Refreshing Our MLS Brains & Looking at MLS Through Numbers - Soccer Today (September 29th, 2022) - Soccer Today with Kevin Laramee (covering the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup)

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world of football with a soccer perspective. This is Soccer Today with Dwayne Bollins
and Kevin Laramie, live on theSports Podcasting Network. Good day, good
night, and welcome to Soccer Todayfor Thursday, September twenty ninth, twenty
twenty two. I'm keV Laramie.Dwayne Rollins will be joining me in a
second as we invite you as asubscribe to our YouTube page and our podcast

(00:47):
everywhere you find your favorite podcast.And Dwayne, let's start the show today
by talking about one very painful thing. I have to say. I experienced
maybe the most painful hour of mylife earlier today. As as you know
and I know you have been doingthe same thing over the last couple of
months and years. We've been gettinginto shape and working out, and I've

(01:10):
decided to go get a real massagefrom a masso therapist, from an ordained
therapist. And turns out that mytwo decades plus of the inter restaurant industry
really damaged my shoulders. And youknow, I can't feel my shoulders anymore.
The massage therapist really really worked ismagic and yeah that was painful.

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Well well there you go. Yeah, I therapeutic massage much different than relaxation
massage, although truth be told,I was gifted a relaxation massage once a
few years ago, and I justfound the entire experience prostrating. You know,
if you're going a massage, comeon, yeah, don't exactly.
And there was no nothing frustrating hereoutside of the pain and the white knuckles

(02:00):
coming out of the session. Butit's good. It's it's for the best
for the future, which is whatwe're here to talk about today, the
future of MLS or MLS futures.Should I say who will win MLS Cup?
Who will maybe win the Golden Boot? Those are a couple of the
conversation we will have today, amaybe conversation around the coffee table type of

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show. Today we're a little bitmore quiet, a bit more wrapping our
minds set around Major League Soccer thathas continued throughout the international break, and
maybe we will look at some ofthe results that we have missed during the
international break. But Dwayen covering TFCwhen they're eliminated at this point is just

(02:46):
pretty much over and you're just lookingahead to next year. But what are
you looking forward to in MLS untilthe end of the season. Well,
I mean, look, in general, the playoffs are always interesting, although
I think at this point in time, I'd be lying if I said my
focus wasn't more on the form ofthe KA national team players combined with you

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know, sort of watching the Europeanseasons start to develop into what's going to
a very interesting European year. Butin terms of MLS, yeah, I
will watch once you're all with interestbecause they are very much tied into what
I do on this show and theKA national team, as I just said,
so that should be fun. TFC, look, it's about it's also
for next year. There is youknow, one or two more games that

(03:31):
matter in the sense that the TFCtwo the next pro team is in the
seven finals. So I'll watch thaton the weekend and uh, you know,
with an eye to maybe a playerthat might be able to jump up
and help that team next year.But you know, TFC is going to
be shaped on what they do inthe back end the offseason, not what
happens in the natural games. Hello, good go go TFC two, Go

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go go bring it home guys exactlyexactly, MLS and next Pro interesting league
two and there's interesting articles now comingoff of year one of MLX Pro and
all the failures of year one.Maybe we should look into this for a
future show down the roadway. Acouple of the results over the last few

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days. On September twenty fourth,last Saturday, the Galaxy and Senos Earthquakes
play the game that was delayed fromearlier this year at Stanford in Northern California,
San Jose and Yella Galaxy and theGalaxy one three two in San Jose.
And on Tuesday, Seattle Saunders againstCincinnati one one and Seattle looking more

(04:39):
and more like they will be theone left out of the dance. There
will be the one party left standingwhen the music stopped and you have to
find the chair. Seattle about tomiss the playoffs for the first time in
their history. Yeah, their magicnumbers one to be eliminated, right,
so one point by two points actuallytechnically but one result. They have to

(05:03):
win out and have both Salt LakeCity in Minnesota is out. That does
not seem likely. It does seemlike the historic moment that we that we
taught thought about it, never thoughtwe might see might happen. And as
the Seattle Standers miss in the playoffs. But again, just the one last
note of Next Pro. Hilariously,the first year of Next Pro, there
is still on the board the possibilityof Seattle Sanders TFC final because to comment

