Here are the final rankings for the Championship:
Team MOV SOS SRS Queens Park Rangers 0.848 0.000 0.848 Swansea City 0.587 0.000 0.587 Reading 0.565 0.000 0.565 Norwich City 0.543 0.000 0.543 Cardiff City 0.478 0.000 0.478 Nottingham Forest 0.413 0.000 0.413 Millwall 0.
To quote another famous writer, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" for the MLS this weekend. The best of times were on Saturday night which featured a showdown between two of the best teams in the league, Los Angeles and New York. Each team is led by a superstar, Landon Donovan for LA and Thierry Henry for New York.
Manchester United is now on the brink of clinching the title after their home victory over Chelsea. With a 6-point lead United needs merely one point in the next two matches to regain their status as Premier League champions.
Liverpool continues their scorching hot play as they destroyed Fulham 5-2.
The Championship finished their regular season on Saturday and congratulations to Queens Park Rangers and Norwich City who earned automatic promotions to the Premier League. QPR finished first with 88 points, 4 points ahead of the Canaries. QPR was awaiting word from the Football Association which was ruling on irregularities concerning the economic rights of player Alejandro Faurlin.
Yes, I know the games are already in progress but here is how my model is predicting the final round of games for the Championship.
Norwich City 2 Coventry City 1
Reading 2 Derby County 1
Leicester City 2 Ipswich Town 1
Queens Park Rangers 2 Leeds United 1
Burnley 2 Cardiff City 2
Barnsley 1 Millwall 1
Bristol City 1 Hull City 2
Crystal Palace 1 Nottingham Forest 1
Scunthorpe United 1 Portsmouth 2
Swansea City 2 Sheffield United 0
Preston North End 1 Watford 2
Middlesbrough 2 Doncaster Rovers 1
Excluding Friday night's match because I'm behind so these predictions will be for Saturday's matches only:
Real Salt Lake 2 Chivas USA 0
Toronto FC 0 Houston 1
D.C. United 2 FC Dallas 2
Columbus 1 Seattle 0
New England 0 Colorado 1
Chicago 2 Vancouver 1
Los Angeles 0 New York 1
Way behind in my posts this week. Day job keeping me busy plus wedding preparations taking up most of my time lately. Here are my predictions for this weekend's matches:
Aston Villa 1 Wigan 1
Bolton 2 Sunderland 1
Everton 1 Man City 1
Newcastle 2 Birmingham 1
West Ham 2 Blackburn 2
Tottenham 2 Blackpool 1
Wolves 2 WBA 2
Stoke City 1 Arsenal 2
Man Utd 2 Chelsea 1
Fulham 2 Liverpool 1
Let's see how last weekend's predictions turned out:
Houston 4 D.C. United 1 (Prediction: Hou 2 DC 1 Points: +10)
Philadelphia 1 San Jose 0 (Prediction: Phi 1 SJ 0 Points: +30)
Columbus 2 Vancouver 1 (Prediction: Col 3 Van 0 Points: +10)
New York 1 Kansas City 0 (Prediction: NY 3 KC 1 Points: +10)
Colorado 1 Chicago 1 (Prediction: Col 3 Chic 1 Points: -10)
Seattle 3 Toronto FC 0 (Prediction: Sea 2 Tor 1 Points: +10)
Portland 1 Real Salt Lake 0 (Prediction: Por 2 RSL 2 Points: -10)
Chivas USA 3 New England 0 (Prediction: Chiv 0 NE 1 Points: -10)
FC Dallas 2 Los Angeles 1 (Prediction: FCD 1 LA 1 Points: -10)
Total score: +30 pts so I rebounded nicely from the previous weekend's score of -60.
This is the next to last weekend of the regular season for the Championship. Much can be decided. Here are my predictions:
Watford 1 Queens Park Rangers 1
Ipswich Town 2 Preston North End 2
Hull City 1 Crystal Palace 0
Leeds United 2 Burnley 2
Derby County 2 Bristol City 2
Sheffield United 1 Barnsley 1
Doncaster Rovers 1 Leicester City 1
Nottingham Forest 2 Scunthorpe United 1
Millwall 2 Swansea City 1
Coventry City 1 Reading 2
Portsmouth 1 Norwich City 1
Cardiff City 2 Middlesbrough 1
QPR clinches the title with a win.
Now that the Royal Wedding is over, soccer can resume in England. Here are my predictions for the Premiership:
Blackburn 1 Bolton 1
Blackpool 2 Stoke City 2
Sunderland 1 Fulham 1
West Brom 2 Aston Villa 2
Wigan 1 Everton 2
Chelsea 2 Tottenham 1
Birmingham 2 Wolves 1
Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0
Arsenal 1 Man United 1
Man City 2 West Ham 0
Anything less than a win will eliminate Arsenal from title contention.
These rankings include the midweek matches from Tuesday and Wednesday:
Team MOV SOS SRS Change Manchester United 1.147 -0.034 1.113 0.004 Chelsea 1.088 -0.050 1.039 0.045 Arsenal 0.912 -0.030 0.881 -0.057 Manchester City 0.636 0.006 0.642 0.000 Liverpool 0.353 0.000 0.352 0.
Real Salt Lake lost 1-0 to Monterrey, so Monterrey becomes the 6th consecutive Mexican team to win the title. Great article from Grant Wahl comparing RSL's loss to other disappointments in American soccer. It will be interesting to see how RSL bounces back. I'm predicting a draw against Portland this weekend.
Here are my predictions for the weekend slate of matches in the MLS:
Houston 2 D.C. United 1
Philadelphia 1 San Jose 0
New York 3 Kansas City 1
Columbus 3 Vancouver 0
Colorado 3 Chicago 1
Seattle 2 Toronto FC 1
Portland 2 Real Salt Lake 2
Chivas USA 0 New England 1
FC Dallas 1 Los Angeles 1
Hoping for a rebound from last week's results!
Here are the latest SRS rankings for the Championship as of 4/25:
Team MOV SOS SRS Change Queens Park Rangers 0.864 -0.008 0.855 -0.020 Reading 0.568 0.007 0.575 -0.064 Cardiff City 0.568 0.001 0.569 0.003 Norwich City 0.545 0.006 0.552 0.093 Swansea City 0.477 0.008 0.486 0.
There are two midweek matches in the Premiership. Here are my predictions for each:
Tuesday
Stoke City 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Wednesday
Fulham 1 Bolton Wanderers 1
Do you have predictions of your own? Please post them in the comments!
