Beckham plays football...

...both kinds (and yes, I'm still alive).

Weekly standings

1. FC Dallas
2. New England
3. D.C. United
4. Houston
5. Chivas USA
6. New York
7. Kansas City
8. Columbus
9. Chicago
10. Colorado
11. Toronto FC
12. Los Angeles
13. Real Salt Lake

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between FC Dallas and NE.

Weekly standings

1. Houston
2. FC Dallas
3. D.C. United
4. New England
5. New York
6. Chivas USA
7. Kansas City
8. Columbus
9. Toronto FC
10. Los Angeles
11. Chicago
12. Colorado
13. Real Salt Lake

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between DCU and Houston, the top ranked teams in their respective conferences.

Weekly standings

1. D.C. United
2. FC Dallas
3. New England
4. Houston
5. New York
6. Chivas USA
7. Kansas City
8. Columbus
9. Toronto FC
10. Los Angeles
11. Chicago
12. Colorado
13. Real Salt Lake

This week is a bit unusual, statistically speaking: no ties (when dividing the points by the total games played). That very rarely ever happens.

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between DCU and FCD.

MLSnet.com site redesign

MLSnet.com has been redesigned. I like the subtitle of the article: New, improved features keep MLSnet.com as nation's leading soccer Web site. There's nothing like good old-fashioned humility, proclaiming themselves the #1 US soccer site! Personally, I am not yet convinced that the changes are anything more than aesthetic (the site really does look better); at first glance, the functionality has not been improved.

Weekly standings

This week, I did the standings based upon pts/gp, with w/gp being used as a determining factor in the instances where two or more teams were tied after figuring the pts/gp.

1. New England
2. New York
3. Houston
4. FC Dallas
5. Kansas City
6. Chivas USA
6. D.C. United
7. Chicago
8. Colorado
9. Columbus
10. Toronto FC
11. Los Angeles
12. Real Salt Lake

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between New England and Houston.

Note to other bloggers: even with Blogger's nice little autosave feature, it is still a good idea to have your posts saved elsewhere before you try to post. That way, if you lose power right as you hit the publish button (thereby being kicked offline), you don't lose your post.

Weekly standings

I've decided to take a different approach to the stats this week. In the past, I've ranked teams based on their total of points. However, the results are skewed when you consider that not all teams have played the same number of games at a given point in time. For example, at the time of this posting, FC Dallas has 14 GP under their belt, while LA has only 9. Therefore, I have decided to rank teams based upon their percentage of the games that they have 1) won and 2) tied. (Yes, I realize that others have probably been doing this for a long time, but I am only a wannabe statistician.) The results are the following:

1. Kansas City
2. New York
3. Chivas USA
3. D.C. United
4. FC Dallas
5. New England
6. Houston
7. Toronto FC
8. Colorado
9. Chicago
10. Los Angeles
11. Columbus
12. Real Salt Lake

Compare that to the stats, as done my old way:

1. FC Dallas
2. New York
3. Kansas City
4. New England
5. D.C. United
5. Chivas USA
6. Houston
7. Colorado
8. Chicago
9. Toronto FC
10. Los Angeles
11. Columbus
11. Real Salt Lake

Done the new way, KC (#3 in points, but with a 60% win record), is now ranked over FC Dallas (#1 in points, but with a 50% win record). It also points out the rather painful positions of Columbus (1 win, 9% win record) and Real Salt Lake (0 wins, 0% win record). Ouch.

And finally, in keeping with tradition, if the Cup were to be played today, it would be between KC and Chivas USA, with KC having the edge in percentage of games won.

Weekly standings

1. New York
2. FC Dallas
2. Kansas City
3. New England
4. Houston
5. Colorado
6. Chicago
6. Chivas USA
6. D.C. United
7. Toronto FC
8. Columbus
9. Los Angeles
9. Real Salt Lake

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between NYRB and FC Dallas. I know that I should probably be over my amazement NYRB's steady success this year, but I'm not. Not yet.

Weekly standings

1. New York (0)
2. Kansas City (0)
3. New England (-2)
4. FC Dallas (-2)
5. Colorado (-2)
6. Chicago (-2)
7. Chivas USA (-3)
7. D.C. United (-2)
8. Houston (-1)
8. Toronto FC (-1)
9. Columbus (-3)
10. Los Angeles (-2)
10. Real Salt Lake (-2)

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between NYRB and FC Dallas. Ever since resuming my posting this year, FC Dallas seems has consistently stayed at the top of the West. On the east, NYRB has suprisingly had a pretty solid season so far. Columbus has consistently played poorly, and you know what they say about consistency.

Update: FIFA bans high-altitude matches

You may recall this post from last week about FIFA's ban of high altitude matches. Apparently this was a big enough story for the BBC to have collected a selection of readers' views on the ban.

The daily news

Lonestar rivals hook up in Houston (You can see the official MLS preview here.) This should be good one to watch. While this game hardly has the status here as the annual Texas-Oklahoma football game (or the Ohio State-Michigan game in my home state), games like this between two teams within a several hours' drive of each other always have a fun intensity to them, due to the mitigation of the home field advantage.

