MLS Week 12 Wrapup and SRS Rankings

Have to say it was a pretty dull weekend in the MLS.  In the nine matches played on Friday and Saturday only 10 goals were scored.  Three of the matches were 0-0 draws.  Admittedly several teams were missing their best players due to Gold Cup duty, but the fact that the backups could not step up and shine is an indication that the talent pool in the MLS is pretty shallow.

Despite the dullness of the competition the accuracy of my predictions was pretty sharp:

Predicted Score				Actual Score				Points
Los Angeles	3	D.C. United	1	Los Angeles	0	D.C. United	0	-10
Toronto FC	2	Kansas City	2	Toronto FC	0	Kansas City	0	20
New York	2	Columbus	0	New York	1	Columbus	1	-10
FC Dallas	1	New England	0	FC Dallas	1	New England	0	30
Chicago	1	Seattle	2	Chicago	0	Seattle	0	-10
Colorado	1	Philadelphia	1	Colorado	1	Philadelphia	1	30
Real Salt Lake	1	Vancouver	0	Real Salt Lake	2	Vancouver	0	10
San Jose	1	Houston	1	San Jose	2	Houston	0	-10
Chivas USA	2	Portland	1	Chivas USA	1	Portland	0	15
							Total	65


For the weekend I predicted 5 of 9 outcomes and 2 scores correctly.  For the season my outcome accuracy is up to 39.7% and my score prediction accuracy is up to 8.8%.  Here are my predictions for the midweek games:

Predicted Score
Columbus	1	Real Salt Lake	1
Kansas City	2	Chicago	2

This is Kansas City's home debut in their new stadium.  Their 10-game road trip to start the season was not very successful with only one win and six points earned.  Will be interesting to see how they respond to some home cooking.

My latest SRS rankings after the jump:

Team	MOV	SOS	SRS	Change
Real Salt Lake	0.800	0.101	0.901	0.077
New York	0.538	0.027	0.565	-0.085
Philadelphia	0.417	0.094	0.511	-0.051
Los Angeles	0.500	0.004	0.504	-0.071
FC Dallas	0.357	-0.011	0.346	0.018
Seattle	0.200	0.028	0.228	-0.026
San Jose	0.167	0.045	0.212	0.188
Colorado	0.143	-0.019	0.124	0.035
Houston	0.000	0.117	0.117	-0.170
Chivas USA	0.154	-0.095	0.059	0.040
Columbus	-0.167	-0.036	-0.203	0.112
Portland	-0.250	0.041	-0.209	-0.048
D.C. United	-0.333	0.030	-0.303	0.061
Chicago	-0.333	-0.041	-0.374	0.047
New England	-0.462	0.001	-0.461	-0.017
Vancouver	-0.429	-0.071	-0.499	0.006
Toronto FC	-0.714	-0.082	-0.797	0.004
Kansas City	-0.700	-0.116	-0.816	-0.006

Real Salt Lake remains on top.  The only change in the top 5 is LA dropping behind Philadelphia as a result of their scoreless draw against D.C. United, a match they were predicted to win.  Kansas City remains at the bottom despite having the weakest strength of schedule.  What this says to me is that Sporting KC is just a bad team, not just a team that has been handicapped by a lack of home games.  Their performance should improve somewhat at home, but I expect to see them at or near the bottom of the SRS rankings the rest of the season.