MLS Overall Positions Table

Everybody can remember whether or not their MLS team had a good or bad season in any given year. Although, with the MLS system set up the way it is, it's hard to know exactly how good sometimes. That's because of the playoffs, first of all, but also because of the conference set up that's been around since the league started. So while people may remember the seed their team had in the playoffs, it's harder to remember exactly where in the overall stand they finished. That's where this table comes in handy. Oh, and there's also the fact that MLS changes draft positions based on playoff performance. This is a table of where every MLS team finished in the overall league standings in each season. Ties were broken by the league's current rules, in which head to head is the first tiebreaker and goal differential is the second. As always, from 1996-9 shootouts are counted as draws. 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 CHI xxx xxx 3 4 2 2 7 1 10 4 4 CHV xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx 12 6 CLB 7 6 4 6 10 4 6 8 1 10 12 COL 10 7 5 5 8 11 4 6 5 9 7 DAL 5 5 7 3 6 7 3 10 8 5 2 DC 3 1 2 1 11 9 10 7 4 3 1 HOU xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx 5 KC 6 2 10 11 1 8 8 4 2 8 11 LA 2 3 1 2 5 3 1 9 3 7 9 MIA xxx xxx 11 10 9 1 xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx NE 9 8 12 9 7 10 5 3 9 2 3 NY 8 9 8 12 3 6 9 5 6 6 8 RSL xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx 11 10 SJ 4 10 9 7 12 5 2 2 7 1 xxx TB 1 4 6 8 4 12 xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx TOR xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx Top Half/Bottom Half Breakdown Top Bottom PCT Top 1 HOU 1 0 100.0% 2 CHI 7 2 77.8% 3 LA 8 3 72.7% 4 TB 4 2 66.7% 5 DAL 7 4 63.6% 5 DC 7 4 63.6% 7 CHV 1 1 50.0% 7 SJ 5 5 50.0% 9 CLB 4 7 36.4% 9 COL 4 7 36.4% 9 KC 4 7 36.4% 9 NE 4 7 36.4% 9 NY 4 7 36.4% 14 MIA 1 3 25.0% 15 RSL 0 2 0.0% 15 TOR 0 0 0.0% Most years in a row in the top half: 7 years, LA 1996-2002 Most years in a row in the bottom half: 6 years, NE 1996-2001 Hypothetical Superliga Qualifications The new Superliga competition will be filled with the top four MLS teams starting next year with the second edition. If it had been around since MLS started, how many times would each team have qualified? Top 4's 1 CHI 7 1 DC 7 1 LA 7 4 KC 4 4 SJ 4 6 CLB 3 6 DAL 3 6 NE 3 6 TB 3 10 COL 1 10 MIA 1 10 NY 1 13 CHV 0 13 HOU 0 13 RSL 0 13 TOR 0 Hypothetical First Relegation If finishing in the bottom three resulted in relegation, when would each team have suffered it for the first time? Relegated COL 1996 NE 1996 NY 1996 SJ 1997 KC 1998 MIA 1998 CLB 2000 DC 2000 TB 2001 DAL 2003 LA 2003 CHI 2004 CHV 2005 RSL 2005 HOU xxx TOR xxx MLS Cup Ranking Breakdown Lists the overall rankings of the finalists with winners on the left. To see a ranking of the MLS Cup champions by PPG, click here. Despite being a 4 seed, the 2004 DC United team was the worst champion in league history in PPG. 1996 DC 3 vs 2 LA 1997 DC 1 vs 7 COL 1998 CHI 3 vs 2 DC 1999 DC 1 vs 2 LA 2000 KC 1 vs 2 CHI 2001 SJ 5 vs 3 LA 2002 LA 1 vs 5 NE 2003 SJ 2 vs 1 CHI 2004 DC 4 vs 2 KC 2005 LA 7 vs 2 NE 2006 HOU 5 vs 3 NE I know somebody will probably ask me this. Why is LA listed as the 7th best team for the 2005 season, when the standings clearly show 7 teams ahead of them? For the MLS seeding, LA loses the tiebreaker on goal differential to Colorado making them the 4th seed in the West, and the 8th best playoff team out of 8. However, in the overall standings there was a three-way tie for 7th place between COL, KC, and LA. The Galaxy win that three-way tiebreaker, although they would've (and did) lose the tiebreaker just with the Rapids. Here's a table of the head to head results: COL KC LA Total COL xxx 1-1-0 2-2-0 3-3-0 KC 1-1-0 xxx 0-1-1 1-2-1 LA 2-2-0 1-0-1 xxx 3-2-1 So the Galaxy win that. COL and KC must then be separated (once a three-way tie is broken, you go back to the first tiebreaker with the two remaining teams). KC then wins the second tiebreaker vs COL, goal differential, which means that the Rapids were 9th in the overall table despite being the 7th best playoff team. Got it?