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is on the other side of theWest. But anyway, that's just something
funny I thought, right exactly,I think that would be hilarious. But
yeah, and of course Seattle wouldbe missing the playoff for the first time
in their history, having one earlierthis year the County GAFF Champions League,
the first time an MLS team haswon the trophy. But one thing that

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I do like to keep an eyeon, it's the ball MVP or Golden
boot Rays. Let's go with theGolden boot Rays because yes they're tied in
together, but not necessarily exclusively.And this time around there's a real race,
and it's a higher level race thatwe have between two great strikers,
mature strikers. Honey Muktar twenty threegoals this season, Sebastian, did you

(06:13):
see twenty one goals? There's alsoDanyane Gazzag who is third with nineteen goals,
but I don't think he can maybereach Muktar did you see links to
score in bunches? So he canhave a great game and maybe squeaked by
and join Honey Muktar of Nashville,which was announced Dwayne earlier this week.
The Nashville will join back the EasternConference, having flip flopped from East and

(06:35):
West over the last few years.Nashville now will resettle in the Eastern Conference
of Major League Soccer. But HoneyMuktar twenty three goals, looking not only
as the favorite but also the oddson favorite Dwayne to win the Golden Boot.
Yeah, yeah, I think he'llHe'll probably get that done. And

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just since we're talking about goals,just to finish the Seattle flop for a
minute ago, the ranks sixteenth inthe league in terms of goal scoring.
What do I always say? Goalsword titles. So that's your problem right
there, that didn't produce in offoffense This year has been a solid thrift
year. He's been a consistent forceall year long, and he would be
too very likely to finish the topof that list. And it's been a
bit of a return to goal scoringthis year. I think that's gonna get

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trends going to continue forward again.Even more, I think there'll probably be
an influence of challenge coming to theleague in the offseason. Their husband,
you know, a bit of awall in in terms of the transfers outside
of the last window. That's gonnaexasperate. So a guy like that,
it's good for him to get thathonors and move forward. Do you think

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he's the MVP favorite at this point? Because the UC was really seen as
one of the favorites a cost earlierthis season. But at this point,
is Muktar the favorite for MVP?Because when you look at teams like Montreal,
Philly and even LAFC dominating, Yes, but there's not one name that
stands out of these that you cansay they're the MVP. When you look

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at Nashville and just muck tis playwith twenty three goals and also a lot
of assists that goes with it,Is Mukdar the MVP this year? So
far? He will be? Yeah? I mean I don't mean to be
that definitive, but I think thatwhen you come to an MVP vote,
it is very rare that there's kindof a question heading into the actual voting
of it. I mean it's beenpretty clear in the last I guess maybe

(08:26):
the Puswelo's year you might have debateda bit because Peswello's year, we no
one knew what hell was going onas we're all knocked down. But in
terms of the last few full seasons, it's been pretty clear by the time
it got down, and mut WellI think has been the clubhouse favorite for
a while on that award, Andlook, that's a team that hasn't necessarily
gotten the credit that maybe it deservesbased on its play and based on his

(08:50):
play, and that will be somethingthat they will be able to hang their
hat on. I don't think they'regoing to go to playoff run. I
don't because in the playoffs you canneutralize the single for us, and they
don't have a lot of experience collectivelyin that kind of knockout situation. I'd
be surprised. But but look,it's it's been a good second year and
they certainly will be set up tocontinue to build on that in twenty three

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based on you know, the threeyear thing. When it comes to the
expansion teams, they will be goinginto their third and final year of that
cycle, which will allow them toreally build towards being a championship contending Yere
for next year. They're headed thepace on that and he's a big reason
why. So it will be deservinga war, and I'm pretty sure he
will. He will win that ina fairly significant landslide this year, just

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as a as a top goal scorer. If we're looking at the odds from
let's just say the consensus here.If we're looking at the consensus odds for
top goal score in Major League Soccer, it is an annual tie at one
point sixteen. The UC is secondat four forty. So if you think
Muktara is not going to score anymore goals and Ducey's gonna have one great

