Unlike the weather, NYC is not hot right now. Bluebirds are 6-2-2 in the last 10 but 2-1-2 in the last 5 and 2-2-2 in the last 6. The 4-game win streak is about to come off the 10-game record with each coming game. PlayoffStatus.com has dropped the odds of finishing 1 or 2 to 49%, the first time it’s been below 50% in 3 weeks. I can’t say they’re wrong. Still, the team still has second best odds for that. Right now only TFC is above 50% at 54% and NJRB is at 31%.
The club’s “Road Warrior” reputation is based on a single 5-game stretch. NYC started the season 1-2-0 Away. Then undefeated in 5 with 4 wins at 4-0-1. Since then NYC is 1-2-2 on the road. Outside of the 5-game unbeaten streak, NYC has earned 1.0 PPG over 8 games, During those 5 games, NYC earned 2.6 PPG, and at one point was at 2.0 for the season including the first 3.
Still, most teams would love to have 1.0 PPG on the road in all their games and NYC is at 1.62 overall. NYC will also still probably have the best Away record in the league. Dallas and the Galaxy are closest and both need to do better than they have to date to catch the Gotham Blues even if NYC gets 0 road points the rest of the way.
NYC has played more Away games than Home for the first time since Game 1 March 6. Between June 18 and August 20 they will have played just 2 home games in 2 months.
How close are the Pigeons to clinching a playoff spot? About 4 weeks at the minimum. City clinches when it has more points than the maximum possible points for 4 East teams. Chicago’s maximum points is 55, New England and Columbus 56, DC and Orlando 60. City has 38. It will take a minimum of 6 games to bridge those gaps with the Fire, Revs and Crew, and 8 games for DC and Orlando. Any game involving them or us counts; a game between any one of them and the Blue Notes counts as 2. But any time we drop points or they win points extends it. Even though we are a near lock for the playoffs, we probably won’t clinch until the end of September.
Last year the Robber Barons played in the black secondary six times by Game 25, which was actually behind the pace for the year. They wore that kit 10 times overall. This year we have seen the HypnoKit just 3 times, and none of the remaining Away games seem to require it. This only has playoff implications for the hyper-superstitious.
Draws make for boring updates to the what needs to be done chart. Also, we have now drawn more times than all of last year.
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