TA guy don’t start jocking vwc’s bright spot, you know who you really wannabe. ;)

The real Rivalry groupings:

Cascadia
California
Rockies-RSL&Rapids
Cattle Drive- FCD,DYNAMO,SKC&CHI
East Coast BS- RedBS,Union,DCU,TReds
Lost in the middle-CCrew
Extra- Crew vs RSL, SEAvsDynamo, LAGALvsLeague, (Union vs VWC)?

by seattle dude on Apr 5, 2011 2:06 AM PDT up reply actions

I have a 27 team league concept based on 3 team derbies

3 team derby, 3 derby conference, 3 conference league.

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Apr 5, 2011 12:23 PM PDT reply actions

Well lets hear it...

Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.

by lysander on Apr 5, 2011 12:56 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Simple version

West
Cascadia
California
Rockies (RSL+COL + 1 of Vegas or Phoenix)

Central
Republic of Tejas (+San Antonio)
Plains (KC, Chi + Milwaukee or Minneapolis)
MidWest or Great Lakes (Chi, C-bus and Detroit, Cleveland, or a MidSouth city like Nashville, Memphis)

East
NorthEast (Toronto, Montreal, New England)
Mid-Atlantic (NY, NY2, Philly)
SouthEast (DC, Florida, Puerto Rico)

If another Southern city looks more likely than a MidSouth (say Atlanta, New Orleans, or Birmingham push DC into MidAtlantic, NY2 into NorthEast and Toronto into Great Lakes)

Generally time zone sensitive (see Texas teams’ issues in many sports), workable in doube-double round robin within derby (4 games), double round rest of conferece (12 games) one conference home (9 games) one on road (9 games) for 34 games.

Season always ends with derby (think divisions as some of these aren’t "derbies). Winning a derby gets you a minor trophy, but not playoffs. Winning regular season for conference is a trophy and playoffs. Second in conf. = playoffs.

Next best four get into wild card round for midweek game.

Straight seeding every round higher seed hosts.

Playoff tiebreakers – Points, Goal Differential, Head to Head, Standings within Conference, Standings within Derby, Goals For

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Apr 5, 2011 5:21 PM PDT up reply actions

I have a new plan

RSL & Colorado get their own Rocky Mountain group, Sporting KC movies into the Midwest with the current Great Lakes teams, except for Toronto, which moves into a Canadian group with Montreal (pending) and Vancouver. So that means Vancouver is in two regions. . Cascadia + Canada, which seems like an okay compromise. Then every region is between 2 and 4 and they all make some geographic sense. When Montreal comes in I could maybe kick Vancouver back out so there’s no dual regions.

Nos Audietis

by sidereal on Apr 5, 2011 1:14 PM PDT reply actions