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game, maybe another game of one, maybe that's something you can think of
doing. But I do think thatit's a tough task or maybe a tough
ask to part with your money toback anybody else in Hanimuktar on that conversation.
But since we're talking about odds,let's look at the odds to win

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it. All the odds to winMLS Cup in twenty twenty two. Of
course, it's very similar to thesupport your shield standings. That's how bookmakers
work, but according to different bookand that is a consensus in legal books.
Here in Canada, Philadelphia Union topof the table with three seventy five

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top favorite, followed by LAFC withfour point zh. That means that if
you spend a dollar on a wagerfour LAFC to win, if they do,
you would win four dollars. CEFMontreal eleven, Austin thirteen, in
Nashville seventeen. That's your top teams, and then you have New York NYCFC

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in Dallas also at seventeen point zerozero. Do you see any value in
any teams here? Is it toochaotic in the playoffs even with one offs?
And maybe that's something that we canlook deep down in the future.
In hockey and in baseball, overthe last two years, favorites are back

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winning at over a sixty two percentmargin, and I'm interested to see if
in Major League soccer that's going tobe the case, which would mean less
less surprises in the playoffs. Anyvalue in those odds in your opinion,
joint, I mean, it's thisis the third will be the fourth season
that we've had thirds four season thatwe've had the single knockout situations going back

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to twenty nineteens first one and thatof course led the TFC Seattle Final,
the final one of that three seven, and there was up sets coming out
of the East and sorts of Torontoget into we haven't had the sports shield
win in that no single knockout situation. The sports shield that the double is
is very rare in major the soccerbecause of the nature of a playoff league,
in the nature of the fact thatit's pretty close and often. I

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think it's also a factor in thesense that a lot of teams that when
the sort of supporters shield um havehigh octane kind of players that you know,
they rely on, and if theyget shut down in a playoff game,
they can sometimes struggle. There.It's rarer to have a team that
has that solid depth top to bottom. And you can also see, you
know, big runs from from teamsthat are kind of savvy and knockout situations.

(12:39):
You mentioned those odds you didn't getdown to, you know, the
sort of bottom seed ones. Iwould say that if you want a betting
tip out of me, and Iam not suggesting that you should ever expect
to win money when it comes toa future spet. They should be done
for fun. They really are notnecessarily the smartest way to to even gamble,
let alone spend your money. Andright like, that's that's mccaveat.

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But if I'm looking for value here, I'm going to look at a team
that's outside, that's bottom team thatis done well and knock out situations before
and you could see maybe coming underthat bottom ete in the in the playoffs,
like the bottom bottom seeds and theteam that jumps out to me and
that that descriptions Portland right now.They will likely get in. They have

(13:24):
a history of doing well in playingabove their their station in playoffs. I
think it's thirty seven to one.I don't have them in front of Yeah,
I have thirty five to one,but yeah, SOT thirty five point
zero zero rd odds I have forPortland to win them Alaska. Yeah,
So so there's a bit of valuethere. Um, you know, Portland
has a team that's gone well.They would almost come last year. I
mean, if you want to lookat it more likely a run, I'd

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look in the East and look ata team that are underachieved in New York
City FC the finals, the otherchampion for last year. They might need
some value there. Um, youknow, I'm sure that if you look
at Montreal, I don't know ifeleven to one is value in a future
spective ones. I mean, itlooks nice ten dollars to get your hundred
and ten back, but it's not. And by the way, it is
American listeners out there, I don'tknow why you listen to odds where you

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do. Just doesn't it make muchmore sense. It's pure Mathew anyway,
nonethless, I don't understand American ards. You think I know exactly and if
you're just new to American odds.American odds would be example, plus one
oh five, which means that ifyou bet one hundred dollars you will get
one oh five back. It's yeah, which means you might you make five

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dollars. But if it's minus oneexample, if it's minus one ten,
it means that you will get ninetyfive forty five back of one hundred dollars
beat so or whatever the math is. Yeah, it's whereas the DESCI moods,
you're just multiplayers. Your beat timesthe multiplayer, and there's your your
figure. You get back, whichincludes to figure your bet, but at

