MLS Supporters’ Shield Is Not Dead. All Stuck IN! | Views from the Left Coast on the Beautiful Game. SportsMyriad. Atlcsrn.com. American soccer: The Becks effect. MLS Playoffs: Why, and How, the MLS Really (Really) Wants Us to Care. The MLS Playoffs begin this week and, frankly, it's okay if you didn't know that. It's not just me saying that, by the way. The people in the MLS offices totally understand their place in the American sports landscape. Heck, the people in the MLS offices totally understand their place in the American soccer landscape. Though it would be nice, MLS isn't trying to get every single soccer fan to suddenly care about their league; they just want to know how their league can grow a footprint in a country that habitually ignores its product. I was invited to the MLS offices last week to sit in on a roundtable with some top soccer writers and general sports folks like me to talk with members of the MLS staff.
It was clear, over the four-hour meeting, that MLS really wants people to care, going so far as to ask us—and ask us to ask our readers—what they can do to make the experience better. He's probably right. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images Stuart Holden How do I know this? Mike Stobe/Getty Images. Climbing the Ladder. MLSsoccer.com. Analysing Major League Soccer | Decision Technology's Football Blog. We’ve been working with Castrol and MLS since March to deliver the MLS Castrol Index. Beyond player ratings, we’ll be predicting the MLS Cup Playoffs once the regular season is finished.
So we’ve been taking a look at MLS teams and the structure of the league… Team Strengths We applied our team strength model, using weighted historical full time scores to rate teams, to MLS. Who’s looking good this season? In defence, it’s LA Galaxy leading the way. On the chart, teams to the right are better at attacking and teams further up the chart are better at defending. Who Would Win a League? MLS isn’t a league, but the Supporters’ Shield is awarded to the best team in regular season – effectively the league winners. As for the play-offs, we’ll be publishing those predictions once the regular season has finished. League Competitiveness We looked at league competitiveness a couple of weeks ago. What do you think about the structure of MLS? Why follow MLS? Why care about a league that is not the best? Help me build a FAQ. : MLS.