Site search for MLS team shifts to suburbs News on a possible expansion team in Portland

Pro soccer could return to Bay Area in '08 Portland isn't the only city vying for a team; San Jose wants theirs back.

U.S. Soccer hopes to keep rolling OK, so this isn't MLS news, but it relates to the USMNT, so it warrants a link here.

The daily news (and views)

$35 million bet on pro soccer An MLS expansion team in Vegas?

Crew cruise past Michigan Bucks Of USL Premier Development League, 3-0, Wednesday

Toronto FC missing slew of players
Thin squad for Galaxy this weekend I'm starting to see a pattern here.

I haven't quantified the results, but when doing searches on MLS, it's surprising how many of the results mention Beckham. Here are a few (and I do mean a few!) of the headlines:

Beckham could play for Premiership again Headlines like this beg the question: so why did he leave the Premiership in the first place?

Schwarzenegger, Beckham in US kangaroo skin row Apparently the issue is over the legality and ethics of wearing cleats made of kangaroo skin, and somehow the author found a way to fit Beckham into the story.

Blogroll update

Please welcome Through Ball and Bobby Boswell to the blogroll.

Today's news and views

YouTube and Major League Soccer team up for strategic content and advertising partnership MLS and YouTube have "announced a strategic content and advertising partnership that will see MLS game and featured highlights uploaded on a dedicated channel, www.youtube.com/mls". Considering the popularity of YouTube, this is good news for MLS.

Drew Carey to Play U.S. Soccer Stars in FIFA 07 Drew Carey v. Landon Donovan. Should be interesting.

Lalas, Galaxy make plans to juggle Beckham's schedule "Galaxy president and general manager Alexi Lalas already has tripped the sensitive wires of the English media with an offhand comment in a BBC radio interview. Lalas said he's thrilled to see Beckham get a call back to the English national team but hopes he'll be called for "appropriate" or "competitive" games." And this is news because...? Love him or hate him, Lalas has a hard-earned reputation for being, shall we say, rather blunt when it comes to airing his thoughts and opinions. (Here's the Guardian article mentioned in the USA Today version.)

Beckham Will Be Frustrated In The USA Yet another perspective on the Beckham move.

Weekly update: Visit to Fire's house A little preview of the upcoming Crew game this weekend, along with some other miscellaneous Crew news.

Edit: broken link corrected

Weekly standings

1. NYRB (+2)
1. New England (0)
2. FC Dallas (0)
2. KC (+2)
3. Colorado (+2)
4. Chicago (+2)
4. Chivas USA (+3)
5. DCU (+3)
6. Columbus (+2)
7. Toronto FC (+2)
7. Houston (+1)
8. LA (+2)
8. Real Salt Lake (+3)

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between the NYRB (or NE, but NY has one less loss) and FC Dallas.

Five ties in one week is quite a bit, which is precisely why why everyone except New England and Dallas jumped at least ranking in comparison to where they were last week.

As a side note, I am very much amused by the fact that the #7 teams (Toronto and Houston) have 7 points each.

FIFA bans high-altitude matches

According to the BBC (as well as dozens of other news sources), FIFA has decided to ban high-altitude matches. Needless to say, several high-altitude South American countries are less than thrilled.

Columbus/Toronto FC draw

Toronto FC 2: Columbus Crew 2. Is it sad that I actually celebrated a Columbus tie? I was just thrilled that they didn't lose. Normally celebrations are supposed to be reserved for wins, not draws. (To see the game in brief, you can peruse the matchtracker or the MLS summary.)

Daily news and views

Dynamo to visit White House, President Bush, to commemorate 2006 MLS Cup championship According to the article, this makes them the second team to visit the White House in celebration of a victory.

L.A. set to face Scotland's Rangers LA v. Glasgow Rangers FC. Should be interesting, though it is certainly not the first time that an MLS team has played a team from the other side of the pond. My favorite statement in this article: "The prestige of Rangers wasn't lost on Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop either". It's one of those odd understatements that reporters are fond of making, things like, "You just won the Super Bowl. How does that make you feel?" I'm just waiting for someone, one of these days, to reply with, "Horrible! I'm so disappointed that I just won the championship!" The game is tonight. Should be good if you're able to catch it.

The news part of the name

Rapids rearguard battling injury bug

Cunningham traded to Toronto FC
Toronto FC trades Alecko Eskandarian And now for the other side of the story.

Fouls piling up for Toronto FC

FC Dallas buoyed by May run After Sunday's 2-1 win against Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas has now won three consecutive matches, all by the same score. Nice streak.

Weekly standings

1. New England (0)
2. FC Dallas (0)
3. NYRB (+1)
4. KC (-1)
5. Colorado (-1)
6. Chicago (-1)
7. Chivas USA (-1)
8. Columbus (-2)
8. DCU (0)
8. Houston (-2)
9. Toronto FC (-2)
10. LA (-2)
11. Real Salt Lake (-3)

If the Cup were to be played today, it would be between New England and FC Dallas, the same as last week.