Team Breakdowns: 2006 vs 2005

This post will take a look at how each MLS team has preformed this season in terms of PPG, goals scored, and goals allowed. I'll also compare it to last season to see how things have changed. Here's the 2005 vs 2004 post I made a year ago. First things first. The average PPG per team leaguewide was 1.354 this year compared to 1.385 last year, slightly lower due to more draws. Also, there were exactly 0.25 fewer goals per game scored this season. The average goals scored and conceded during a game was 1.31. So that's the benchmark for an average offense or defense. Overall, this year saw Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake become respectable teams, rising up from the deep depths of suckyness they were at in 2005. After you take that into account, very few other teams show improvement. That's because having two really bad teams made everyone else look better in the stats last year. The all time ranks are done by PPG, with shootouts counting as draws. CHICAGO OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.53 1.53 1.56 2006 1.47 1.34 1.28 The first column is PPG, while the others are goals per game. Despite the decent season last year, the Fire allowed more goals than they scored. In 2006, the defense was much more solid. Jesse Marsch was effectively replaced by Diego Gutierrez, while Tony Sanneh finally played up to his abilities. With a better defense there's less of a need for offense. 2006 All Time Rank: 7th out of 9 seasons CHIVAS USA OVR OFF DEF 2005 0.56 0.97 2.09 2006 1.34 1.41 1.31 I don't think much needs to be said here. Despite the dramatic turnaround, the 2006 goats only have the 4th best improvement in league history (2000 Metros are 1st). Bob Bradley's three year tenure with the Metrostars wasn't even that bad. His worst season there was in 2004 where they averaged 1.33 PPG, or pretty much exactly the same as this year's Chivas team. 2006 All Time Rank: 1st out of 2 seasons COLORADO OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.41 1.25 1.16 2006 1.28 1.13 1.53 The Rapids are a team that is always underrated, yet nearly always manage to make the playoffs. They still made it this year, but it was a worse team than usual for them. Last year was the only year that they had a positive goal differential, so it's back to normalcy for them. In a year where goals scored dropped by a good amount, it makes their defensive decline even more pronounced. Maybe they could've used Nat Borchers and Ritchie Kotschau. On the other hand, they still managed to score goals when they needed to. Only one time id they win by more than one goal, whereas they lost by three goals five times. 2006 All Time Rank: 9th out of 11 seasons COLUMBUS OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.19 1.06 1.41 2006 1.03 0.94 1.31 Yeah, things became even worse for the Crew despite the signing of Sigi Schmid. His Galaxy teams were excellent on defense, so I expected an improvement there (although it's not as big as I would've imagined). But after numerous injuries and the trade of Edson Buddle, they were extremely bad at scoring. They ended up tied with last year's RSL team as the worst offensively in league history. 2006 All Time Rank: 11th out of 11 seasons DALLAS OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.50 1.63 1.38 2006 1.63 1.50 1.38 Basically the same season as last year, except they didn't swoon quite as much in the second half. They appear to have a deeper squad, although that's somewhat due to the lack of injuries compared to 2005. Kenny Cooper has been great, but Ronnie O'Brien hasn't had the magic touch and has only scored once (down from six goals a year ago). 2006 All Time Rank: 2nd out of 11 seasons DC UNITED OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.69 1.81 1.16 2006 1.72 1.63 1.19 Despite the amazing start to the season, this year's DC team barely finished with a better record than last year's, and declined on both offense and defense. They missed their chance to be the best MLS team ever, but have still put together a phenomenal year even by their standards. 