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any rate nonetheless get him off that. Yeah, look, um, I
predicting the Amalys Cup playoffs is likepredicting the MLR. There's a lot of
variables to play, and you can'tLike, no one would have predicted that
RSL was gonna do what they didagainst Seattle in the playoffs last year.
They never replicate that game again.Avery, you can play a million times,

(15:11):
they'd never do that again, especially, not especially anymore because they got
rid of the keeper that made abig difference in that game, you know,
and there's a lot of intangibles thatwasn't intangible that game and that day,
and that will not be the caseany more. Well, I think
a short break. When we comeback, we'll continue our discussion of leaders
in a couple of different categories theMajor League Soccer, sparked by an article

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on mlsoccer dot com regarding expected goals, We're gonna look not only had expected
goals, but a cover of maybemore obscure categories that As a sports statistician,
I love to deep deep, deepdive in. And we'll be right
back after this short break. Youare listening to soccer today follow us on

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Twitter, Welco Today, ESPN,and like our Facebook page, Facebook dot
com Forward Slash Sports Podcasting Network,and we're back on Soccer Today. Kevlari

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may wait, Dwayne Rawlins, aswe say thank you to our patrons who
have subscribed to our shout out tierand a super shout out tier at patreon
dot com, Slash two solitudes.Thank you, and let's go boys.
Let's go also girls, ladies,men, women, everybody listening, people,
alien, dogs, cats, It'san inclusive soccer show here. And

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as we are here looking at acouple of different great categories, Dwayne,
Yes, expected goals is a categorythat is more recognized and in MLS there's
a couple of good performers and expectedgoals and expected goals versus the amount of
goals scored and either the plus orthat or the minus of that. But

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when we look at other statistics,to me, gives basically a value or
quantify play of players that are noti would say appreciated enough. And one
of them is passes into the finalthird because it does illustrate the control of

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the ball of a player or ateam in a certain position into the pitch
where they can pass the ball eitherfrom far or close into the offensive part
of the field, generating some sortof attack that could lead to a shot
creating action or even better yet,will lead to a goal creating action.

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And in the top ten of MajorLeague Soccer there is two players playing in
Montreal. There's even one player fromToronto in that top ten in passes into
the final third. According to FBReference, we do have Kamo Miller fourth
with one hundred and sixty six,Joel Waterman eighth with one hundred and fifty

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seven. Let's not forget Kamo Millerhas played fewer games than most of those
players in the top ten, havingbeen called on international duty earlier this year
when other players weren't and also withinjury earlier this year. But him and
Joe Waterman in the top ten.Michael Bradley is six with one hundred and
sixty five. But to me,passes into the final third shows a versatility

(18:30):
when it comes to a defender anda defensive midfielder getting high into the league
top ten in that category. Yeah, welto's tactics as well from what they're
playing, and TFC listeners out there, I'd like you to underline that because
that's what Michael Bradley still does well. And it's been something I've been saying

(18:51):
without having that started back it upall year, right like, you can
still see him to those longer acrossfield passes into dangerous positions quite effectively.
The problem is is footspeed. Hegets isolated, but but not Michael Bradley.
We're gonna have tons of conversations withhim heading into next year. So
we'll leave that while enough alone forthere, YEA. No. Look the
thing about the numbers that we're talkingabout right now, and this is more
of a general conversation for all ofthese and includes XG and everything like that

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in there, they're not necessarily themost interesting or informative things when you're talking
about a single game, and that'soften I think people get bogged down to
that the individual form, and theytalk about like how much XG there was
in one game, or how muchyou know this or that there wasn't a
one game. But what they areuseful for is when you look at a
big sample size, because that's goingto tell you the trends, that's going

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to tell you it's going to eliminateoutliers, it's going to even things out.
So when you're looking at these kindof numbers right now, you are
getting a good idea of what theydo. You are getting indication of whether
a team is outperforming something, whethera player out performs something, whether players
struggling in a certain areas. Sothose of you out there that are inclined
to dismiss these kind of numbers,you have a point when it comes to

