We’re publishing three team previews every weekday until MLS First Kick on April 16th. You can find all of them here.
Today we’re looking at three teams brimming with hope as they enter the 2021 campaign.
Read MoreIn this series of articles, we are going to look at the efficiency of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft. For this research, we analyzed the 2013-2019 MLS SuperDraft along with the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft. We will evaluate draft efficiency by looking at several different success factors for both draftees and teams. Over this 7-year period there were 30 rounds of drafts and 632 allocated draft picks, from which 576 players were selected-approximately 91%. We can deduce that the majority of Major League Soccer teams use their allocated draft picks when available. However, the number of players actually signed to contracts by their drafting club is significantly lower. According to Figure 1, there is a sharp contrast between the number of players drafted versus the number that are signed to MLS contracts. Out of the 576 total selected players, only 269 were signed to an MLS Contract by the club that drafted them.
Read MoreLos Angeles Football Club was, according to points total, the best expansion side in the history of Major League Soccer. They’re hoping to improve on that in 2019.
2018 in Review
LAFC’s 57 points surpassed the 56 earned by the 1998 Chicago Fire and the 55 by 2017 newcomers Atlanta United. They scored the second most goals all-time of an expansion side, with 68. By all accounts, it was a very good debut season.
Read MoreWelcome to Setting the Table. Each week we take some time to focus on the best chance creators in MLS from the last weekend. If you want to see the best chances that were wasted check out Lowered Expectations. Here we focus on chances that ended with the ball in the back of the net.
This week I’m going to do something a bit different. Don’t worry, you’ll still get to see the top assists of the week (based on the quality of chance they create, rather than the awesomeness of the actual pass, a fact that seems extra evident this week), and you’ll still get gifs of fun goals. That said, with it being the beginning of the World Cup, I’m also going to take a look at some of the players MLS is sending to Russia and what stands out about them.
Read MoreUS Open Cup. Supporters’ Shield. Coach of The Year. Defender of the Year. You might not believe it, but Dallas will be even deeper and scarier in 2017.
2016 Review
Finally, some hardware! In 2016 FC Dallas ended a 19-year trophy drought by winning the US Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield, but fizzled out in the playoffs without the magic of Mauro Diaz, who went down due to an Achilles tendon tear. Interesting how the injury occurred against Seattle and then it was the “#NotMyMLSCupChampion” Sounders that benefited in the playoffs, isn’t it? Real fútbol fans know that the team at the top of the table is the true league champion (eds note: we puked a little in our mouth, too. The homerism dies down from here, we promise).
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