2006 All Time Rank: 4th out of 11 seasons HOUSTON OVR OFF DEF 2005 2.00 1.66 0.97 2006 1.44 1.38 1.25 The history is officially separate from that of the San Jose Earthquakes, but it's fine to compare them to last year's team. The Dynamo suffered a massive decline, and it's no shock considering that they had the third best MLS record ever last year. It would be the 8th worst decline overall in league history if the histories were the same. There was nowhere else to go but down, but they still did pretty good. They declined by exactly the same amount on offense and defense; how often does that happen? As for the players, Ryan Cochrane is no Danny Califf. Also, they suffered when their star forward Brian Ching was out of the lineup, getting only a point per game in the 11 games he missed. 2006 All Time Rank: 1st out of 1 season KANSAS CITY OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.41 1.63 1.38 2006 1.19 1.34 1.41 Let's see, no Eddie Johnson or Josh Wolff due to the World Cup, and for all intents and purposes they weren't there for the rest of the season either. Thank god for Scott Sealy. Both of these Wizards teams missed the playoffs, but as you can see there's a huge difference in the results. They went from the 7th best team in MLS to the 11th. They also missed Jimmy Conrad, although that didn't seem to matter. They only won 3/15 games with him in the lineup. 2006 All Time Rank: 9th out of 11 seasons LOS ANGELES OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.41 1.38 1.41 2006 1.22 1.16 1.16 Steve Sampson is out and so is the playoff streak. Just like last year, the Galaxy lived and died based on Landon Donovan. Two points in the eight games he (and Chris Albright) missed. And despite all the anger among fans, they only dropped six points and one spot on the overall table from their double winning team. They just have extremely high standards due to their success. Imagine if they had a five win season? 2006 All Time Rank: 10th out of 11 seasons NEW ENGLAND OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.84 1.72 1.16 2006 1.50 1.22 1.09 Offense way down probably due to Pat Noonan's ineffectiveness. Best defensive team in the league though. Steve Nicol's got his men working as a disciplined unit, although that hasn't helped him come playoff time where they always seem to end up a goal short. Recovered at the end just like the Revs of recent years. 2006 All Time Rank: 3rd out of 11 seasons NEW YORK OVR OFF DEF 2005 1.47 1.66 1.53 2006 1.22 1.28 1.28 Seems amazing that the Red Bulls are so improved defensively. They went from 9th to 5th in the league. Goal differential is back to zero though, as numerous departures and lesser seasons from Amado Guevara and Youri Djorkaeff took a toll. Bruce Arena's didn't do much in terms of performance while he was coaching (PPG: 1.25 vs 1.20). 2006 All Time Rank: 8th out of 11 seasons REAL SALT LAKE OVR OFF DEF 2005 0.63 0.94 2.03 2006 1.22 1.41 1.53 Way better, and still not great. In other words they lived up to expectations. The offense became respectable (3rd best) while the defense still sucked (tied for last). That has to be the focus for next year. The young kids aren't good enough. 2006 All Time Rank: 1st out of 2 seasons LEAGUEWIDE Overall Improvement/Decline (PPG) 1 Chivas USA 0.78 2 Real Salt Lake 0.59 3 Dallas 0.13 4 DC United 0.03 5 Chicago -0.06 6 Colorado -0.13 7 Columbus -0.16 8 Los Angeles -0.19 9 Kansas City -0.22 10 New York -0.25 11 New England -0.34 12 Houston -0.56 Offensive Improvement/Decline (goals scored) 1 Real Salt Lake 0.47 2 Chivas USA 0.44 3 Colorado -0.13 3 Columbus -0.13 3 Dallas -0.13 6 Chicago -0.19 6 DC United -0.19 8 Los Angeles -0.22 9 Houston -0.28 9 Kansas City -0.28 11 New York -0.38 12 New England -0.50 Defensive Improvement/Decline (goals allowed) 1 Chivas USA -0.78 2 Real Salt Lake -0.50 3 Chicago -0.28 4 Los Angeles -0.25 4 New York -0.25 6 Columbus -0.09 7 New England -0.06 8 Dallas 0.00 9 Kansas City 0.03 9 DC United 0.03 11 Houston 0.28 12 Colorado 0.38 (negative numbers are on top here because that means they allowed fewer goals)