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the one game, but you don'thave a when it comes to a whole
season. They really are reflecting ofthat. And you look at guys that
can pick a long pass, andas we're talking about here, that is
a useful trait that can open upcertain things. Now you know, having
to bring Michael Bradley up again,clearly it's not to be all end all
because you know exactly there's other problemswell well yes, And also a number

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or a category in statistic can beskewed in a season where one team overly
dominates one thing. Example, ifyou look at Philadelphia and how they scored
so many goals, some of thoseplayers were on the pitch for all those
six neil seven one seven nothing,So that does create a difference of goal

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of plus and minus for the playersthat it's like incredible, right. So
if you look at the plus minusin the MOLS right now, Glessness,
Andrea Blake and Kai Wagner Affili aretop with plus forty six. Then you
have Jack Elliott, Daniel gazdag Leonflock all of Philadelphia, followed by Bedelia
Kanza and Josianez of Philadelphia nine ofthe top ten or Philia. Then you

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have Eli Sanchez of LAFC who's tenth, but that means that means nothing anymore
because Philadelphia won those games seven one, six, nothing. You can basically
take all those nine players out ofthat category to get a true sense of
what the plus minus should be inthe league, of course, because it
becomes an outlier. But those arethings that I think are kind of interesting

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because we're heading into the playoffs andlike you mentioned, short sample sizes of
data doesn't mean anything, but thissample size is big. We have the
entire season of sample size. Andwhen you look at the expected goals and
versus the goal scoring aspect, HandyMoktar nineteen point one expected goals. He

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scored twenty three goals. Yes,he scored a lot more goals, but
he's still top of the league forexpected goals, so it's normal that he
would be top of the league ingoal scored. Where I'm surprised is have
Ernandez Cito was there at the beginningof season. Where is he now?
He's not even in the top ofthe conversation for that because he trailed off
and there's a couple of antics thathe've pulled when he had some easier goals.

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So there's still that aspect that it'snot fully assured. But heading to
the playoffs, when you have ahigh expected goal like have you second in
the league with seventeen point two ina one off situation, those are numbers
that can influence a game if thisplayer gets one chance and actually buries it

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because he does create chances. That'swhy expected goals could be meaningful for those
are still type of things that ifLA Galaxy ever squeak in because they have
a player like a Viernandez in aone game situation, numbers like this that
he does produce could skew how youwould handicap that game. You look when

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I'm coming When I look at thesenumbers, I tend to like extra for
instance, versus actual gy like thealso scored, which is actual G.
I just made a stat up aG versus XG. What is AG actual
goals? Okay? Perfect? Yeah? An goals? Yeah yeah. Look,
I tend to look at the split, right, like, you know,

(23:15):
if a guy's over, let's ustalk gr Vancouver talked from all off
season, right. You know,if you're looking at a big disparity there,
then then there's something going on andyou can have players that I'll perform
that like Josie L. Stork.Traditionally in his career, Ill performed his
XG and that suggested that he hadsomething like if you do that a few
year, that's you're doing something different. You have a quick release, you

(23:37):
have something in the box that you'reable to do quickly. You have a
you know, a play or whateverthat allows you to score longer shots or
have quick releases or get stuff away. Kyle Lauren is a great example for
that. His XG is much lowerthan his actual goals most often because he
has such a quick release in thea team, that tells you about that
player. So you have to lookat it in the context of the player.
Um. You know, when youlook at guys that have the XG

(24:00):
that they're expected to have the goalsthat they're expected to have with the XG
that tells you that they're consistent ina playoff situation. Look, one of
the things that when the new statsrevolution started to push into North American sports
fifteen years ago or so now,that happened to correspond when I first started
to get blogging and was big intothat world right then in terms of you

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know, there was like a wholebunch of bloggers out there are whole bunch
of people out there that were chipon their shoulders trying to prove the old
school sports analysis people that these numbersmattered, and there was a big fights
all the time. And what alwaysgot missed in that is how it was
this concept of clutch, right,like, you don't understand that there's this
player out there that's going to stepthis game up and it's going to do
wonderful things in the playoffs and allthat. Well, what these numbers continue

