2016 Weekly Update – July 31

• We started the season with 7 points in 8 games. That’s 0.88 PPG and a cume of 1.05 PPG in 42 games with last season. Since then we are at 1.93 PPG over 15 games.
• We also started the season with 18 points in the first 15 games for 1.20 PPG and 1.12 over 49 games cume with last year. Since then we won 18 points in 8 games for 2.25 PPG.
• In 2014, New England had a 1.15 PPG over its first 20 games which featured both a 5-game winning streak and an 8-game losing streak. They finished with 2.29 PPG over the last 14 and 55 points overall.
• Last year when we were in a truly hopeless situation people sometimes pointed to the 2014 Revs as a reason to hope, but at our best we were barely as good as them at their worst. This year we kind of look like them if you take your glasses off and squint a little.
• We have a 3-game Home winning streak.
• We had 6 Draws in the first 14 games, and none in the last 9.
• We are 4-2-0 against the West 2.0 PPG.
• We are 6-5-6 against the East 1.41 PPG.
• So if we were in the West we’d be in 1st Place of that tough conference, just like we’re in the middle of the East table…. Oh wait, it doesn’t work that way.
• We are 4-3-5 at Home 1.41 PPG.
• We are 6-4-1 on the Road 1.73 PPG.
• Our Goal Differential against the entire league excluding NJRB is +8.
• Our GD against the West is +5. The rest of the East against the West is -18.
• Last week there were 4 teams capable of catching us with the help of just one NYCFC loss or less. Toronto kept pace, but Philly lost, and Montreal and NJRB drew. So we now have a minimally bigger cushion, but spots 1 through 5 in the table are really quite tight and the team cannot afford to start dropping points. Plus the Impact and Red Bull draws were on the road and both were earned with goals after the 85-minute mark. This was not a bad week of East Conference results but it was not as good as it nearly was, or should have been.
• Right now we sit top of the East with projected 53 points. The last time the East winner had that few points was SKC in 2011 with 51 (the first year they played 34 games). The next lowest East winners since then had 59 points.

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• My what-we-need-to-do chart doesn’t even go up to 59, but figure we need to win 7 or 8 of the remaining 11.

Think on this: we could get to 50 points with a losing record here on out.