It may be very early days in the 2008 MLS season, but the Newark Star Ledger’s Frank Giase points out that never before has the balance of power been so heavily concentrated in one conference. As it stands, the league’s top five teams are in the East, with Columbus (5-1-0) in first place with 15 points, the Chicago Fire (4-1-1) in second with 13, and Kansas City (3-3-1), Toronto FC (3-2-1), and New England (3-3-1) all tied with 10 points each.
It’s not until you get to the sixth-best point total that you find the two best teams from the West, Colorado (3-3-0) and FC Dallas (2-1-3) each with nine points. The New York Red Bulls (2-1-2), the sixth-place team in the East, would be third in the West, and just a point out of first place. Giase also points out (and it’s no surprise) that the East has dominated head-to-head meetings with Western conference teams, posting a commanding 11-4-2 record.
There may be 25 weeks to go, but it’s still a stark disparity, and one that may well grow larger, Giase says. Not counting the 2000 and 2001 seasons, when MLS was divided into three conferences, the top team in each conference has recorded the two highest point totals eight times in 10 years, including each of the last three. The disparity matters tremendously when it comes to the playoffs. If the season ended today, only the top two teams from the Western Conference would receive playoff berths.