Doing the Maths

The face paint and dipping dots on offer for the Sporting KC match meant no problems convincing the family to spend a Friday night welcoming Rodney Wallace back to RFK.  More face paint and more dipping dots allowed me to see number 22's game winner and Darlington Nagbe's goal.

Neither kid asked to leave.  Instead, after watching Pajoy sky a beautiful ball from DeRosario that had unlocked Portland's defense, I decided I was not having any fun.  I left the stadium angry, along with hundreds of other supporters.

One story supporters appear to be trying to convince themselves of now is that a cheap and apathetic front office has handcuffed the coaching staff.  As if it would matter if more high priced talent was sitting on the bench.  This is a team headed up by someone who is incapable of figuring out how to play the highest-paid player on the roster with Carlos Ruiz.  This is a team headed up by someone who would not play Branko Boskovic or Hamdi Salihi while perennially taking shots at the Rapid Vienna alums perceived fitness deficiencies.

But, sure, the front office sucks for not tossing more good money after bad.

With the Galaxy's 4-0 drubbing of the Sounders, the single table for the MLS looks like this:

Rankings	Team	Points
1	FC Dallas	27
2	Red Bulls	25
3	LA Galaxy	23
4	Montreal	23
5	Timbers	22
6	Sporting KC	22
7	Houston	21
8	Real Salt Lake	21
9	Colorado	19
10	Philadelphia	18
11	Columbus	16
12	New England	16
13	Seattle	15
14	San Jose	15
15	Vancouver	13
16	Chivas USA	11
17	Chicago	8
18	Toronto	7
19	DC United	5

And if you do the arithmetic for the MLS salaries published by the Major League Soccer Players Union through May 1st -- conceding that this listing doesn't reflect recent transactions -- it is true that at the highest levels, large team salaries correspond with the top of the table:

Rankings	Team	Salary
1	Red Bulls	$10,860,961
2	LA Galaxy	$9,685,263
3	Seattle	$5,958,812
4	Montreal	$5,452,074
5	Vancouver	$4,809,279
6	Toronto	$4,710,844
7	Chicago	$4,333,356
8	FC Dallas	$4,244,861
9	DC United	$3,906,064
10	Philadelphia	$3,832,575
11	Sporting KC	$3,783,882
12	Houston	$3,648,642
13	Real Salt Lake	$3,646,401
14	Columbus	$3,615,002
15	Timbers	$3,564,502
16	New England	$3,482,085
17	San Jose	$3,371,908
18	Colorado	$3,371,325
19	Chivas USA	$2,607,147

But it doesn't exactly dictate D.C. United's position in the league table.  If for some reason you support Chivas, you can complain.  But you'd still be rooting for a team that has twice as many points  as D.C. United, for a third less in salary.

Olsen's Army.