(24:42):
to show us is clutches bullshit thatdoesn't exaust. But what does exaust is
players that debt when the pressure comeson. So there is that lack of
that over compensation thing that happens sometimeswhen you try too hard to use terms
that aren't as related, and statswill show that up. So if you

(25:03):
know a guy that goes into thethat's playing all year at their XG level,
not below it or not above it, then I have more faith that
they will continue to score at thatlevel than I have anyone who's overachieved or
definitely underachieved them, because that,to me shows that they have either have
a lot of luck on their side, and if there's no left out for
years and years to back that up, then I'm not going to trust it,

(25:23):
or that they constantly kind of chokeup when they are getting into position
to score, and then then youcan definitely imagine that that number is going
to drop further. So that's kindof my roundabout way of how I will
use those numbers to evaluate a playoffperformance. But ultimately, here's the dirty
little secret of all sports analysis isthat when you're talking about a single game,
the biggest factor of all, alwaysCaffine is dumb luck. It really

(25:48):
is. You could have the bestseason ever and you could kit the crossbar
six times in a game and haveyou know, one forty yard shock or
win against you and lose one nil. That's the game, and that's why
we love it because it's not AIfor sure, man, yeah, for
sure, But I think it's allthings that are interesting to look into.
Because of course, now knowing Montrealwill officially finish second in the Eastern Conference,

(26:14):
for sure, they could finish first. And the way that it could
finish first is if Philly loses boththeir last games and Montreal win both the
last game, Montreal will have sixtyfive points, Philly will have sixty four.
It's very doubtful because Philly hasn't losta game at home and they're playing
at home the next game this weekend, and this season they're eleven o five
at home, so I doubt thatPhilly will lose at home. And Tonto

(26:37):
wells also exactly, so I it'slike it's like, yeah, that's not
going to happen. But Montreal willbe second. They cannot finish third.
They cannot be caught by New York. New York is nine points behind Montreal.
Quite remarkable season when you think aboutit. Montchreal is outperforming their best
ever, but by eight at thispoint, it's insane. They lost once
since July sixteenth. It's insane.It's like I work every single game that

(27:00):
Montreal plays that like I'm in partof it, and I's like, it's
like I'm numb. It's like becauseI'm because I'm so close in the forest,
I don't I'm so close to thetrees that I don't see the forest
of success. I just see like, okay, next game. I just
like, I'm busy on the dayto day aspect and I'm like, wow,
but Montreal wolf finished second. Andthen they'll start to look at who

(27:21):
is their possible opportunity of opponents,and you have Miami, Orlando, Columbus
depending if Columbus can crawl back upthat line, and I doubt Atlanta till
too late for Atlanta. But whenI look at teams like Miami and teams
like Orlando, that's when I goback to the stats and look at,

(27:41):
Okay, who are the game breakersthat stand out in some categories that would
indicate to me that they they arethose game breakers. And then you look
in Miami's direction, they have playerslike Gregal that I do not want to
face in the playoff because he canshut you down defensively and he can reach
start the offense being a good passesinto the final third type of guy.

(28:03):
And there's a couple of players likethis. You don't want to play against
Pezzuelo in the playoffs. You neverknow what can happen when he's motivated and
well surrounded. Miami can be dangerous. And if the playoffs were to start
tomorrow morning, Miami would be Montreal'sopponent. And then you look at Orlando,
a couple less dangerous aspect. Butthere's a couple of players that always

(28:23):
played very well against Montreal. Soyou're looking at a situation where you're going
to play against Miami Orlando probably oneof those two in this situation where they're
not easy teams either. No,I mean the whole of damage will will
be significant, particularly you know,Montreal in October is not going to be

(28:45):
warm. I've gone to games inMontreal in October. It's pretty damn Chillian.
It's put a stadium. So you'replaying Miami, that's that's not necessarily
something going to be used to.Although you've mentioned, you know, Puzzuolo
a player who played Miss Corruptive thisyear in Toronto, so obviously so he
has played in cool weather as well. But although that's they did play last
year mostly in Florida, didn't theygot The last couple of years were so

