3 Year team performance and combined (Superdraft plus overseas) recruitment scorecard of MLS teams

First, here is a table I made to rank the overall team performance of all MLS teams over the last three years. Excluded Montreal since they joined only in 2012.

Team	Points 2011+12+13	Rank
Chicago	43 + 57 + 49 = 149	8
Chivas	36 + 30 + 26 = 92	17
Colorado	49 + 37 + 51 = 137	10
Columbus	47 + 52 + 41 = 140	9
DC United	38 + 59 + 16 = 113	16
Dallas	52 + 39 + 44 = 135	11
Houston	49 + 53 + 51 = 153	7
LA Galaxy	67 + 54 + 53 = 174	1
New England	28 + 35 + 51 = 114	15
New York	46 + 57 + 59 = 162	5
Philadelphia	48 + 36 + 46 = 130	13
Portland	42 + 34 + 57 = 133	12
Real Salt Lake	53 + 57 + 56 = 166	4
San Jose Earthquakes	38 + 66 + 51 = 155	6
Seattle	63 + 56 + 52 = 171	3
Sporting Kansas City	51 + 63 + 58 =172	2
Toronto	33 + 23 + 29 = 85	18
Vancouver	28 + 43 + 48 =  119	14

Next, I added the quality players (based on PAR rating) recruited from Drafts and overseas. I included players drafted via Superdraft and overseas since 2009, for Portland and Vancouver, since 2011. The first row in the table is of course no surprise - LA Galaxy has twice won MLS Cup in last 3 years and they managed to recruit 15 top quality players via Superdraft or overseas, including players like Omar Gonzalvez and Robbie Keane. In the top one third of the table, (1-6), there are couple of surprises though. Performance rank of Real Salt Lake is 4th, but their combined recruitment scorecard is 12th! Even stranger anomaly is 6th position holder San Jose Earthquakes, their combined recruitment score card is 17th of 18 teams, only recruited 6 quality players via Superdraft and from overseas clubs!

I will look at this anomaly at a future post.

Team	Superdraft players + overseas recruits = Total	Rank(Total)
1. LA Galaxy	6 + 9  = 15	1-T
2. Sporting Kansas City	6 + 6  = 12	7-T
3. Seattle	2 + 12 = 14	3-T
4. Real Salt Lake	3 + 6 = 9	12-T
5. New York	4 + 11 = 15	1-T
6. San Jose Earthquakes	4 + 2 = 6	17-T
7. Houston	4 + 5 = 9	12-T
8. Chicago Fire	4 + 6 = 10	9-T
9. Columbus	3 + 6 = 9	12-T
10. Colorado	3 + 3 = 6	17-T
11. Dallas	4 + 9 = 13	5-T
12. Portland	2 + 6 = 8	15
13. Philadelphia	7 + 3 = 10	9-T
14. Vancouver	2 + 10 = 12	7-T
15. New England	9 + 5  = 14	3-T
16. DC United	6 + 1 = 7	16
17. Chivas	6 + 4 = 10	9-T
18. Toronto	6 + 7  = 13	5-T

A lot of things stand out from this list. San Jose is in the top third but are tied for last in overall player recruits. Dallas is tied for fifth but is stuck in the second third and New England are tied for third but dwell in the bottom third. I'll address these issues in the next post.