(29:08):
weird. This is exactly nice thatwe had a full real season, isn't
it? Look Montreal should be favoredto win that game. And what Montreal
has done very well is kind ofjust what I spoke to is I look
for consistency and results when I'm tryingto handicap a playoffs situation. That's the
only thing you can really go on. And what Montreal does better than almost
anyone else other than Philadelphia, whichis on a different level, is that
they just don't lose. They justconsistently are able to find a way to

(29:30):
get a result. Now, there'sdraws in those results, right like the
under what you say, undefeated Street, there are games that would go to
a shootout if they were in aplayoff situation, And then you get into
a whole different kind of conversation atthat point of whether you can get the
job done there. And you know, there's not enough of a sample size
for any one of us to suggestif a team is better than another team

(29:52):
in a shootout situation. Really justnot. It's just not you're handicapped out.
I mean, maybe could look atthe keeper and say you know,
do you trust the keeper here?But yes, you're right, though you
get in there's zero basically simple sizefor any team that's it's not like we
see them a few times a yearin a shooter situation. We usually don't.

(30:14):
So you know, it's a fourgame sprint the playoffs, right like
it. That's what they love aboutit. And it is entertaining, it
absolutely is. I mean, I'mnot a college basketball fan, but I
always watch Marshal's Madness because it's entertainingbecause of the nature of the one game
knock. Yet an MLS is tryingto emulate that. Um it's not my
favorite because I watched this league closelyweek in week out, but I get

(30:36):
why they do it from a pureentertaining perspective. And and I've seen my
team, the team that I followedmost closely, the team that, you
know, the only team that Iwould call myself a supporter of, even
though it's hard some days, isToronto. Took advantage of that and made
a run to the playoffs, tothe final and you know, honestly,
probably was at least the equal teamin that final game if it wasn't for

(30:56):
kind of a lucky goal that hitit. The names escape me right now,
but they're deflected and went in right. Toronto might might win the twenty
nineteen final from a poor seed,so like, look, you get in,
that's all you want. You gota ticket. Montreal has a ticket.
They've been consistent all year. Theyhave a chance now. That said,
Philadelphia is on a different level inthe East. In fact, they
aren't differ level in the league.They are to me, the clear favor

(31:19):
of heading in the playoffs right now, and that's going to be tough for
anyone to overcome the East because oftheir debts, because of their consistency.
The same issues with Montreal, thesame good issues with Montreal, except they
are just a little notch higher.They're going to be tough to overcome.
But single game knockout exactly. Andthere's a buy. I feel he's going
to have a buy and if youlook at that, teams like New England

(31:40):
who had the buy last year,it did not farewell coming off the buye
Who knows what's going to happen.But those are all great things to put
back into our mindsets, into ourfront severbrol cortex or to the front of
our minds, to keep in mindbefore we're heading to tomorrow, which will
pre viewed the penultimate weekend of MajorLeague Soccer heading into Decision Day next week.

(32:05):
But this weekend week number thirty threeMajor League Soccer, we will break
it down in the next episode oftwo solid to Know. It's wow.
That's a blast in the past.But you can follow to saltus on a
Patreon dot com stash two solitudes.But tomorrow on Soccer Today the weekend preview
and as always, until next timefor Dwayne Rollins, I'm keV Laramie.
Thank you to all our supporters,Thank you to our listeners, podcast subscribers,

(32:29):
Thank you for hitting that subscribe buttonon YouTube, follow us on social
media at Soccer TODAYESPN at keV Laramieat twenty fourth minutes and yes a shameless
plug, hit that download button anywhereyou can and help us chart once again
in all the soccer categories of thepodcast charts everywhere, but as always,

(32:52):
until next time, have a goodsoccer. You can find a podcast version
of all the shows we do oniTunes, Apple Podcast, Google play Store,
tune in Radio, iHeartRadio, andanywhere you get your podcast

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Refreshing Our MLS Brains & Looking at MLS Through Numbers - Soccer Today (September 29th, 2022)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Refreshing Our MLS Brains & Looking at MLS Through Numbers - Soccer Today (September 29th, 2022)